U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Ill., said the Trump administration failed to protect Americans from the economic fallout of the conflict in Iran and, with the President set to address the nation this evening, he said he wants answers.
Sorensen made two stops in Peoria Wednesday, including a visit to Habitat for Humanity's Mckinley build on the city's south side.
"Everybody asked for their costs to go down, not for $4 a gallon gas. ...I want to hear the answers to the questions: How are you going to fix this for the American people? How are you going to lower their costs? I want to see action," Sorensen said.
Sorensen, who represents Illinois' 17th Congressional District and sits on the House Armed Services Committee, spoke with reporters Wednesday. He said he is regularly briefed on the war but that the administration has not been forthcoming with Congress on key questions.
"We need to make sure that the war ends, but we also need to make sure that we don't leave it. We need to finish it," Sorensen said. "I don't think that anyone here can accept a ground war in Iran. Nobody asked for that."
On the cost of the operation, Sorensen was critical.
"$200 billion — let's understand what that is," Sorensen said. "That money isn't just coming from our pocketbooks. It's coming from our children's pocketbooks because this administration and Donald Trump failed."
He argued the administration failed to anticipate the economic consequences of the conflict.
"It is a failure of this administration that we're seeing that cost be put as a burden onto Americans," he said. "Why didn't they have the foresight to make sure that we could go and guard the Strait of Hormuz where 20% of the world's energy flows through? That was a failure by the Trump administration, and now my neighbors are paying for it."
Sorensen also pointed to the human toll, saying Congress has been left in the dark.
"We've already lost service members in this Iran war. There are families where their sons and their daughters aren't coming home.” he said. "We are demanding that the administration speak the truth."
Sorensen also addressed the stalled Department of Homeland Security funding impasse, directing blame at House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
"Last Friday was really disappointing. We had the Senate pass a resolution to end the shutdown in a bipartisan way ... and instead the Speaker of the House kowtowed to the far-right Freedom Caucus that said, 'We don't want to work with Democrats on anything,'" Sorensen said. "It stopped. It was gone. It died."
He called on Johnson to act.
"The Senate was able to do it. So now, why can't the House GOP? It's on them."
