OCALA, FL (352today.com) – U.S. Congressman Randy Fine held a meet and greet session with his constituents Aug. 18 at the Ocala Metro Chamber and Economic Partnership.
Fine shared with the audience, how he entered politics, and how a fateful phone call from President Donald J. Trump, would forever transform his life.
The Harvard graduate was elected by a substantial margin, and he has accepted his role with great enthusiasm, and for the past 137 days, Fine has been building his congressional staff. The legislator made the decision to do something that no congressman in the district had done previously. Fine has all or part of six counties in his district. Most Congressmen have one office or maybe two in their district, but Fine didn’t want his constituents having to drive four hours to get to the office if they needed help from the government.
“We made the decision to open a district office in all six counties, which we have done,” said Fine. “And our district office here is in Belleview, in the police station. If you ever need anything, you can go there. In fact, the staff in those offices have already helped almost 400 people with their issues that they’ve had with their federal government. I’ve returned almost $2 million of people’s money. This isn’t grants from the government, this is money that belonged to those people that they couldn’t get out of the government that we had helped them secure over that period of time.”
Making the Most of His First Few Months
Fine has helped secure nearly a dozen grants and appropriations for wastewater, airports and public safety out of the federal government within the 137 days he’s been in office.
“The most important thing I’ve worked on is President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, which does a lot of things that I think will be helpful to this community,” said Fine. “I hate to tell rich folks, despite what the Democrats have said, they’re not getting a big tax break, The rates that they’ve paid for the last few years are the rates they’re going to continue to pay. My definition of a tax break is if I pay less, and they’re not.”
Big and Beautiful
However, there are four groups of people that are going to get a tax break, said Fine. The first are the people who work overtime, and they’re not going to be paying taxes on their overtime. The second group are people who work for tips, who won’t be paying taxes on tips. The third group, 88% of Fine’s constituents who are on social security will not have to pay taxes on their social security benefits anymore and anyone who buys an American car and takes out a loan, the interest on that loan will now be deductible.
“The bill did a lot of other good things too,” said Fine. “It secures the border, it invests in our military, it makes sure that we modernize our air traffic control system, all of these things, and it makes sure that Medicaid as a program will be available for those who need it.”
Balancing Act
Looking forward, the greatest existential threat the United States faces isn’t Iran, China, or Russia. The greatest existential threat is
is the inability to spend within our means, said Fine.
“You want to know why interest rates are so high, you want to know why mortgage rates are so high?,” said Fine. “When the federal government has to borrow $37 trillion, which is what all of us have borrowed right now and have to pay higher and higher interest rates in order to get that $37 Trillion. That 5% will become 10% and 15% if we don’t get that problem under control. The problem I’m most passionate about working on up there is to get our budget in line. The fact is, I don’t fear the judgement of the voters as I fear the judgement of my two sons, my 17-year-old and my 13-year-old. And I know this, our country will collapse in their lifetimes, if we don’t get this problem under control.”