GREENVILLE — Congressman Warren Davidson (R-Troy) faces a busy time in Washington D.C. as he and fellow legislators seek to cover ground on a variety of issues.
Davidson, who won the special election to replace former Congressman John Boehner as Ohio 8th District representative last summer, and then won election to a full two-year term in November, was in Greenville Monday to speak to the editorial staff of The Daily Advocate.
One important issue facing legislators is the fate of the Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare.” The government healthcare initiative, signed into law in 2010, was the target of disdain of both President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans during the most recent election campaign.
“The one thing that is nearly unanimous among Republicans is repeal,” said Davidson, who added that the Republican majority in Congress is still sorting through the various replacement plans being offered.
“President Obama’s administration sought to address a real concern, which is the rising cost of healthcare. His main effort was to provide accessibility for people that were having a hard time affording the rising costs, but the method of providing subsidies for a few led to no choices for virtually anyone,” said Davidson, calling the act a “top-down, big government” solution.
Asked for what he expects will be a reasonable timeline for Americans to expect changes in healthcare, Davidson said, optimistically, that the earliest expectation would be a changeover taking place at the beginning of 2019.
“If the bill was done and everything passed this week, they still wouldn’t be able to issue new policies right away, because [insurance companies] have to go through and develop new policies for the new set of rules,” he said.
Davidson said U.S. Senate rules will make it difficult to repeal Obamacare outright, as a vote to do so requires 60 senators. The Republicans have only a 52-seat majority in the body.
Another issue of importance among the new administration and the Republican majority is cutting taxes for both individuals and corporations.
“The corporate tax code is the thing that has the most consensus,” said Davidson. “The corporate tax code is very broken.”
He pointed to Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Tim Cook of Apple as business leaders who hold “billions of dollars” outside the United States.
“Our current tax code incentivizes them to do that,” he said. “We should incentivize keeping that cash in the U.S. Even if you still want to invest [elsewhere] if you’re an American company, we would love your cash to be in America, because that gives banks the ability to lend against that cash. It’s going to be good for our economy, even if it’s only for deposit in our economy.”
Davidson also discussed legislation he has introduced, including the “Drain the Swamp Act,” a measure co-sponsored with Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC), which seeks to decentralize the federal government in Washington, moving 90 percent of federal agencies to locations throughout the country. If enacted, no more than 10 percent of agency employees would be allowed to remain in the District of Columbia.
“You can change leadership at the top, but the executive agencies seem unaccountable,” explained Davidson.
Another important issue for Davidson, a West Point graduate and U.S. Army Ranger, is improving health care for veterans. In September, he introduced the “Lead by Example Act,” which would require all members of Congress and their staffs to receive medical care from Veteran’s Administration hospitals.
To keep up to date on legislative matters or for information on how to contact Rep. Davidson, visit his website at davidson.house.gov.
