Hudson talks new district, inflation, Ukraine in Sanford visit

By MARK ROGERS

Sanford Herald

April 30, 2022

Congressman Richard Hudson spent time last week meeting constituents in Lee and surrounding counties, talking about a variety of topics from the newly drawn Congressional districts to inflation and the war in the Ukraine.

After addressing Lee County Republicans at their headquarters on Steele Street April 22, Hudson stopped by The Sanford Herald to talk about a variety of topics.

“I have seven counties in my current district,” Hudson said. “Three of them are in the new 8th District and four of them in the new 9th District — including Fort Bragg. The greatest honor in my life is representing Fort Bragg. That was one of the reasons why I chose this end of the district — to represent the new 9th District, which includes all of Lee County.”

The new district includes nine counties.

“Four of them I currently represent, four I have represented in the past, and then I’ve never represented Chatham County before,” Hudson said. “We’ve been spending a lot of time getting to know the folks over there.”

As he’s traveled the district, several major things are on people’s minds — inflation, gas prices and the war in Ukraine are all topics constituents ask Hudson about.

“When I was in middle school, I learned about supply and demand,” Hudson said. “When you have a high demand and a low supply, prices go up. This is very basic fundamental economic principle. When it comes to gas prices, we have an abundance of energy resources here in America, but Joe Biden’s energy policies are preventing us from going and getting them.”

Hudson went on to explain issues involving gas prices.

“Most of the price of gas in America is driven by the futures market,” he said. “So, investors make predictions based on what they think the future looks like. There are two markets, the U.S. market and the global market. The U.S. market investors see Joe Biden cancel the (Keystone) XL Pipeline on Day 1, they see him restrict exploration on federal land — they see all these moves and they say, ‘Oh, prices are going to go up,’ so they make predictions based on that. By doing that, they make price go up. If Joe Biden would reverse them — even the XL Pipeline, I think it would have an impact on the futures markets and we’d see prices go down right away. Even before the oil got to the market.”

Hudson said the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has had little impact on price.

“Those futures investors really drive the price, and those futures investors see him (Biden) do that (release) and they realize that’s a temporary fix — that’s not changing the fundamentals that led them to believe prices are going to be high for a while because supply is down and demand is up,” Hudson said.

Oil prices have a big effect on the economy, but they aren’t the only factor, according to Hudson.

“Gas prices are spilling over into inflation, but the biggest driver of inflation now is the out-of-control spending,” he said. “We’ve borrowed and spent $7.5 trillion — if you look at everything the House has passed. To put that into layman’s terms, you could spend $10 million a day from the day Jesus was born until today — and that’s $7.5 trillion — that’s a lot of money. It’s not sustainable.”

Hudson said the war in Ukraine has also been on the minds of constituents as he’s traveled the district.

“I don’t support American combat troops going into Ukraine in any way, shape or form, but I do support sending troops to the region as a deterrent,” Hudson said. “I support doing anything we can to send lethal weapons and supplies to Ukraine. In fact, I’ve been advocating that since 2015. We fought Obama over it — he wouldn’t send lethal aid. Trump was sending it, but Biden stopped it when he took office. All last year, a bunch of us were begging the president — pleading with him to send this aid. It’s only really since the invasion that we’ve really started what we need to do to supply them.”

Hudson said border concerns are also on the minds of people in the district and that he’s had a lot of good discussions with people throughout the region recently, spending the Easter recess traveling and speaking with them.

“I’ve had a chance to talk to a lot of people and people are frustrated with the direction the country’s headed in,” he said. “They’re really keen to see Republicans get in control — some not even because they like Republicans. Some just want to stop what they see happening. I actually heard more about the Southern border than I thought I might. It’s certainly been a priority for me.”

Hudson said more than two million people have illegally crossed the border recently.

“That’s more than the population of Charlotte, Greensboro and Fayetteville combined,” he said. “That’s a ton of people. I’m concerned about what criminals are coming across, what terrorists are coming across. We know of a number of terrorists that we’ve caught at the border.”

Hudson said another major concern is illegal drugs coming across the border.

“I’m worried about fentanyl,” he said. “It’s impacting every community in America. We’ve confiscated this year, enough fentanyl to kill every American seven times.”