Congressman Randy Fine blamed former President Biden and illegal immigrants for affordability challenges facing many Americans.
Fine, a Republican whose district includes parts of Marion and Lake County, including the Historic Side of The Villages, the Marion County section of The Villages and Stonecrest, hosted a telephone tall hall Wednesday night. Fine, who was elected in a special election earlier this year, boldly fielded unscreened calls in the town hall that was broadcast live on social media.
Fine said that President Trump inherited an economy that was in bad shape when Biden left office.
“We were in a mess,” Fine said. “This country was on the verge of collapse under Joe Biden.”
He said that Trump has succeeded in bringing inflation down to 2 percent.
“It’s better than we saw under Sleepy Joe Biden,” Fine said.
The Congressman said relief is coming, even if his constituents haven’t recognized it.
“Confidence is returning as inflation cools. Paychecks are outpacing prices,” Fine said. “Americans are gaining – not losing – pricing power now.”
A caller identified only as “Mary from Lady Lake,” said she has been feeling the pain, particularly after losing her job this past year.
Mary, who said she has been in Florida since 1986, said the burden of homeowners’ insurance has been especially tough since losing her job. She said she has never had a claim.
Another caller from Daytona expressed her concern that young adults are struggling, and in particular, they can’t afford to buy homes.
Fine said illegal immigrants are driving up the costs of housing, health care and car insurance.
“The No. 1 thing we can do to lower housing prices in America is deport the tens of millions of illegal immigrants that are here,” Fine said.
He said that 59 percent of illegal-immigrant led households in the United States are collecting welfare costing taxpayers $42 billion per year.
“We are the land of opportunity, not the land of welfare. We are going to make it hard for people to come to America, for any reason, if they want free stuff,” Fine said.
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