MOUNT GILEAD — U.S. Representative Jim Jordan began his visit in Morrow County with the commissioners May 23. Jordan, first elected in 2006, is up for re-election to his ninth term in Congress.
He went on to a business roundtable with 33 in attendance at Clarity Corporation in Mount Gilead hosted by Patricia Forbes.
Jordan opened the meeting with a quote by Wilbur Wright on how to be successful, “Pick out a good father and mother and be born in Ohio.” Jordan added, “or be born in America.”
He continued with remarks about Biden, Democrats and the left, saying the open borders are all done deliberately by the left.
“We went from secure borders to chaos,” Jordan said.
Jordan also said there was an energy surplus when Biden took office and we are now dealing with inflated prices at the pump. He believes change is coming and quoted a recent poll, which showed seven out of ten Americans think the nation is on the wrong track.
Questions from the community
Jordan opened the floor for questions and Brenda Harden asked him to talk about his new book, “Do what you said you will do.”
He said the purpose of his book is to have people get a feel of what it’s like behind the scenes in Washington politics.
Jordan said he had many opportunities to speak with President Trump. He finds Trump an example of a politician who did what he said he would do in his campaign. He stated he believes “Trump is the best president we’ve ever had.”
One question came concerning his view of the World Health Organization (WHO) and whether it has too much power over issues of our health. Jordan believes WHO should not have so much power and would like the United States to get out of the organization.
Kyle Lewis, a staff member of Delaware-Morrow Mental Health asked Jordan to work towards passage of HR 432 Mental Health Access Improvement Act.
If passed, the Mental Health Access Improvement Act would create immediate access to behavioral health care for our most vulnerable residents, older adults, those with disabilities, our most fragile. In one piece of legislation, approximately 225,000 currently licensed and practicing counselors and therapists nationally would be eligible for reimbursement from Medicare for behavioral health care, which is not possible today.
Jordan took notes and said he will look into where the bill is in Congress. He is not presently involved with the bill.
Frank Hickman asked, “How can we best support you?”
“Stand up for facts and the truth,” Jordan said. He said there is a lot of false information written about him and getting the facts is important.
“It’s important to get involved and to vote,” Jordan said, giving the example of moms in Virginia who were concerned about children’s education and were instrumental in the election of Governor Glenn Youngkin.
He said it’s good to speak out and have debate on subjects. Jordan gave the example of working with his friend Dennis Kucinich, a Cleveland Democrat. He said they were on opposite ends of the political spectrum, but both believe in the First Amendment and speaking the truth.
Chris Gabrelcik asked why the immigration problem can’t be fixed when it takes two years to process workers that are needed by businesses. He asked if it could be possible to process immigrants in the cities where they live.
Jordan was firm in saying he believes the border has to be secured first.
Gabrelcik asked if there couldn’t be a comprehensive system for immigrants until the border is secure. In the meantime he suggested opening immigration centers to work with immigrants who are already here so they can be integrated into society or sent back to their countries.
Jordan said that some of the people who object most to opening the border and processing immigrants here are immigrants who came in legally and worked toward citizenship.
Wrestling is a part of Jordan’s background, and Frank Hickman asked how wrestling influenced his work.
“Wrestling did good things for me,” said Jordan who won state wrestling championships all four years in high school and two NCAA Division 1 championships when he was at the University of Wisconsin. He received his MA from OSU before studying law at Capitol University.
He said Americans like to compete. He learned to compete in wrestling and believes competition is good when done in a healthy way and done by the rules.
When he is in a committee in congress and they are saying things that aren’t true, “I enjoy nothing more than pinning them down – especially Dr. Fauci,” Jordan said with a smile.
He hopes to have more Republicans elected to take back the House and Senate. Jordan sees the way to make civil servants accountable, is to cut back on their money. He said to do that; it may be needed to make changes and cuts in areas like education, energy and immigration spending.
