A.G. Gancarski
Gov. Ron DeSantis is spotlighting a drop in America’s credit rating and blaming “frivolous” federal spending via the CARES Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.
“Fitch Ratings’ downgrade of the nation’s credit rating from AAA to AA+ is a result of frivolous spending and ballooning national debt for programs like the CARES and “Inflation Reduction” Acts,” DeSantis tweeted.
“Florida’s AAA rating remains the standard-bearer, serving as the nation’s blueprint for fiscal responsibility. In Florida, we have run large budget surpluses and have paid off nearly 25% of the state debt. National economic decline is a choice.”
However, billions of dollars worth of that cash went to the Sunshine State, and the Governor made no moves to return it to the federal government.
The office of Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis noted that “the Coronavirus Relief Fund … provided $150 billion in direct assistance across the nation to State, territorial, local and Tribal governments.”
“Of this amount, the State of Florida was allocated $8.4 billion: $5.86 billion was deposited into the State Treasury as General Revenue and approximately $2.47 billion was allocated to 12 of the largest counties directly by the U.S. Treasury,” the CFO office noted. Those large counties include Brevard, Broward, Hillsborough, Duval, Lee, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Volusia counties.
The Florida Housing Finance Corporation got $250 million. Smaller Florida counties got $1.137 billion from the CARES Act as well.
Meanwhile, the Inflation Reduction Act also confers benefits to Florida, including what the White House estimates as “$62.7 billion of investment in large-scale clean power generation and storage to Florida between now and 2030.”
The White House trumpets programs related to rebates and tax credits for energy efficiency, including for small business owners and homeowners; discounts for electric vehicles; money for rural electrical cooperatives; and resiliency projects, including Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Programs to support transportation and flooding mitigation.
DeSantis was urged to return unused CARES Act money to the federal government by his immediate predecessor as Governor, meanwhile.
In 2022, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott was asked about DeSantis continuing to “deploy” COVID-19 relief funds for priorities not related to the pandemic. Scott said leaders with extra funds should return them to defray the federal debt.
“What every responsible state and local official should do is they should say ‘Hey, I’m going to send that money back. We need to pay down this $30 trillion worth of debt.’ We can’t waste money,” Scott said.
“If there’s something that we needed to do to deal with the COVID crisis, I get it,” Scott added. “But you’re sending money to states that they can spend basically any way they want, or to local governments. It makes no sense. Somebody’s going to pay that money back.”
Scott offered a similar appeal in 2021: “Send it back! We’re all American citizens. Don’t waste the money,” the Naples Republican urged on America’s Newsroom.
When rolling out the $116 million Civic Literacy Excellence Initiative in 2021 in Scott’s hometown of Naples, DeSantis suggested he had complete discretion on how to allocate the federal pot.
“We got this money dumped,” DeSantis noted in March. “I could have just spent it and said it was emergency spending.”
The Governor has taken issue with the funding formula, suggesting it has served as “a bailout for blue states, poorly managed states.” He also has described the allocation process as “Washington at its worst.” And he said before running for President that there was no point in giving the overage back to the federal government.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” said DeSantis, as reported by POLITICO Florida. “If Florida were to send the money back, (Treasury Secretary Janet) Yellen is going to send it to Illinois, California, New York or New Jersey. I don’t think that would make sense for Floridians — for us to be giving even more money to the blue states.”
11 comments
Dont Say FLA
August 2, 2023 at 3:20 pm
Rhonda says Florida’s credit downgrade is anybody and everybody’s fault except Rhonda. Rhonda never event met, um, Florida. Florida is definitely not his type.
Cut Florida Off
August 2, 2023 at 3:23 pm
This seems to be a promise that President DeSantis would cut off federal funding to Florida. If true, there is a valid reason to vote for him after all. One. Just one. Not that it will sway my vote, but I do like his idea of cutting Florida off.
TJC
August 2, 2023 at 3:34 pm
The Fitch credit rating agency said that the two main reasons for the drop in rating was 1. Congress playing down-to-the-wire debt ceiling negotiations (a Republican game), and 2. The January 6 insurrection, which highlighted the precarious nature of U.S. democracy.
The Governor does not speak for that agency when he makes up his own reasons for the downgrade. In short, our Little Man is full of it.
SteveHC
August 2, 2023 at 6:04 pm
– CORRECT. DeSantis is once again spouting utter nonsense as a thinks doing so somehow makes him more “attractive” as a political candidate and thus buys him votes lol. Quintessential bottom-feeding loser.
PeterH
August 2, 2023 at 3:40 pm
Let’s talk about “frivolous” Federal spending.
Facts first.
For every dollar the State of Florida sends to the National Treasury the State receives $3.00 in return. What does this mean? A result of Florida’s ‘no income tax status’ ….. the State of Florida is reliant upon the Federal Government for its survival. Florida is the third largest recipient of aid from the Federal Government. Florida is a dependent taker state. Our State economy is symbiotically on life support from the Federal Government. We’re considered ‘a taker state’ totally dependent on ‘blue state’ contributions for our survival.
JD
August 2, 2023 at 3:40 pm
If the state wasn’t in such a dire need (and about to be in a worse need), I would say I love the irony and hypocrisy.
DeSantis is done and the toadies that propped him up in the party ticket are going to get drug down with him the next few election cycles. Thank you for waking up the NPA’s and the rest of the country.
Amateurs. I cannot wait until the adults come back to the table after these frat boys leave. America’s governor my butt.
Tjb
August 2, 2023 at 4:50 pm
Can we keep it simple. The more DeSantis speaks, it become very clear that he should not be in any position of power.
John Lentini
August 2, 2023 at 4:53 pm
How does Rhonda Santis know better than Fitch why they downgraded? They said nothing about “frivolous spending.” They talked about the debt crisis manufactured by the MAGAts and about the political instability manufactured by the MAGAts. MAGAts did this!
Paula
August 2, 2023 at 10:16 pm
DeSantis has nothing to be upset at. I just hope people are smart enough to NOT put a check Mark next to DeSantis’s name. He will NEVER be President. I live in Florida and can’t wait till DeSantis leaves the state when he runs for re-election and gets voted OUT….
James Arthur
August 3, 2023 at 7:30 am
DeSantis acts like the funds are his own to use at his personal whim. He will not be President and hopefully will not be governor after the next election.
CKG
August 3, 2023 at 8:32 am
DeSantis has literally been wallowing in Florida taxpayers money, using it (to name only one example among many of his self-promoting publicity stunts) to effectively kidnap legal asylum seekers from Texas and transport them across state lines in order to abandon them in Martha’s Vineyard. Irresponsible, unprofessional, and corrupt. Florida really does deserve better than this, and the country certainly doesn’t need another egocentric dictator wannabe in the White House. We’re still trying to clean up after Trump.
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