Ron DeSantis sounds off on federal debt deal

DeSantis NF Face
'This is not a deal that's going to get the job done.'

Even as the House of Representatives has agreed on a deal to lift the federal debt ceiling through the end of next year, with the Senate expected to follow shortly, presidential candidate Ron DeSantis maintains staunch opposition to the debt deal.

Addressing a crowd in Manchester, New Hampshire Thursday evening, the Florida Governor fulminated about rampant federal spending, and repeated his contention that the accord wouldn’t stop the country from “careening toward bankruptcy.”

But it’s not just the GOP’s usual suspect, President Joe Biden, who earned DeSantis’ ire — it was also his chief 2024 opposition, former President Donald Trump.

“We should have 55 Republican Senators instead of 49 Republican Senators,” DeSantis said, in remarks implicitly critical of Trump, who backed various candidates many believe were unelectable.

“A lot of those were winnable races. A lot of those were flubbed,” DeSantis added. “Maybe the deal would have been good if we had 55 Republican Senators. But we don’t. We have 49.”

DeSantis went on to explain why he believes the deal is a loser.

“It did not solve the problem. In fact, it’s green lighting $4 trillion in new debt for the rest of Biden’s administration. It’s locking in COVID-era levels of spending, which are so much more inflated than what we should be spending,” DeSantis said.

“And even those 87,000 new IRS agents that Biden put in that all Republicans have said they wanted to get rid of, it only reduces those by 2%. So this is not a deal that’s going to get the job done.”

DeSantis said that what looks like the latest influx of deficit spending is more fiscal “nonsense” from the nation’s capital.

“If you look at the nonsense that’s gone on over the last many years, you wonder what is going on. Look at the fiscal and economic policies we’ve seen over these last few years, they’re printing trillions of dollars, they’re borrowing trillions of dollars, they’re spending trillions upon trillions of dollars,” DeSantis said.

“Of course you’re going to spark inflation. Of course you’re going to end up sparking economic problems when you do that.”

The Governor made similar comments Wednesday in Iowa.

“It took us almost 200 years to get to $4 trillion in debt in the first place. It locks in inflated COVID-era levels of spending, and it keeps 98% of the 87,000 new IRS agents that Joe Biden instituted,” DeSantis said in Cedar Rapids. “This is not going to solve our nation’s fiscal problems.”

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


15 comments

  • Dr. Franklin Waters

    June 2, 2023 at 12:09 am

    So Ron DeSantis is a deadbeat who doesn’t think the US should pay its bills.

    Got it.

    • C. GEEE

      June 2, 2023 at 7:06 am

      Agree…

    • Lex

      June 2, 2023 at 10:21 am

      Seriously, no one is saying not to pay bills. What they are saying is to stop spending money you don’t have to create new bills. There are trillions of good ideas out there that might help people, but the government only has so much money. Everyone else in the world, government, company, or individual needs to live within a budget. Why is the US different?

      • Dr. Franklin Waters

        June 2, 2023 at 10:34 am

        “Everyone else in the world, government, company, or individual needs to live within a budget. Why is the US different?”

        Glad you asked! Maybe you’ll learn something today.

        The rest of the world doesn’t have a backasswards tax system that puts a disproportionate amount of the tax burden on the poor and middle class. In other countries, the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share. They aren’t given corporate welfare at the expense of people you and I.

        And that’s why every other developed country in the world can actually afford things like heathcare for all and a basic social safety net.

        I’ve said this a million times before:

        If you’re NOT a multi-millionaire and a Republican, you’re a SUCKER.

        • C. GEEE

          June 2, 2023 at 2:34 pm

          Great comment.

      • C. GEEE

        June 2, 2023 at 2:32 pm

        If the rich paid their fair share….the US would be able to pay their bills. This is what other countries do and sure seems to work for them.

  • Michael K

    June 2, 2023 at 1:08 am

    DeSantis would deliberately throw the US and world economy into chaos just to achieve what exactly? Like Trump, everything he touches seems to turns to crap. Any toddler can throw a tantrum and break things.

    And BTW. the US is not, cannot, and will not go ‘bankrupt.’ Just a scare tactic and excuse to cut Social Security, Medicare and the safety net while showering the wealthy with tax cuts.

    • Copyleft

      June 2, 2023 at 7:24 am

      DeSantis and Trump are competing to show who will be best at demolishing the country. Apparently that’s what Republicans want.

  • SteveHC

    June 2, 2023 at 2:02 am

    “This is not going to solve our nation’s fiscal problems.” Neither would Ron DeSantis.

  • C. GEEE

    June 2, 2023 at 7:05 am

    But DeSantis doesn’t refuse the Fed money….does he? It was Fed money that paid for his “stunt” to fly migrants out of Texas….guess he could not find any in Fl? If he is this irresponsible to waste taxpayer money on his “stunt”……who in the country would vote for him?

    The Treasury Department’s internal watchdog is investigating whether Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis improperly used federal pandemic aid to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard as part of his effort to “transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations.”

    At issue is whether millions of dollars in interest earned on State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, disbursed through the American Rescue Plan, was used to facilitate the transport of about 50 Venezuelans from Texas to Massachusetts in mid-September, with a stopover in Florida on the way.

  • Linda

    June 2, 2023 at 8:10 am

    DeSantis would have been a better leader if he had gotten an MBA or a Master’s in Economics rather than studying the Founding Fathers and becoming a lawyer. He throws around terms like “bankruptcy” and wastes money like he doesn’t understand finance very well.

    • Mr. Haney

      June 2, 2023 at 11:28 am

      I have seen no evidence that DeSantis understands anything very well.

  • Brian

    June 2, 2023 at 10:31 am

    I believe it was republicans who just totally suspended the debt ceiling when they had the chance to do so. So more GOP reps would not have fixed anything only removed the obstacle to limited debt acceleration.

  • Mr. Haney

    June 2, 2023 at 11:27 am

    What exactly would DeSantis know about a job?

  • MH/Duuuval

    June 2, 2023 at 12:20 pm

    We can thank Ron in large part for the GOP majority in the US House via reapportionment fraud.

Comments are closed.


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