U.S. CONGRESSMAN BILL JOHNSON Proudly Representing Eastern and Southeastern Ohio

Johnson said the election of Donald Trump as president is going to mean lots of big changes ahead for the country in the next few years.

“There’s a lot going on in the country right now,” Johnson began, adding the stock market is rising. “There are a lot of reasons to be optimistic. Businesses are responding with enthusiasm (over the election), and there are good things in the air.”

Johnson said he met with President-elect Donald Trump in June prior to one of Trump’s rallies in St. Clairsville. He added it was supposed to be a brief meeting. Johnson said he told Trump he was in coal country, and Trump was connecting with voters in the area.

“The guy you see on TV isn’t the guy you see one on one,” said Johnson of Trump, adding he told Trump he could be a “transformational” president. “We were knee to knee for 30 minutes.”

Johnson said Trump listened while he described the issues important to voters in the region. Johnson said Trump could be the kind of politician that doesn’t care if he’s re-elected, and that’s what the country needs. Johnson added many coming changes will not be liked by some people.

“(Some of the changes) are going to make some people mad,” he said.

The country needs a president who will reel in some of the federal regulatory agencies that Johnson said are hampering business development, including a revamped tax code to create “a level playing field in the global economy.” He added the first 100 days of a Trump presidency are going to be dynamic. There are challenges ahead as well, such as how to repeal Obamacare without hurting those individuals using the program for health insurance, Johnson noted, adding he believes Trump is going to do what he promised during the campaign.

One promise is investing in the nation’s infrastructure, which Johnson said locally is in “a sad state of repair. How do you do all that stuff and pay for it? There are creative ways to improve our infrastructure and pay for it.”

Johnson noted it would take creative thinking to take on projects and not add to the nation’s national debt while “seeing through the political fog.” He said public-private partnerships, bond programs and other creative innovations could help pay for large-scale projects while also attracting manufacturers back to the U.S. through corporate tax code reforms.

“We have a (president-elect) who is willing to look at all the facts,” Johnson said.

He said he is most concerned about how divided the country is at this time in history.

“How do we heal the divisions in our country?” Johnson said. “How did we get to this point?”

His theory is the Founding Fathers didn’t think federally but identified with the states they were from. He said it wasn’t until the first and second world wars the idea of “we are all Americans” first was borne.

“Being an American first made us stronger,” he said.

Johnson said the greatest generation discovered it didn’t matter so much about minor differences between Americans when sharing foxholes on the battlefields.

He said as that generation began dying off Americans began to lose their sense of unified purpose.

“We don’t learn lessons very well,” said Johnson, adding Americans today have forgotten the ideal of Americans first.

Johnson also discussed attending John Glenn’s funeral recently and cited him as a person who thought of himself as an American first. He also lauded the generations of innovative thinkers and inventors from Ohio, such as Glenn, the Wright Brothers and Neil Armstrong.

He noted the first oil well was drilled in his congressional district.

“When we get the federal government to back off and let Americans dream big dreams, they can create marvels,” Johnson said. “The power of imagination lets us create anything.”

Johnson also said big media create the impression Washington, D.C., is dysfunctional, but it’s not like that in reality.

“Folks, we’re better than what you see on TV,” he said, adding America was created to promote individualism, and ideologies are splitting Americans apart. “We don’t have to live this way. We can make this a better place.”