Rep. Jordan is one of the most conservative members of Congress, fighting for fiscal responsibility and traditional values in the House of Representatives. Upon entering office in January 2007, he first co-sponsored the Right to Life Act. He offered fiscal discipline on the House floor, opposing tax increase proposals even from within his own party. He received the Defender of Life Award from Ohio Right to Life, and last month he was the recipient of the Best National Legislator Award at the 2012 Weyrich Awards dinner.
“Congressman Jordan has been called a rising star in the conservative movement, but let's just go ahead and call him what he truly is – a star,” LI President Morton Blackwell said yesterday.
In 2008, during the early stages of his term, Rep. Jordan scheduled LI’s One-on-One Television Workshop, a custom training in LI’s studios designed to give individual attention and hands-on preparation for speaking on camera and debating live.
“Thank you LI, and thank you Morton for the work you are doing,” Rep. Jordan said. “I sure appreciate the impact you’ve had on conservatives.”
Rep. Jordan recalled some people who had an impact in his life early on, with one being his wrestling coach and his chats about the importance of discipline in daily life.
“In the wrestling room hung a sign with the words, ‘Discipline is doing what you don’t want to do when you don’t want to do it.’ It’s doing things the right way when you want to do it the convenient way. That’s what Washington needs,” Rep. Jordan said.
Four months ago, Rep. Jordan and his wife Polly traveled to Israel. After talking with government leaders and officials, he was told that the best way the United States could help Israel was for America to stay strong.
“When America is strong, things are better,” Rep. Jordan said. “The world is safer and better when the U.S. is the economic, military and diplomatic superpower. And you first need to be the economic superpower to be the military and diplomatic leader.”
“We need to relight the entrepreneurial attitude,” said Rep. Jordan yesterday, who spoke of how government policies are stifling free enterprise. He shared a conversation he had last week with five businessmen. They all said if they knew then what they know now about government fiscal policies, they would not have taken the risk to start their businesses.
“No politician can create jobs, but we can create a conducive environment to encourage entrepreneurs to grow,” he said.
Rep. Jordan advocates a “cut, cap and balance” approach to managing the federal budget. “We will bring back another budget that makes the federal government do what everyone else has to do,” he said. “Everyone has to balance their budgets, everyone except that one entity that has a 15 trillion dollar debt.”
In addition to a broken tax code and bad regulatory, energy, and fiscal policies, Rep. Jordan is gravely concerned about the cultural breakdown affecting the nation.
“Americans are nervous about things going on in our culture, with the most recent example being the administration’s attack on religious liberty,” Rep. Jordan said. “People left England for America to live out their faith the way the good Lord wanted,
not the way England did. This is the essence of what this country’s about, and here is this administration attacking what it means to be an American. That’s what’s at stake in
this election.”
According to Rep. Jordan, every third generation has had to do big things for the nation.
“People remember Jefferson, Franklin and Adams, but they forget the other men who signed that document,” he said. “All those men lost farms, sons, money, and put it all on the line to start this nation.”
Three generations later, Americans ended slavery during the Civil War, he said. Three generations after that, they stopped the Depression and confronted Nazism.
“Now, here we are three generations later and it’s our turn,” Rep. Jordan said. “If you want to accomplish anything of significance, it’s never easy. It’s always hard. But we need to stand up. If there is not a strong United States of America, the world gets truly dangerous. Thank you LI for training young people in these values.”
LI’s Wednesday Wake-Up Club Breakfast is held the first Wednesday of each month and is an excellent opportunity for friends of the Institute to meet leading conservative speakers and hear their thoughts on current affairs over good food and fellowship with conservative friends.
The next Wednesday Wake-Up Club Breakfast is April 4, 2012 and will feature conservative columnist Dr. Milton Wolf, a cousin of President Barack Obama. Click here for more information and to register.