1. United States
2. Fla.
3. Letter

Because I am on the other side of the political spectrum from you, I do not expect us to see eye-to-eye on social issues. I will not waste your time or mine. I do think most people align on the economy, and this is where I will spend my energy in writing to you. The tariffs currently being proposed across the board are dangerously close to running the economy into a recession. I have written before about the likelihood of a recession due to the 10s of thousands fired from government level positions all at once, but unemployment pared with increased prices because of tariff prices and exponentially increased this threat (https://apnews.com/article/tariffs-inflation-economy-trump-powell-490417656971634592bbeb3b2ade3593) This risk assessment is not coming from left-wing alarmists, but economists from across the board (https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2025/04/14/forbes-recession-tracker-recession-odds-spike-as-trumps-tariff-liberation-day-approaches/). This is not to say tariffs are bad or that "right-sizing" businesses isn't necessary - the issue is taking both stances right as the economy is trying to rebound from a global pandemic (https://apnews.com/article/consumer-confidence-inflation-fda8125b8b8f4929b1528046d842758f). These combined issues will hit Florida's farmers the worst, especially since China, Mexico, and Canada are the top three importers of American agriculture (https://www.alligator.org/article/2025/04/florida-faces-trump-administration-tariffs). The middle class cannot take another economic downturn. A number of family farms had to sell during the last tariff war, and the families have yet to get back on their feet financially (https://www.cfpublic.org/2025-04-10/trump-tariffs-and-farmers). Please understand, I am not going to try to argue cultural stances, but I am going to present the facts and try to persuade you to rethink this current economic trend. As the state representative, you were elected to represent all of us, and while there are areas we won't ever agree, I think you can see the economy should be an area we can discuss rationally with facts. The facts are, inflation must rise with the rising unemployment rates, and tariffs must be paid, passing the bill to the consumer, and these indicators mean the recession we were able to stave off right after the pandemic, will catch up to the US, putting us in the same boat as a lot of other countries. I urge you to reconsider, read multiple economic reports, and find common ground to stop this next economic disaster. https://dl-rapidbot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/1/5ba6/da21/5ba6da21-0da4-4a13-9652-e9fb1881363d.php