MANSFIELD – After months of hearing about electoral blue waves and red waves, Bob Gibbs was happy to see a scarlet wave on Wednesday.
Gibbs, the recently re-elected Congressman from Ohio’s 7th District, was pleased to see Ohio State fans in Buckeye apparel at the Mansfield Noon Optimist Club.
The Republican from Wooster, making his annual visit with the local organization, said he hopes for a better performance from Ohio State on Saturday in Columbus when Michigan invades for the annual rivalry game.
“I hope the ball game was better than last Saturday (an overtime win at Maryland),” Gibbs said as he took the floor. “You realize we didn’t have the lead until overtime? Pretty scary thing.”
Optimist Marty Larsen said Gibbs has visited the club meeting for the last six years.
“He gives an update on what’s happening in Washington and what he expects the new year to bring,” Larsen said.
Gibbs began by highlighting what he saw as big wins during this congressional term, including regulatory reform legislation.
“We had regulations piled on top of each other, duplicate regulations, a lot of red tape and that costs money and time is money, so we’ve made some progress there,” he said.
Gibbs affirmed deregulation as the best stimulant to the economy—citing the nation’s wage and employment growth.
His optimism was not dimmed by the recent dip in the stock market.
“We have more jobs in this country than we have people to fill them right now,” he said. “The economy is strong, business is profitable, earnings are good.”
He also praised the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, designed to replace NAFTA, which Republicans hope to ratify by the end of the calendar year.
Nevertheless, there’s still plenty of work to be done—from settling trade tensions with China to immigration and healthcare reform.
“Unfortunately, some people who got elected to Congress want to go to what they call “Medicare for All.” That would be, in my opinion, an absolute disaster,” said the congressman. “The math just doesn’t work…You could double the income taxes and you still couldn’t pay for it.”
Gibbs recently threw his support behind a bill that require a wall be built along the southern border, as well the “Protect Kids and Parents Act,” which would require the children of asylum applicants to “remain in custody of and be detained in the same facility” as their parents.
The bill would also increase funding to hire authorized immigration judges and homeland security personnel, thus speeding up the asylum application process.
Both bills are in the committee phase.
“I’m sure most of (the immigrants in the caravan) are looking for a better opportunity, a better life…but we can’t take everybody in the world either. It’s not physically possible,” he said.
“We want legal immigration, that’s what makes this country great,” he continued. “We’re almost all immigrants…unless you’re Pocahontas.”
A new Democratic majority in the House may make passing right-leaning legislation a bit harder in the coming year, but Gibbs said he isn’t worried.
“We have a stronger majority in the Senate and of course we have a president in the White House,” he said. “They can’t pass anything that they want, but they can stop certain things from happening.”
Gibbs predicted Nancy Pelosi will be the next speaker of the House, and that some Democrats will try to impeach the president—but won’t get far.
“A lot of people don’t like the president because of his demeanor,” he stated. “You have to actually have something to impeach him for.”
