For those of you who don’t understand why Jim Jordan doesn’t resign...doesn’t have to explain himself, etc. This is an editorial this morning in the local rag.
Jim Jordan is the right man for the right job at the right time.
The region knows the Republican from Urbana who held the 4th District seat since 2007 as an uncompromising man of principle. The rest of the country’s Republicans should seriously consider his beliefs before dismissing him as an outside possibility to become speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
There’s obviously local pride in considering your voice in Congress leading the whole thing. We’d still support Jordan even if he were a congressman from Michigan, though, given his personality.
Above all things, Jordan is a budget hawk. He doesn’t want to see the national debt, at $21.2 billion and growing according to USDebtClock.org, increase. He’s willing to push forward with difficult conversations about freezing government spending, eliminating unnecessary government programs and giving more money back to taxpayers.
When Jordan realized there was a void in the Republican Party, he helped co-found the Freedom Caucus and served as its first leader. That group continues to fight for common sense, something that’s seriously lacking in Washington.
He doesn’t introduce needless pieces of legislation. Instead, Jordan pushes Congress to scale back its ambitions to its Constitutional duties.
Critics claim he’s difficult and unwilling to compromise. That might be an endorsement for a leader to fix a government that continues to believe it can spend its way out of problems, whether it’s run by Democrats or Republicans.
The country faces difficult challenges in the next few years as baby boomers move out of the tax-paying workforce. The trust funds for Social Security and Medicare alike are out of balance, with costs exceeding income starting in 2020 and a depletion of trust funds by 2034, according to the summary of 2018 annual reports.
Difficult decisions that rely on kitchen-table principles of not spending more than you make are necessary, and Jordan reminds us routinely about his beliefs in kitchen-table politics. He introduced a balanced budget alternative to President Obama’s budget back in 2009 and doesn’t mind bucking his party’s rank-and-file when he thinks the spending is out of line.
Others may dislike the way he curtly questions witnesses as a member of the House judiciary committee or its select committee. These high-profile interrogations prove his willingness to buck the establishment in search of the truth, even if it ruffles a few feathers. Leadership shouldn’t be a popularity contest; it should be a demand for truth before making decisions.
Still others may talk about the scandal at Ohio State involving a team doctor allegedly molesting student-athletes decades ago while Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach there. While that’s a despicable situation, simply working in the same building as a possible abuser doesn’t make you an untrustworthy person, especially given Jordan’s repeated, adamant statements he didn’t know about it.
All of these are merely distractions from the real issue: Our government needs reforms badly. It spends more than it should. It keeps borrowing its way out of past bad decisions. It spreads its tentacles into issues that aren’t the government’s business.
Someone needs to shake the institution and say enough is enough. Someone needs to wake the Republican faithful up to remind them of their core beliefs of self-sustainability and fairness for all. That someone is Jim Jordan.
If Republicans maintain control of the House after the November election, we hope the newly elected representatives realize this before the country wastes any more time making the same mistakes it has in the past.
