Photo: Gage Sizemore/Flickr
By TAYLOR GRIFFITH | PinalCentral
U.S. Rep. Tom O’Halleran, D-Ariz., hosted his first town hall in Coolidge in nearly two years on June 1. In his campaign for a third term in the U.S. House, O’Halleran has been touring his vast district since January this year.
Around 15 residents came to the Coolidge Council Chambers to ask their congressman about his recent accomplishments and plans for his next term if reelected. It was also a time for them to voice their concerns about their community and nation to a government official with access to tools to create real policy change.
His roadmap for the night: ask anything you want — if we don’t know the answer, we’ll get back to you. He and his staff held true to this claim, as the three of them were there to offer their personal business cards for residents to use if they had any additional questions.
But before they got into the public forum, O’Halleran wanted to give a brief explanation of the priorities for his next potential term.
“When we went into the pandemic,” he said, “Congress got together — all of us — and we decided that we wanted this country to come out with a strong economy; (to ensure) our streets are not full of people being thrown out of their homes and the ability to ensure people were fed appropriately.”
“And then, as that moved along, that was pretty successful. Because right now, sadly, I think, because of our workforce — we have 10 million jobs that are unfulfilled.”
He also mentioned, though the U.S. may currently have a recovering economy, the country is grappling with a dire inflation crisis.
Being a part of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, O’Halleran views this latest crisis to be the result of an unhealthy reliance on China and other large foreign markets for the nation’s energy and supply.
“One of the things we’re working on is: ‘How do we become the leaders in the world versus other people?’” he said.
Though the nation is currently leading in oil production, O’Halleran’s provided charts indicated other nations such as China, Saudi Arabia and Australia are leading in other energy outsourcing.
However, his greatest concern is the nation’s reliance on China, especially in light of the most recent COVID-19 shutdown in Shanghai that sent massive ripples through the global supply chain that American families are currently feeling the brunt of, whether at the grocery store, car dealership or in their utility payments.
“I think we’ve been asleep at the wheel the last 30 years,” he said in regards to letting China become the dominant, global energy and supply source. “This allows them to control so much of the world’s economy.”
In light of inflation, O’Halleran is also calling on private companies in the U.S. to look out for the American family more and realize, “They are a part of our country also, and they need to participate when times are bad.”
The first question of the night was one that O’Halleran said he is frequently asked first when visiting the communities he represents; the question one resident posed had to do with the state of the housing economy and rents increasing.
“So, I’m glad the mayor’s here, thank you, Mayor,” said O’Halleran in answering the question as he looked at the crowd. “We met about three weeks ago, I think it was, and one of the first things the mayor brought up was housing.”
“Whether it’s the cost of private homes, and being able to bring in people, most of the people that can afford it don’t live in the community anymore,” he continued.
The resident explained how she barely managed to pay the 11.9% interest on her Reagan-era home, when prior to that the interest was only at 4%. Shoveling hundreds of thousands out with this steep interest rate, the resident would like to see mortgage rates back to a reasonable level.
“Well, the feds are working on trying to lower these rates — we’ve run out of a lot of the tools — not all of them, but a lot of the tools to address those rates,” said O’Halleran. “We do have programs out there offering rates better than the market rate that’s out there. But, we are in a situation where we are short over four million housing units, so that’s driving a lot of what you’re seeing now.”
