During the very last broadcast that the legendary conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh made on Feb. 2, 2021, he heaped a ton of praise on Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, saying, “Have I mentioned lately how much I admire the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis? This guy has got what we call an iron-enforced spine.” Limbaugh then, with his classic wit and humor also added that DeSantis was “the closest that we’ve ever had to a graduate of the EIB Limbaugh Institute.”
Was Limbaugh ultimately right about DeSantis? Well the proof is in the pudding, and if Florida were the gooey chocolatey treat almost everyone loves, it would be the best to ever grace our taste buds.
In other words, as David Horowitz points out in his latest piece for TheBlaze, Forida is getting everything Rush and many of his fans have wanted to see in the state since the late 1980s. He’s managed to do some big things with the state’s budget and economy, helping the residents there survive financially when the man in the White House seems to be doing everything he can to destroy the nation economically speaking.
Horowitz goes on to ask why we can’t have 25 red states that are run in similar fashion and why a leader like DeSantis isn’t the “new mandatory minimum standard.” Hey, I think that’s a pretty darn good question. He may not be ready for the White House, but it’s hard to argue with the results he’s pulling in as a governor. Why aren’t conservative Republicans who are governors of other states using DeSantis and his plans for Florida as blueprints for their own states?
Does the establishment still have that much of a hold on the GOP, even in the era of Trump? Say it isn’t so!
After spending an additional $500 million of state surplus funds to pay down debt, Gov. DeSantis has now reduced 36% of Florida’s existing debt, while cutting numerous taxes and offering pay raises to teachers. “We now have the lowest per capita state debt of any state in these United States,” DeSantis announced at a press conference last month, after vetoing several pork projects from the legislature and trimming almost $1 billion from the annual budget.
DeSantis referred to a Tax Foundation analysis ranking Florida 50th in debt per capita, at just $973 per person. These numbers are from 2022, before he paid off much of this debt, suggesting that the current debt is likely much lower than the next best state.
What is so eerie about DeSantis paying off 36% of Florida’s debt is that over the exact same time frame, the federal government has accrued exactly 36% of its entire outstanding debt just since 2019. The Congressional Budget Office just raised its projection for the fiscal year 2024 annual budget deficits from $1.5 trillion to $1.9 trillion. That’s 6.7% of GDP, which is astounding given the high level of revenue the Treasury is taking in and the lack of an official recession.
And get this, guys, the man didn’t stop there. Despite his state having a $17 billion budget surplus for 2024-2025, DeSantis decided to use his line-item veto power to further slash 450 additional appropriations that were worth a total of $854.6 million from the budget that was already passed by the GOP in the state legislature. Where was this cash originally headed? State bureaucracies.
That’s a big “W” in my book.
Local media has savaged the governor for cutting state arts funding, but prioritizing police, national guard, and hurricane response is more important. Florida’s focus on taxes and spending has led to the best state economy in the country, with 21.9% GDP growth since 2019, nearly twice the national rate. DeSantis achieved the lowest debt per capita and the second-lowest tax burden in the country.
“DeSantis didn’t just cut small-ticket woke priorities or the arts; he achieved significant savings on welfare programs. Casey DeSantis spearheaded Hope Florida, which combined state resources with local charities to help 30,000 people move off food stamps or cash welfare, saving the state hundreds of millions. Instead of handing out welfare checks without follow-up, Hope Florida retooled state welfare agencies to work with private charities in each county, steering people toward long-term private solutions,” Horowitz wrote in the article.
The Florida Republican also chunked back a huge amount of cash on Medicaid while deterring illegal immigration in the US. He did this by signing SB 1718 into law, which requires Medicaid-accepting hospitals to ask patients about their legal status. This, according to Politico, led to a massive 54 percent decrease in Medicaid expenditures for the Florida Emergency Medical Assistance program serving illegal migrants, which showcases how effective enforcement and deterrence really is when it comes to stopping this kind of activity.
“The governor’s policies have also shifted the state’s political culture to the right. Republicans now have an edge in voter registration of nearly 1 million, compared to a slight Democrat edge when DeSantis was elected,” Horowitz noted.
Again, there’s so much more to this that I can’t even begin to put it all down here without this bad boy going thousands of words long. With all of that being said, the question should be repeated. Why aren’t other governors taking a cue from DeSantis?
Just chew on that for awhile.