Tampa Bay Area Democratic U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor in downtown St. Petersburg on Nov. 26, 2024. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix)
Donald Trump’s promise that he will sign an executive order charging a 25% tariff on all products coming into the United States from Mexico and Canada is causing unease among some Democrats.
Reacting to published reports of a caravan of approximately 1,500 migrants making their way through Mexico hoping to reach the U.S. border before Trump’s inauguration, Trump said on Monday that the tariff “will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”
“Trump is so chaotic it’s very difficult to know what is real from him and what is not,” Tampa Bay area Democratic U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor told the Phoenix Tuesday following a news conference in St. Petersburg celebrating small local businesses ahead of the holiday season.
“We’re a couple of months before he’s inaugurated, and I’m really focused on hurricane recovery. That’s what people are talking about. How they can rebuild and repair their homes. How we get small businesses back on their feet. That kind of chaos that Trump brings is not helpful to a small business owner or an economy like ours that relies on our small business owners.”
Castor, who was re-elected for a 10th term representing constituents in both Hillsborough and Pinellas counties earlier this month, said it obvious to her that the economy was the biggest issue in Trump’s triumph over Democrat Kamala Harris in the presidential election.
Immigration was another top issue cited by the voters in exit polls, Castor said, adding that she’s heard from a number of her constituents worried about Trump’s plan to enact mass deportations immediately upon taking office on Jan. 20.
Although data show that from the time that Joe Biden took office in January 2021 through June 2024 there were more than 10 million encounters at all U.S. borders and ports of entry, a dramatic escalation from previous years, Castor argued the incoming president deserves criticism for opposing a border security bill proposed by a bipartisan group of legislators earlier this year — a familiar talking point by Democrats when asked about immigration during this election cycle.
“People want people to come here in a legal manner and so we need to fix our immigration laws,” she said.
“Donald Trump bears a lot of responsibility for killing a bipartisan proposal that would have strengthened border enforcement. That would have laid the groundwork for a path to citizenship for many people who came here legally. … Like I said, he’s just an agent of chaos, and if I thought that there was some path forward to really make sure that people who have worked here, played by the rules, are here legally, got a path to citizenship while we beef edup border security — I think that’s what most people are talking about.”
Ozempic
The Biden administration proposed a rule change Tuesday that would allow millions of Americans with obesity access to weight-loss drugs like Ozempic through Medicare or Medicaid, at a cost of as much as $35 billion over the next decade, as reported by the Associated Press.
“We’ve got to examine it because there’s got to be a balance on what helps keep people healthy and well versus the overriding costs,” Castor said. “That’s always the challenge when it comes to Medicare.”
Castor invoked a just-released movie when asked whether Cabinet choices nominated by Trump in the past week give her pause before they go before the U.S. Senate for confirmation.
“I saw “Wicked” over the weekend and a lot of these people are ‘defying gravity,’” she said, referring to one of the songs from the hit Broadway musical included in the film, specifically the lyric that goes, “I hope you’re proud how you would grovel in submission to feed your own ambition.”
“There are a lot of people like that right now defying gravity and defying common sense, and I really hope the Senate stays strong in making sure that they vet all of these Cabinet picks,” she said, choosing not to mention by name any of the more controversial picks. “That’s their constitutional duty and they should take it seriously.”
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