SIDNEY — Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, 4th District, was the featured speaker at a joint service club meeting of the Sidney Kiwanis and Rotary, Oct. 6.

Jordan said he was raised in Champaign County and graduated from Graham High School in 1982, where he was a four-time state champion in wrestling with a career record of 150-1. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin, where he was a two-time NCAA wrestling champion. He later earned a master’s degree in education from Ohio State and a law degree from Capital University.

Jordan said he has been an advocate of the taxpayer, looking for waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. He serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Jordan said that, “You live in a great county … but you already know that. If the rest of the country was like Shelby County, there would be a lot less problems.” Jordan discussed the Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare, gay marriage, sanctuary cities such as San Francisco, the Iran agreement, normalizing relations with Cuba, Russia’s firing missiles on U.S.-backed rebels in Syria, and Planned Parenthood funding. Jordan is at odds with President Obama on most of these issues.

“The good thing,” he said, “is that things cannot get much worse.”

Even with all the problems the world is facing, Jordan still believes that this is the greatest country in the world. Jordan ended his remarks by quoting former Los Angeles Dodgers pitching great Orel Hershiser: “Great things can happen to ordinary people if they work hard and never give up.” Jordan also fielded a number of questions from the audience.

Kiwanian Doug Barhorst was awarded a 35-year Legion of Honor pin. Barhorst is a past president of Kiwanis.