Davidson, a West Point graduate and former Army Ranger, said he has written his first bill geared toward changing, and improving, the veterans’ health care system. He said the bill is short enough — 140 characters — to fit in Twitter: “Congress shall have no other health benefit than the VA health benefit, effective Jan. 3, 2019.”
That bill, he said, remains in a draft, weeks after it was written.
“We need to lead by example,” he said of his congressional colleagues. “We should be covered under the same system. We want good health care. So do our vets.”
Davidson easily won the low voter turnout election on June 7, and was sworn in two days later. He will face Democratic Party candidate Steven Fought, a last-minute replacement candidate in the 8th Congressional District race, on Nov. 8. Fought, of Toledo, plans to relocate to the 8th Congressional District.
The 8th Congressional District incorporates Butler, Clark, Darke, Miami and Preble counties and the southernmost portion of Mercer County.
Last year at this time, Davidson, 46, a Troy businessman, never thought he’d be a congressman.
“It was not in the plans,” he said. “It worked out.”
Early in his political career, Davidson said he wasn’t sure what to expect and the passion of those in Washington, D.C., especially longtime politicians.
“Things are better than I was expecting,” he said, before adding some members of congress are “genuine in their desire to see some change and get things done.”
He blamed the media, what he called the “iron media,” for controlling some of the news coming out of Washington. As an example, he talked about funding to combat the Zika virus, but if people only watched certain news outlets, they would think Congress was playing golf not talking about the disease.
He said President Obama requested $1.9 billion to combat Zika”
Davidson said two-thirds of the congressional budget is earmarked for mandatory spending, while the rest is discretionary spending. At the current rate, the mandatory spending will increase to 80 percent in the next 10 years, he said.
“Those problems have to get tackled,” he said. “If we bankrupt our country, people will notice. This isn’t a problem you can cram for. Bad news isn’t going to get better with time.”
That, he said, would be “really bad path.”
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