T-L Photo/JANELL HUNTER/ U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, speaks with Monroe County residents Tuesday at a roundtable event hosted by the Monroe County Chamber of Commerce.

WOODSFIELD — U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, believes his constituents have reason to be optimistic about what has been going on in Washington, D.C. since the installation of President Donald Trump and the new Congress.

While Congress is not in session, Johnson has been visiting constituents in Ohio’s 6th Congressional District, and made a stop in Woodsfield on Tuesday to meet with members of the Monroe County Chamber of Commerce. Chamber members updated Johnson on some of the latest from Monroe County, and Johnson provided them with an update of some of what has been going on in the nation’s capital that has an effect on residents of Monroe County and those across the state and nation.

“We have been in session nearly non-stop this year,” Johnson said. “In the first six months of this year we have only had three weeks to work our districts, and with a district with 17 counties in it, it takes a long time to get around. My office is always open to you — all you have to do is call.”

Johnson said when he speaks to his constituents, they say they are ‘depressed’ about what has been going on in the nationás capital.

“The 24-hour-a-day news channels would rather show you the fight rather than the solutions. They want you to think that all that’s going on in Washington is fighting about Russia investigation, the failure of the Senate to move forward on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, and I’m disappointed in that, too,” he said. “But the truth of the matter is that there are some good things that have happened since President Trump came into office and this new session of Congress started.”

Johnson said there is much hard work still left to be done, and he often gets frustrated, but believes the country is on a path to more prosperity due to legislation and policy recently enacted that has not been widely reported. He believes the nation is experiencing a “societal and cultural shift” right now with the way information is provided through social media, which allows citizens a “microscopic view” of the workings of politics.

“It’s like watching the sausage being made. And it’s oftentimes not very pretty,” Johnson noted. “Some people are coming to the conclusion that all this infighting and frustration and anxiety and failure to get things done and failure to move on big problems is some kind of new phenomenon. But it’s not. It’s been that way from the very beginning.”

He spoke about disagreements about the constitution between George Washington and James Madison in 1789, and likened it to political disagreements of today. He said he believes that his job is to move things forward for his constituents, and sometimes politics causes people to form unusual alliances and even lose friendships in the process to “get the right things done.”

“I’m not going to move the ball forward for everybody at the same time, every time. But I’m not just going to go there and vote ‘no’ and come home and relax,” Johnson said. “If you want to move the ball forward you’ve got to give a little to get a little and to move the ball forward.”

He addressed a number of legislative and policy actions the Trump administration and current Congress have enacted in the first six months, and related to the audience factors that indicate an upswing in the economy. According to Johnson, in the last six months over 1 million jobs have been created, the manufacturing sector is improving and coal production was up for the first time in eight years during the month of June.

“Did you know that we are at a 17-year low, a 61-percent decrease in the number of illegal border crossings on our southern border because we put $12.2 billion toward increased border security? The president put that to work right away,” Johnson said.

He also added that the regulatory burden on businesses has been reduced by $65 billion, the budget of the Internal Revenue Service was frozen, the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget was cut to pre-Obama administration levels and Congress passed legislation in the House to withhold federal funding for sanctuary cities that refuse to comply with federal immigration laws.

“There are folks that don’t want you to know the progress we are making. Between January and the 8th of June, there has been more legislation passed and more legislation signed into law by this administration than the previous four administrations at the same point,” Johnson said.

When Congress reconvenes in September, Johnson said tax reform will be the next order of business. He believes reforming and simplifying the tax code will make the United States the “envy of the world,” and will create innovation and competition in markets. He and other congressional colleagues aim to make the tax system so simple that it can be filed on a postcard.

“All loopholes gone, all gimmicks gone. The playing field is leveled for everybody,” Johnson said. “We all have some skin in the game, but we all pay less to the federal government, and we see innovation and competition, investment and opportunities begin to be created.”