LEXINGTON, Neb. – For retired U.S. Army Colonel Tom Brewer, once he gets a mission, nothing stands in his way of seeing it through.
Many challenging missions have come his way, such as working with U.S. Central Command or CENTCOM to stop the traffic of drugs through central Asia, or working with the Afghan Ministry of Interior to reduce and eliminate the trafficking and production of drugs in Afghanistan.
More recently, after rehabilitating from a rocket propelled grenade injury, which forced him into military retirement after 36 years of decorated service, and having success with chemotherapy treatments for his leukemia, Brewer has the health and time to set out on another mission - a run for the Nebraska’s Third Congressional District as a Republican.
Brewer, no stranger to a good fight after serving six tours of duty in Afghanistan, talked to the Lexington Clipper-Herald about his desire to run for elected office during a visit at Madeline’s Bakery and Café in Lexington on Wednesday as part of a campaign swing across Western Nebraska.
People are also reading…
“I don’t focus too much on the politics side of it. When I look at the challenges we face, they all revolve around making sure the government is doing what it’s supposed to be doing,” Brewer said, who grew up in Gordon in the Nebraska Panhandle.
“It seemed the country was on the fast track to overspending,” he said. “We’re printing money, there’s no desire for our representatives to manage that. I’m the anti-politician politician.”
Asked about the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, Brewer said he has heard nothing but bad things about it from the Nebraskans he’s talked to.
“I have yet to find a single soul to say a good thing on Obamacare,” he said.
“We don’t know how bad it will be, we haven’t seen a lot of what’s in store with the mandates from companies and corporations,” Brewer said noting that the individual mandate has kicked in but that the employer mandate in healthcare law keeps getting delayed for some businesses.
Brewer told the story of his mother, who had supplemental insurance for Medicare with Blue Cross Blue Shield – who lost coverage because of her age due to the new healthcare law.
“For so many seniors, it leaves them with confused feelings,” he said. “We broke the system, put more people in a position of not having healthcare. Now everyone is paying the price.”
One issues not often talked about at Congress but that Brewer supported was term limits.
“Term limits give a chance for money not to be the sole factor,” in determining who wins an election, Brewer said.
“It becomes almost an impossible mission, they can own the airwaves, the radio, the television,” Brewer said about the difficulty of unseating an incumbent in Congress when they often have a large war chest of money saved up for reelection.
Brewer said he was disappointed in Republican incumbent Adrian Smith failing to be more outspoken and take stands on important issues during his numerous years in Congress.
“We put people in Congress who become so wrapped up in Washington life they forget about home. Then they’re in Congress for life,” Brewer said. “Then they have no sense of their responsibility to help people back home. I expect a leader to be a guidon bearer, to say what needs to be said.”
