Congressman Bob Gibbs met with a group of listeners in the Main Hall Auditorium at Kent State Stark Thursday night.

Gibbs, a Republican, has been the U.S. Representative for Ohio’s 7th Congressional District (OH-7) since 2013 and was previously the Representative for Ohio’s 18th Congressional District from 2011 to 2013.

Gibbs began the evening by honoring the veterans in attendance and thanking them for their dedicated service to our nation and then told the audience his four main components that he believes are most important for Congress to achieve: tax reform, energy sustainability, fiscal policy and regulatory policy. 

“We have to get our fiscal house in order and put policies in that encourage private sector growth,” Gibbs said. “A lot of these regulations do not make common or economic sense. We cannot cut spending enough to get out of this mess.”

Gibbs said that government spending in Ohio and government spending in Washington is very different in many ways, which is something he would like to see change. He believes that the government should lower the tax reform rates.

In Ohio, a budget gets sorted on a table and gets put in place, whereas in Washington, there are two different types of spending — discretionary spending and mandatory spending.

Discretionary spending deals with all federal agencies and the defense department, whereas mandatory spending deals with everything else, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The latter is much larger and takes “autopilot” in Washington, Gibbs said.

He also said that he believes that sustainable energy is important to our economy and will put our nation ahead of the rest. Ohio specifically has great energy resources, which Gibbs said is a “game changer” for our state and our country. 

“Reliable and affordable energy drives the economy,” Gibbs said. “The Farm Bill, which I call the ‘consumer protection bill,’ protects consumers and farmers by assuring the highest quality of food in the world.”

He touched on the different bills the House is trying to pass, including the Water Resource Reform and Development Act.

Gibbs attended The Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute and is currently on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the House Agriculture Committee.

Kent State Stark’s veterans club organized and sponsored the event. Student leader of the organization Justin Nalley said he really enjoyed how conversational and comfortable Gibbs seemed while speaking.

“With it being two days after the big election, it was a great honor to be so lucky to be able to have Congressman Gibbs come to our campus to speak,” Nalley said. 

An evening with Congressman Bob Gibbs was an event in association with Kent Stark’s events and activities to honor American veterans in honor of Veterans Day on Nov. 11. Other events include a Field of Honor flag planting on Friday, Nov. 7 at 11 a.m. and a Veteran’s Reception on Thursday, Nov. 13 at 10:15 a.m.

For more information on the activities and events to honor the veterans, contact Will Casterlow at 330-244-3250 or click here. 

Contact Kianna Bugglin at [email protected].