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On day one of his term in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting a plan that would help buyers purchase homes.

The move by the nation’s new Commander-in-Chief could cost low and medium-income homeowners as much as $900 per year.

Dr. William Spriggs, chief economist for the AFL-CIO, and Julian Epstein, public affairs and communications counselor for the LawMedia Group Inc., spoke with Roland Martin about how Trump’s decision to not allow lower federal mortgage insurance rates to take effect will impact struggling Americans.

Spriggs said Trump’s move––which seems counterintuitive to his professed affinity for forgotten Americans––charges people “unnecessarily.”

According to Spriggs, President Barack Obama instituted the FHA mortgage insurance premium reductions to correct a situation, “Putting the government on the side of people, having the government do what the government is supposed to do, which is not price gouge people. 

Spriggs continued, “The first thing President Trump does is say, ‘No, I want to gouge the American people.’”

Epstein said of Trump’s executive order on FHA mortgage insurance premiums, “This is going to be a tax on low-income people that want to buy homes somewhere between $500 and $1,000 a year, and between 40,000 and 50,000 people that would otherwise be able to get homes might not be able to get them.”

He added, “There are going to be many taxes on low-income people as a result of the Trump administration.” 

“The working-class people that voted for Donald Trump are going to have a rude awakening when they find out he’s not going to be able to deliver on much and he’s going to start raising their taxes, and here is one example where he is putting in a defacto tax on low-income people,” Epstein said.

Watch Roland Martin and the NewsOne Now panel discuss President Trump’s decision to not allow lower federal mortgage insurance rates to take effect in the video clip above.

Watch NewsOne Now with Roland Martin, in its new time slot on TV One.

SEE ALSO:

NewsOne Now Reflects On The Legacy Of President Barack Obama

Trump Abandons Low-Income Homeowners By Decreasing Annual FHA Mortgage Insurance Premiums  was originally published on newsone.com