SIDNEY – U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, 4th District, outlined what he feels the two biggest issues facing Shelby County are during a visit with the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Area Action Council Thursday in Sidney.
The meeting, held at FDL Automation & Supply Co., featured lunch and discussion on issues facing the Republican Party, nation and Ohio.
He said two of the issues businesses are facing deal with President Barack Obama’s health care law and the lack of workforce.
“You got all these regulations that are coming out of Washington and the Obama Administration that are tough, but we’re still creating jobs,” Jordan said the business owners are telling him. They say, “We’re having difficulty finding people to work.”
He said he hears that all across the board and thinks part of that is a reflection on the social safety-net system, the welfare systems.
“If you’re an able-bodied adult, you shouldn’t get tax payer help, there should be some work component. Or to get food stamps, for example, that’s a component we need to deal with,” Jordan said.
Jordan is the chair of the House Freedom Caucus, which is a congressional caucus consisting of conservative Republican members of the United States House of Representatives.
He spoke about how they deal with a lot of interest groups that want to weigh-in and lobby, but NFIB is one that is doing the right thing in his opinion.
Jordan started by listing the bad things he believes are going on in the government that are bombarding citizens, families and business owners, including “Obamacare,” marriage equality, the death of Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco as a result of a Mexican national who was in the country illegally, relations with Cuba, the Environmental Protection Agency, the overtime rule that is being proposed, the agreement with Iran and the push to de-fund Planned Parenthood.
He said they impact business, family, culture and the country. As September nears, he said, it’s all going to be about the money since Sept. 30 is the end of the fiscal year.
He thinks the Republican Party is in a good position this September because of all the media attention the 2016 presidential candidates are getting right now. He thinks by speaking through them they can get support and recognition for what they are trying to accomplish in Congress.
In addition to mentioning the presidential primary candidates he said he’d be happy with any of them that are chosen to run in the general election.
A couple of the positive things that he believes have happened recently are the work they’ve done with the export-import bank, social welfare reform and the stuff that has been going on with the Internal Revenue Service.
When the floor was opened to questions he was asked about why people like the commissioner of the IRS and Hillary Clinton, who’ve been investigated, aren’t being arrested.
“Sometimes I think maybe in my mind the biggest concern I have right now that is happening in our government or in our country has a justice department that is political. … The justice department is the balance scale, the blindfolded lady, and you can’t have a justice department that’s so focused on politics that they’re not administering justice,” Jordan said.
What we can do is draw attention to it, he said.
Frustration with things promised in campaigns not getting done was expressed from the audience.
“I understand. We’ve got to do a better job … a constituent said to me years ago, ‘do what you said you were going to do,’ sometimes we make this way too complicated. We said we were going to do certain things, when we get the job and you give us the privilege of serving, that’s what the freedom caucus is about, ” Jordan said.
He then shared their mission statement: “Countless numbers of American families believe Washington has forgotten them, our job is to remember them.”
“Sometimes it takes two, four, six, eight years to change the government, it sort of stinks, but you’re right we’ve got to be more aggressive, and that’s what the House Freedom Caucus is all about,” Jordan said.
