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Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, fields questions from members of the Marion County Tea Party during his visit to Marion on Wednesday morning. Healthcare legislation was the main topic of discussion.(Photo: Matthew Hatcher/The Marion Star)Buy Photo

MARION - Marion County Tea Party members had questions about a cornerstoneelection year promise during a meeting with Rep. Jim Jordan on Wednesday.

Local conservatives expressed concerns about the failure thus far of the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Repeal and replacement was one of the hallmark promises made by President Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign.

Jordan, R-Urbana, and fellow members of the House Freedom Caucus opposed abill backed by Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, because he said it failed to deliver on the Republican promise to fully repeal the ACA.

"When this bill was rolled out, even people who were for it called it 'Obamacare light,'" Jordan said. "It didn't bring down premiums. It certainly didn't unite Republicans as evidenced by the fact that you had conservatives and moderates in both the House and the Senate who had problems with the legislation. And it wasn't a bill that united the country since only 17 percent of our fellow citizens thought this thing should pass."

Jordan told the group hesupports a "clean repeal" of the ACA, citing legislation that Republicans passed last year.

"We passed a clean repeal 15 months ago, which said mandates are gone, all the taxes are gone, most of the regulations were gone, and the Medicaid expansion was phased out over the next two years," he said. "Only one Republican in the House didn't vote for it. The Senate voted for it. We put it on President Obama's desk, he vetoed it. We conservatives were for putting that bill on President Trump's desk on day one."

While Jordansupported the recent White House decision to bomb Syria's Shayrat airbase following a chemicalattack by President Bashar al-Assad's government forces against the rebel-controlled town ofKhan Sheikhoun, he said Congress must be involved in further action.

"I think it's clear in the Constitution that anything more, any troops, you're going to have a debate in Congress," he said. "That's the way the founders wanted this process to work."

Members of the Marion County Tea Party listen as Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, speaks during a meeting Wednesday at the county administration building in downtown Marion.(Photo: Matthew Hatcher/The Marion Star)

Republican lawmakers on Wednesday asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to consideran independent inquiry into reports that members of the Obama Administration"unmasked" members of the Trump campaign team who were part ofU.S. surveillance operations of foreign targetsduring the 2016 election. Jordan said he'll be interested to see what an investigation yields.

"There's a finite number of people who have the ability to unmask names and leak information," Jordan said. "Some of those people who had the ability to do that were the same people who weren't straightforward with Americans during the Benghazi situation, like (former National Security Adviser) Susan Rice. She was one of the ones who unmasked the names. What we want to know is if she did this throughout her tenure with the Obama Administration or did it suddenly start happening once trump won the White House and the transition period was happening."

Jordan told the group he was pleased with the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court.

"If you watched any of the confirmation hearings, he just knocked it out of the park and handled everything that the liberals threw at him," Jordan said. "Frankly, I don't always agree with Sen. (Mitch) McConnell (R-Kentucky) on some decisions, but his decision last year to hang tough and wait until the people decide who the next president is going to be before we move on the Supreme Court turned out to be key. He deserves a lot of credit."

Andrew Carter is the Life In Marionreporter forThe Marion Star. Contact him at eacarter@gannett.com or 740-375-5154. Follow him on Twitter @AndrewCarterMS or Facebook @LifeInMarionOhio.

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Jordan addresses Tea Party concerns - Marion Star