Derek Schmidt

U.S. Rep. Derek Schmidt compared the federal government to old, rusty farm machinery that is slowly starting to function again.

He touted tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, referring to it as the Working Family Tax Cut.

Schmidt emphasized that there is still work for Congress to do before the midterm elections.

The federal government is like a piece of old farm machinery, Topeka's congressman said.

U.S. Rep. Derek Schmidt, R-Kansas, made the metaphor that "describes where we are as a country" while speaking to attendees of the Feb. 17 open house for the grand opening of the Americans for Prosperity office in downtown Topeka.

Derek Schmidt's metaphor of federal government to old farm machinery

"If you've ever been out on a farm in Kansas, we've got an awful lot of farms that have got some old piece of machinery that somebody parked down by the hedgerow many years ago," Schmidt said. "It has just sat there, it's rusty and it hadn't moved in forever. It's got trees growing up in it and it's a little bit of a mess. That is our federal government.

"If you go out and you try to get that equipment moving, you use what you have to try to make it work. You can't go out and get the best diagnostic everything for what you need. You go out, you've got a wrench, you've got some WD-40. You cut down the weeds, you pull out the trees. You figure out what won't move that should. You pry on it, you spray it up. If that doesn't work, you always go back to ultimately the tried and true effort: you get out the hammer, you beat on, you cuss a little bit.

"Eventually, something moves. Sometimes you break something you wish you hadn't, and then you got to go back and fix it. But you know what? If you hadn't done that, you'd have no chance of this machine ever functioning again the way it's supposed to. When it starts to move, there's an awful noise and it squeals and it screams, and sometimes there's a little smoke and dust that kicks up.

"That is what is happening right now in our federal government. For so long, we had allowed it to sit in the back fence row, and basic systems and decisions that people all over Kansas expected would just work and would be done, decisions would be made — they weren't. They were just put off, and the thing sat there and rusted for another set of years or another generation.

"This time is all about trying to get that machine to function again — and it is. I don't want to declare that it's functioning perfectly. It's certainly not functioning in the optimal manner I would love to see. But it is moving. The parts that have been frozen for a long time are moving."

Cutting spending, regulations and taxes

After making his metaphor, Schmidt spoke about the national debt, deregulation and tax cuts.

"Spending is still growing at an unsustainable rate. But you know what? That rate is lower than it otherwise would have been. We had the largest reduction in the rate of federal spending growth in my adult lifetime."

He said the net reduction in spending growth was about $1.1 trillion over 10 years, though "it doesn't get us to where we need to be."

Between President Donald Trump's administration and the use of the Congressional Review Act, Schmidt said, "We've had the single biggest deregulatory effort in the history of this country."

Schmidt touted tax cuts in the budget reconciliation legislation passed by Republicans in Congress and touted by Trump. Republicans previously called it the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but led by Vice President JD Vance, they have since sought to rebrand it.

Referring to the legislation as the Working Family Tax Cut, Schmidt said, "It is probably the most consequential tax reform that's been adopted, at least in the modern history of the United States."

"If folks all over this country hadn't worked hard to get the right folks in office and if we hadn't then been able to work together to actually deliver with a very narrow margin, we would have been facing the single largest increase in federal income taxes in the history of this country," Schmidt said. "Despite what some of our friends who have a different philosophy want to say, it wouldn't have just been wealthy folks who would have wound up feeling it."

He also touted "additional relief for certain targeted groups of folks," including "the no tax on tips, the no tax on overtime, the no tax on Social Security, the no tax on car interest loan if you buy a domestic car."

"Once people see the permanent nature of some of the pro-investment provisions, I genuinely believe we are going to see this economy take off," Schmidt said.

Midterm elections are this year

While the midterm elections are in 2026, Schmidt said there is still work for the Republican majorities to do in Congress.

"It matters that we've been able to deliver what we said we were going to," Schmidt said. "That's what this is all supposed to be about. It's what we all believe in. I want to thank you all for the privilege of serving in this role at this time. People are going to look back on this moment in American history and they're going to say 'that was one that was consequential' — as long as we continue to carry the football all the way across the goal line.

"This Congress isn't over. People like to talk a lot about the midterms, because I guess it's a lot of fun to handicap politics and elections. It's like a national sport. That's fine. At the end of the day, the voters will decide what happens come November. But from now until November, we still have the team on the field that folks gave us two years ago. There is more work we got to do, and we take it seriously."