OTTAWA — According to U.S. Rep. Robert Latta, R-Bowling Green, leaving Washington, D.C., to return to his northwest Ohio district is not exactly a time to relax.
“If I’m not in Washington, I’m in my car,” he said. “I’m a firm believer that I need to be out in the counties in my district.”
To that end, Latta was at the Putnam County Courthouse in Ottawa on Tuesday, meeting with area residents to both help with casework issues such as veterans benefits and Social Security, as well as hearing about their concerns with what is going on in the nation’s capital.
“Folks are very concerned with what’s going on in the country,” he said. “And I need to hear from them because while some people say ‘congressman,’ the term is really ‘representative,’ and to do my job right, I need to represent them.”
Latta highlighted a variety of concerns he has heard from the public in recent weeks, ranging from the economy to national and global security.
“I had a veteran come in last week who was in Vietnam, and he told me, ‘When I was in the jungle, I would wonder at night if I would see the sun come up the next morning,’” Latta said. “He then told me, ‘I never thought that in America, when I went to bed at night, I would be worried about what is going to happen the next day.’ So there’s a lot of fear out there.”
Latta also spoke of concerns with the rising costs of health care, noting that residents have expressed concerns about if they would be able to afford it in the future.
“On the premium side in November, and the president’s trying to change this, that’s when the companies are going to come out with their increases,” he said. “From what I’ve heard, they’re talking about anywhere from a 7 to a 40 percent increase.”
These concerns are being magnified with this year’s presidential race, Latta said.
“I’ve told people that for the next three months, prepare to be inundated,” he said. “It’s going to get really intense.”
While Latta did not mention the candidates specifically, he maintained that one of the central issues when it comes to deciding for whom to vote will be the U.S. Supreme Court and the turnover it is expected to experience in the next presidential term.
“The view is that whoever wins this could appoint four justices to the Supreme Court,” he said. “That person could fundamentally change America.”
