Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used the fruits of federal deficit spending to help win reelection last year, hand-delivering bonus checks to police and firefighters, but now opposes the deal to make debt payments. that includes that expense.
“Before this deal, our country was hurtling toward bankruptcy, and after this deal, our country will continue to hurtle toward bankruptcy,” said DeSantis, who announced his 2024 presidential bid last week. foxnews on Monday. “Say you can do $4 trillion of raises in the next year and a half, I mean, that’s a massive amount of spending.”
DeSantis, however, did not complain about the federal government’s spending habit when he and Florida lawmakers agreed to some $13 billion in total pandemic relief funding from 2020 through 2022. The final leg of that total, President Joe BidenAmerican Rescue Plan, American Rescue, was the complete source of the $1,000 bonus checks for each of the 85,000 first responders in Florida. DeSantis toured the state to hand them out while running for re-election last year.
“Because we know how hard you’ve been working, you know, and it’s always hard work, but particularly since COVID,” he said during a visit to a Jacksonville fire station last September.
He used the same federal money that came to Florida to send $1,000 bonus checks to every public school teacher in the state.
The two sets of bonds, as well as the overall budget surplus Florida enjoyed thanks largely to federal money, were frequently cited as achievements in his handling of COVID and its fallout as he sought and won a second term.
DeSantis’ governor’s office did not respond to inquiries from HuffPost.
His Republican critics said DeSantis’s duplicity no longer surprises them.
“Whether it’s preaching freedom while using the government to attack private property and private businesses, yelling ‘Trust the parents!’ about teaching kids about sexuality until parents take their kids to a Sunday brunch with drag queens, or biting Biden’s hand for giving him the money he spent like a drunken sailor, hypocrisy is integral to lack of essential DeSantis authenticity,” said Mac Stipanovich. , a political strategist who once served as chief of staff to former Florida Governor Bob Martinez (R).
David Jolly, a former Republican congressman from Florida, also said DeSantis’ comments on the debt limit reflect where the party is headed. “DeSantis is a perfect example of the post-ideological Republican Party, riddled with political inconsistencies,” he said. “His predecessor to him, Rick Scott, at least meant what he said when he rejected DC spending as governor.”
Donald Trump, the former coup president and current favorite for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said three weeks ago that Republicans could also force a debt default unless they get what they want, because one will eventually happen anyway. However, he has been silent on the debt deal, as it was reached over Memorial Day weekend.
As in all states, federal money is a large component of Florida’s budget, particularly for health and human services included in the Medicaid program. In 2019, DeSantis’ first year as governor, the state received $32.9 billion in federal funds, according to state figures, more than a third of its annual budget.
That number was $33 billion in 2020, but jumped to $39.9 billion in 2021 and $39.2 billion in 2022, thanks to various federal COVID-19 funding packages.
In 2021, DeSantis vetoed $1 billion that the legislature had earmarked from the American Rescue Plan for an emergency preparedness fund within the governor’s office, not because he objected to having access to the money, but because he feared the federal government could reject it under the ARP rules. “If we were going to go through with it, we were going to risk the feds coming after us,” DeSantis said as he explained his veto.
COVID-related spending, the majority of which occurred under Trump, is a major reason for the dramatic recent increase in the national debt to now $31.5 trillion.
Under the deal reached by Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republican, the country’s debt limit would be suspended until 2024, while some spending would be capped for two years.
The House is scheduled to vote on the bill on Wednesday.
If Congress does not approve a debt limit increase, the United States would default on its outstanding bond obligations, resulting in higher interest rates and borrowing costs in the future, and likely triggering a global recession.
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