There was no avoiding it.
About 450 guests attending a Thursday event featuring U.S. Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) had to walk past protesters outside both the main and side doors of the John S. Knight Center downtown.
Inside, the moderated conversation, part of the Akron Roundtable’s Signature Series, was led by Dr. J. Cherie Strachan, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at The University of Akron.
Husted was appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine on Jan. 17 to fill JD Vance’s Senate seat after Vance resigned to become the country’s vice president. Husted was sworn in four days later.
How will the Big Beautiful Bill affect Ohioans?
During the event, Husted was asked questions about the Trump Administration’s Big Beautiful Bill, which was passed by Congress and signed into law July 4.
Strachan asked Husted about the effect the bill would have on Northeast Ohioans’ access to health care, Medicaid and Medicare.
“You hear a lot of discussion about Medicaid,” he said. “I actually probably know more about Medicaid than anyone in the U.S. Senate because for 25 years, I worked on those issues at the state level.”
He explained that although Medicaid is a federal program, it varies from state to state and Ohio will benefit from the bill because the state “was not abusing the system that we call the provider tax.”
“A lot of states had already maxed out their provider tax … like New York and California. And, by the way, they were using it to pay for health care for people who were not citizens in this country,” he said.
He added that Ohio will be able to “draw down a bunch of new federal money under the bill, and most healthcare providers will see a 24% jump in their rebates under the Medicaid program, the most ever.”
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Husted also spoke about the bill’s work requirement for “able-bodied, healthy adults who do not have young children” to work 20 hours a week, take classes or volunteer in return for their benefits.
“It’s not fair for your neighbor to work 40 or 50 hours a week to pay taxes for you to receive generous healthcare benefits and do nothing in return for them,” he said. “It’s not good for you, and it’s not good for society.”
He said the Big Beautiful Bill will cut taxes on Social Security benefits and “make sure that we don’t get overrun as we were in the millions and millions of people crossing the border.”
Enforcing immigration laws, finding pathways to citizenship
At one point during his presentation, Husted received a round of applause when he said, “If you want to meet people who love America, talk to an immigrant.” But a few minutes later, some crowd members booed when he spoke about funding in the bill that will secure the U.S. border and deport people who came into the country illegally and committed crimes.
“We have a lot of people in this country who are working in agriculture, construction and a lot of other important fields who we need to operate those industries,” he said. “So we’re going to have to find a compromise where we secure the border, we deport people who are not following the laws who came here illegally, but also find a more fluid path for our immigration system to work so people can both work here and have a pathway to citizenship.”
Husted also spoke about attracting investors to the area and the impact the Big Beautiful Bill will have on the country’s economy.
“If we want to do ‘Made in America,’ we have to encourage people to invest, do research and development, and do manufacturing here,” he said. “I think it’s the most pro-family, working-class bill of the 21st century because it eliminates tax on tips, eliminates tax on overtime and provides a $2,200 per-child tax credit.”
At the end of the discussion, Strachan relayed a question from an audience member who wanted to know the best way to get through to Husted’s office because they were having difficulty.
He said his office is now “staffed up” and encouraged constituents to call his Washington, D.C., office at 202-224-3353 or contact him at www.husted.senate.gov/contact-jon. He also said he will host a telephone town hall in September but did not provide a date or time.
Husted’s Akron presentation will be broadcast Sept. 4 at 8 p.m. on 89.7 FM WKSU and will be shown Sept. 7 at 2 p.m. on WVIZ.
