LIMA — There are plenty of problems in the government, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan acknowledged Tuesday. He said the good news is Republicans can do something about many of them in September.
“Everybody’s looking to see what we do this fall, particularly in September,” Jordan said Tuesday to the Lima Noon Sertoma Club.
That includes questioning whether House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester, should keep his leadership position if the majority Republicans can’t do more to fight corporate welfare, maintain caps on the federal budget and fight President Barack Obama’s agreement with Iran.
“That’s a question the whole country should ask, and Congress will ask,” said Jordan, a Republican from Urbana.
Jordan said he’ll lead the charge on reducing “corporate welfare” and demand accountability for government attacks on the First Amendment by seeking an impeachment of the IRS commissioner.
Particularly, he’s proud the Export/Import Bank hasn’t be reauthorized yet. The program provides loans and subsidies to companies at below-market financing, including companies such as Boeing and General Electric.
“These are two great companies, wonderful American success stories,” Jordan said. “They probably don’t need the taxpayers’ help to stay in business.”
The whole tax system needs replaced with a “bold” new system, he said.
“I do know our code is broken. It needs to be changed,” Jordan said. “You can’t have half the population not participate in the main tax.”
Jordan also laid out his efforts to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen after the IRS’s targeting of political organizations, primarily conservative groups. He described it as an attack on the First Amendment.
“It hasn’t been done in 100 years, but he’s the one who deserves it,” Jordan said. “We’ll commence that effort, but it’s a long process.”
Koskinen deserves the effort after lying under oath in front of a House committee, Jordan said. He said Koskinen lied to Congress after promising to deliver records to Congress that he knew had been eliminated with the destruction of 422 backup tapes and 24,000 documents.
“The IRS targeted people who spoke out against policies of government in a systematic way,” he said. “This is the right guy because he breached every duty he had. For all that, he should be held accountable.”
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
