JD Vance spars with heckler as he blames immigrants for high housing prices
Vice President JD Vance skirmished with a heckler during a speech Monday in which he claimed that expelling undocumented immigrants would bring down housing prices.
Vance was addressing the National League of Cities in Washington, D.C. when a woman in the audience began shouting her objections.
"I see one of our nice representatives out here wants to actually, I guess, continue to flood the country with illegal immigrants, making your communities and citizens unaffordable," Vance snapped back, to a mixture of boos and claps.
"But ma'am, with all respect, one of the reasons why we're doing what we're doing is because we want to make it more affordable for Americans to live."
The clash erupted as the Trump administration is stepping up its plans to deport "millions' of people, roughly doubling daily immigration arrests from their level under Joe Biden.
The round-ups have caught not only undocumented immigrants with no criminal charges but also U.S. citizens, native Americans, and a Palestinian student who protested against Israel, with detainees warehoused in foreign hotels and even, briefly, Guantanamo Bay.
Reports suggest that the administration may also revoke the immigration status of so-called DREAMers — people brought to the country by their parents as babies or children who essentially grew up in America — and roughly 875,000 people from troubled countries such as Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Haiti who are here on humanitarian status.
Though Vance claimed that deportation efforts were partly motivated by a desire to bring down housing prices for American citizens, the link between immigration and housing costs is disputed by experts.
"Local zoning regulations, the cost of energy. These things are about the supply of housing: how do we get more supply of houses out there to be built?" said Vance, according to footage from the pro-Trump Right Side Broadcasting Network (the heckler's remarks were inaudible).
"But when we talk about housing and why costs are so high, we don't talk enough about demand. And one of the drivers of increased housing demand, we know, is that we've got a lot of people over the last four years who have come into the country illegally ...'
He added: "Just think about this: If you allow 20 million people to compete with American citizens for the costs of homes, you are going to have a large and frankly completely preventable spike in the demand for housing. And that is what we of course have seen."
Most estimates put the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. at around 11 million to 14 million, although one report has claimed it could be as high as 17 million.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Pete Hegseth orders Navy to strip name of gay rights icon Harvey Milk from ship in time for Pride Month
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered that the ship bearing the name of gay rights icon and Navy veteran Harvey Milk be renamed, according to The Office of the Secretary of the Navy issued a memo revealing the plans to change the name of the replenishment oiler ship USNS Harvey Milk, which was christened in 2021. They're also considering renaming several naval ships named after civil rights leaders and other distinguished Americans, CBS News noted. An official noted that the Navy was taking steps to change the name of the ship, but added that the Navy Secretary, John Phelan, was ordered to make the name change by Hegseth. The official added that the announcement timing, coming during Pride Month, was intentional, according to Washington D.C. is hosting WorldPride celebrations this year. Documents obtained by CBS News reveal that other ships under consideration for renaming are the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Dolores Huerta, USNS Lucy Stone, USNS Cesar Chavez, and USNS Medgar Evers. The memo seen by stated that the name change was done for there to be "alignment with president and SECDEF objectives and SECNAV priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture," in a seeming reference to President Donald Trump, Hegseth, and Phelan. Milk became the first openly gay man elected to public office in California when he became a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978 after winning an election the previous year. He was assassinated in November 1978 following the passage of a bill prohibiting housing and employment discrimination because of sexual orientation. The renaming of the ship was set to become public on June 13, the memo said. While a new name for the Milk has not been announced, the memo said Hegseth and Phelan are set to make the announcement aboard the oldest commissioned ship in the Navy, the USS Constitution. The Harvey Milk is an oiler ship in the John Lewis-class. It's part of a group of ships named after civil rights activists. Lewis was a congressman and civil rights icon who passed away in 2020. Instances of renaming Navy ships are rare, and the process is taboo according to Navy traditions, noted. The Navy most recently renamed two ships in 2023 with connections to the Confederacy, the USS Chancellorsville and the research ship USNS Maury, to USS Robert Smalls and USNS Marie Tharp. Smalls was a slave who took charge of a Confederate ship and surrendered it to the Union, while Tharp was an oceanographer. However, these name changes were done following the recommendation of a commission established by Congress to review names with connections to the Confederacy in the entire military. The USNS Harvey Milk received its name in 2016 from the Navy secretary at the time, Ray Mabus. USNI News noted that Milk came from a family with a history of service in the Navy. Milk was commissioned in 1951. During the Korean War, he was an operations and diving officer on the submarines USS Kittiwake and USS Chanticleer. However, in 1954, Milk was facing a court-martial for previously having taken part in a 'homosexual act.' Instead of a trial, Milk left the armed forces, similarly to many other gay service members at that time. He resigned his commission and accepted an 'Other Than Honorable' discharge, CBS News noted. Becoming an icon and martyr in the LGBT+ community, he posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. The USNS Harvey Milk is currently undergoing maintenance work at a shipyard in Alabama. Speaker Emerita and San Francisco Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi told CBS: 'The reported decision by the Trump Administration to change the names of the USNS Harvey Milk and other ships in the John Lewis-class is a shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers for all to chase the American Dream.' "Our military is the most powerful in the world – but this spiteful move does not strengthen our national security or the 'warrior' ethos. Instead, it is a surrender of a fundamental American value: to honor the legacy of those who worked to build a better country,' she added. Hegseth was confirmed in January, and he was quick to issue a directive ordering the Pentagon and the various branches of the military to stop having events connected to heritage and awareness months, such as Pride Month, Black History Month, and Women's History Month, arguing that it could damage unity. The documents seen by CBS News say that Phelan should select a new name for the USNS Harvey Milk on Tuesday and that notifications of the new name would be sent to other Navy officials later in the week following a legal review.
Yahoo
8 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Commentary: What America's default risk is costing you
For decades, investors thought the risk of the US government defaulting on its debt was essentially zero. It was nice while it lasted. There's still a low chance the US government will fail to pay principal or interest on nearly $30 trillion worth of Treasury securities circulating around the world. But global investors think US debt is getting riskier, and they also think US policymakers in Congress and the Trump administration are doing nothing about it. That rising risk is likely pushing interest costs higher for every American borrowing to finance a home, a car, or a business investment. A new paper published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago uses an arcane security known as a credit default swap, or CDS, to estimate the risk of the US Treasury defaulting on a payment. The analysis highlights not just the damage caused by 15 years of political squabbling in Congress over budget issues but also the startling decline in market assessments of US creditworthiness. Congress may soon make this worse by passing a tax-cut bill that makes America's fiscal position even shakier. There are two basic market concerns with America's creditworthiness. One is the sheer amount of borrowing the US government must do to finance annual deficits that are now routinely close to $2 trillion. The total national debt is $36.2 trillion, and the amount of US debt in circulation now equals about 100% of GDP, a record for peacetime. That's only going higher. The other issue is the US debt ceiling, which puts a limit on the total amount of federal borrowing the Treasury is allowed to do. The debt limit itself isn't problematic. But Congress's handling of it is. Three times — in 2011, 2013, and 2023 — Congress has refused to raise the borrowing limit until the Treasury Department was dangerously close to running out of money. If the Treasury missed even a single payment it owed, it would constitute a default and roil the global trillion-dollar market for Treasury securities, the world's most widely traded assets. In January, the Treasury hit the debt limit once again. Since then, it has been relying on 'extraordinary measures' — basically, moving money around — to pay its bills. Congress must soon raise the debt limit once again, with the Treasury likely to run out of maneuvering room sometime between mid and late summer. Credit-default swaps are private contracts that work like an insurance policy, with one party agreeing to cover losses for a second party if the issuer of a given security defaults. The market for CDS contracts on government debt has been most active during debt crises in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Turkey, Greece, and Italy. The market for CDSs guaranteeing US debt is often dormant. But it springs to life around the time that the US debt ceiling needs to be raised, because Congress could trigger a default by waiting too long. The Chicago Fed research uses data on CDS pricing to estimate the market's perception of the risk of US default going back 14 years. In 2011, the United States came within a few days of default before Democrats and Republicans sparring in Congress agreed to raise the debt ceiling. That standoff led S&P to downgrade the US credit rating for the first time ever. The Chicago Fed paper estimates that the risk of default in 2011 peaked at more than than 6%. During debt-ceiling showdowns in 2013 and 2023, CDS pricing suggests the risk of default peaked at around 4%. CDS pricing today suggests the risk of a US default is around 1%. It's lower now than in prior standoffs because Republicans have unified control of Congress and don't need to negotiate with the opposition party to raise the borrowing limit. That 1% risk could also go higher as the Treasury comes closer to the "X date" when it runs out of money.A 1% risk of default might seem inconsequential. But it's not. 'Everyone says the US will never default,' David Kotok, co-founder of investing firm Cumberland Advisors, told Yahoo Finance. 'Somebody is saying, we don't believe you. The CDS market is saying the risk is greater than zero.' Kotok estimates that the higher perceived risk of default pushes the interest rate on a typical mortgage up by about three-tenths of a percentage point. That's because investors demand higher interest rates on riskier securities, such as the 10-year Treasury note, which is the benchmark for most interest rates paid on business and consumer loans. Read more: What is the 10-year Treasury note, and how does it affect your finances? On a 30-year mortgage for a median-priced house, lowering the interest rate by three-tenths of a point would lower the monthly payment by about $66. That's $792 per year or $23,769 over the course of the loan. Not a fortune, maybe, but shrewd investors welcome every marginal gain. Congress could eliminate the debt limit altogether by repealing the 1917 law that was supposed to simplify government borrowing, rather than creating a default mechanism. Back then, the executive branch needed congressional approval for every unique instance of borrowing. The debt limit was supposed to let the Treasury borrow freely up to a certain limit. That worked more or less as intended until 2011, when Republicans, who controlled the House of Representatives, used the debt ceiling as leverage to negotiate spending cuts with Democrats, who controlled the Senate and the White House. Repealing the debt limit might wipe out the market for credit default swaps on US debt, since debt limit deadlines are the very thing creating the default risk. Nobody would complain about that. Kotok estimates that the 30-basis-point premium on US interest rates would disappear. Then the US government would only face one debt problem: the vast amount of it. Markets have been jeering the mushrooming national debt this year, with investors showing unprecedented reluctance to buy some US assets. That has been another factor pushing US interest rates higher, when in normal market action, they'd be holding steady or falling. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon is the latest voice of alarm on the US debt, warning that a 'crack' in the bond market could signal coming market turmoil. That would most likely occur as more investors shunned US assets, including Treasurys, sending rates even higher. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Dimon is overreacting, giving cover to Republicans working up the big tax-cut bill that could add another $3 trillion or $4 trillion to the national debt. Moody's downgraded US debt for the first time in May following Fitch's first-ever downgrade in 2023. Like S&P in 2011, both rating agencies cited political dysfunction and huge annual deficits. The rumble of discontent with America's fiscal recklessness is growing louder. Eventually, they'll start to hear it in Washington, D.C. Rick Newman is a senior columnist for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Bluesky and X: @rickjnewman. Click here for political news related to business and money policies that will shape tomorrow's stock prices.
Yahoo
8 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The true cost of Trump's massive military parade seems to keep getting worse
Donald Trump's plans for a massive, expensive military parade in Washington, D.C., already seemed absurd when juxtaposed against his administration's mass firings at federal agencies and his plans to institute deep cuts to federal programs many Americans rely on. But the true cost of the parade seems to keep getting worse. The president recently told NBC News' Kristen Welker that the June 14 parade's price tag — which could reach $45 million — would be 'peanuts compared to the value of doing it.' But the actual value of hosting a parade — which, in a fashion reminiscent of dictatorships, will feature dozens of military vehicles and thousands of service members — is debatable at best. And NBC News reported recently on some of the destruction that the June 14 parade — a seemingly frivolous pet project to celebrate 250 years of the U.S. Army that just so happens to fall on Trump's birthday — stands to inflict on Washington's streets: The cost to repair Washington, D.C., streets after the upcoming military parade celebrating the Army's 250th anniversary could cost as much as $16 million, according to U.S. military officials. That's part of an estimated $45 million total cost for the June 14 military parade, which coincides with President Donald Trump's 79th birthday. The cost estimates have fluctuated as planning continues. And that's taxpayer money being spent as Trump withholds tens of millions of dollars allocated for things like climate change studies and other research grants, or any number of federal programs that stand to benefit a large number of Americans — certainly more so than a military parade. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has been sounding the alarm for months on the parade's potential destruction, saying in April that military tanks 'would not be good,' adding: 'If military tanks were used, they should be accompanied with many millions of dollars to repair the roads.' Republicans have been eager to use their federal power over Washington — due to it not being an official state — no matter what the mayor says. In March, Bowser said her decision to paint over a D.C. plaza honoring the Black Lives Matter movement came amid pressure from the White House, suggesting she had acquiesced because there are 'bigger fish to fry.' And now House Republicans — who have refused to address a $1 billion funding shortfall they created for the district — are trying to pass a law that would roll back voting rights in D.C. as well. All of this appears to be aligned with Trump's declaration that the federal government should 'take over' Washington, using language befitting the leader of an occupying military. And his massive, expensive and literally destructive military parade — all at taxpayers' expense — seems like it would be a crowning achievement in that mission. This article was originally published on
