What a wild week it’s been! We had a great social and fundraising event which introduced our campaign to dozens of new people. I went to several small business openings. We participated in charitable outreach efforts. And our fundraising set a record for our campaign. Our campaign is not about dollars and cents. It’s about getting those 70+% of our population who believe our country is headed in the wrong direction. Of course, that means people from all across the political spectrum. I heard from small and large business owners, retired individuals, people living on fixed incomes, recent immigrants, and lifelong Florida residents…and they all were focused around similar concerns.
The economy: Grocery store prices increased over 8% in the past 12 months…and that’s on top of the 10+% from the previous year. I couldn’t believe a 2-liter bottle of soda (we call it pop up north) was $3.89 at Publix when that same bottle was a little over $1.00 a couple years ago. I got to spend a few days in Olean, NY with my soon-to-be 92-year-old mom and she was perplexed why eggs were over $3.50 a carton.
Government Overreach: When I was in NY, the NY governor banned gas appliances in new construction and their next target is gas-powered mowers and leaf blowers. Nobody is really sure how that helps the environment but the ruling class doesn’t care. How many leaf blowers and gas stoves does it take to replace one Chinese coal-fired plant? Where does it stop? Remember when cow flatulence was killing the planet? Well, maybe that science isn’t settled! (Methane may not warm the Earth quite as much as previously thought (sciencenews.org))
Security: This week the topic seemed to be on border security. As more than 4 million people streamed across the border during this administration, our residents are beginning to pay attention. They’re paying attention to the young children forced away from their parents and exploited by traffickers. They’re paying attention to the drugs, especially fentanyl, streaming across the border. 80,000 Americans die of drug overdoses…up significantly the past few years. About 70% of those deaths are from fentanyl and related drugs. Why are we spending over $400 million on Middle East border security and not securing our own border. Just listen to DHS’s own language to see the shift in priorities from prior administrations.
Our country has serious issues and we are soon facing a fiscal death spiral with more and more funds going to mandatory non-discretionary items, including over $475 billion annually on the national debt. Our Middle East allies are abandoning us to find more reliable partners, including China. Latin American nations are making more deals with China. It all stems from a lack of leadership in DC where some preferred to be liked instead of respected.
While some just want America to be part of the crowd, America needs to be a world leader. Let’s restore leadership to DC.
