With fewer than six months until the midterms, candidates are starting to focus their message and motivate their constituents. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz did just that during SunServe’s monthly SilverServe lunch at Hagen Park in Wilton Manors.
She addressed the one word on everybody’s lips: affordability.
“The reason we’re in the situation we’re in and why gas prices are now more than a dollar more than they were a year ago is because President Trump has caused chaotic military action that has resulted in consequences that they never planned for or thought about. It’s hitting us in the economy and hitting us in our pocketbooks.”
She was there in a nonpartisan role as a guest speaker. So while she, for the most part, avoided the words Republican and Democrat, she drew clear lines between the policies coming out of the White House and the hurt felt across red and blue America alike.
She also points out Trump’s economic and foreign policy bludgeon: tariffs.
“The president’s taxes drive up prices on everything. Those costs get passed on.”
She became most passionate when speaking about attempts to privatize social security. The most recent attempt was to slash disability benefits by a change in rules. Wasserman Schultz said Trump’s Treasury Secretary admitted it was a back door way to start privatizing social security.
“Over my dead body will they ever privatize social security.”
She wrapped up by talking about Pride Month. As the ranking minority member of the appropriations committee, every year she sees a bill come through to ban Pride flags from government buildings. And every year the bill fails because of that provision. This year she worked with the chairman, a conservative Texas Republican, to deliver a “clean” bill with no social issues and it passed unanimously.
Afterwards she told OutSFL that bipartisanship is still out there, but we have to seek it out.
“We have to get caught trying to reach out to those who may be reasonable and meet us halfway. Finding common ground wherever we can is really important.”
Wasserman Schultz plans to be in the Stonewall Pride parade in Wilton Manors on June 20.
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