Where the Tea Party Rules
If the Obama administration has been plagued by slow job growth and a faltering economy, conservatives in Congress and state government have helped exacerbate the problem by blocking any reforms the administration has put forward. One of the Republican Party's leading obstructionists is Jim Jordan, Lima's representative in the House. Jordan, who spent more than a decade in the Ohio Statehouse before coming to Washington in 2006, is one of the Tea Party's quiet strategists, best known for his behind-the-scenes steering of House conservatives during their 2013 campaign to shut down the government. A persistent thorn in the side of House Speaker John Boehner, Jordan regularly bucks the Republican leadership, opposing virtually any government-spending proposal: the TARP stimulus package, the auto bailout, the repeal of the Bush tax cuts, raising the debt ceiling, even emergency aid to the victims of Hurricane Sandy. He has voted to defund the Affordable Care Act 52 times. ''The thing about Jordan is, he's a purist,'' says one Lima-area journalist. ''There are some people who say they believe in limited government, but they make exceptions – Jordan doesn't do that. In some ways, he's everything I'd ask for in a congressman: He's earnest and hardworking, and you'll find no dirt – he's squeaky clean. But he takes a very hard-line view of the Constitution; he believes his rights are a gift from God, and he wants almost no taxes. He's a true believer.''
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