9 Words Florida Is Glad to Hear
"We're from the government and we're here to help"
168 is a newsletter emailed weekly on an unscheduled basis in which I share my thoughts on various topics for the purpose of discussion. Your comments are welcome so please feel free to post them. Visit www.1hundredsixty8.substack.com to view archived newsletters.
Is there any human endeavor more pregnant with irony than politics? Perhaps I’m being too polite by describing the ambivalent positions of our elected officials as “irony” rather than hypocrisy. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is the latest example: As a freshman Congressman, he aligned himself with the policy positions of the ultra-conservatives who eventually became the House Freedom Caucus: he opposed immigration reform, the Affordable Care Act, and, of course, various spending programs. As Governor of the nation’s third most populous state, DeSantis has crafted a bullying persona, presenting himself as a tough-minded leader with strong conservative principles. But, as the kids say these days, there are always receipts:
In January 2013, DeSantis — newly elected to Florida’s 6th Congressional District, which covers Jacksonville through the north of Orlando — was one of the 67 House Republicans who voted against flood insurance assistance for victims of Hurricane Sandy, after it recently wreaked havoc on the New York-New Jersey area. (Source: FloridaPolitics.com)
As the economist Paul Samuelson once quipped, ‘“when events change, I change my mind. What do you do?“ The destructive force of Hurricane Ian as it crossed Florida from the Gulf Coast to the Atlantic last week left the state with billions of dollars in recovery costs. President Joe Biden was quick to activate the Federal government’s emergency response, but DeSantis also requested that FEMA be allowed to pick up 100% of the costs for debris removal and other emergency measures.
DeSantis wasn’t alone in this two-faced approach. Florida’s two Republican Senators, Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, requested more Federal aid. The pair sent a joint letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee Friday, bolstering their request by pointing out that “a robust and timely federal response, including through supplemental programs and funding, will be required to ensure that sufficient resources are provided to rebuild critical infrastructure and public services capacity, and to assist our fellow Floridians in rebuilding their lives.”
The irony- or hypocrisy, if you will- was that just a day earlier, both men refused to vote for a resolution to allow FEMA to use up to $15 million from the Disaster Relief Fund “to ensure that sufficient resources are provided.” Scott voted against the resolution and Rubio didn’t bother to show up for the vote. Scott was joined by the entire Republican delegation in the House also voting against it.
Scott was concerned that the legislation would include pork (unrelated spending) and the potential for fraud. The latter point is ironic to the Nth degree since while he was CEO of Columbia/HCA Healthcare, the company was investigated by the FBI, the IRS, and the Department of Health and Human Services for Medicare billing fraud. Scott was forced out as CEO and Columbia/HCA eventually paid $2 billion in fines.
Perhaps the reality is that some politicians are fond of telling people how they are opposed to “big government”- taxes, regulations, and government spending… That is unless it benefits them in some way. Irony is not dead- it’s alive and well in Washington, D.C., and state capitals.
As Rahm Emmanuel put it, a crisis is an opportunity, even if the crisis is a natural disaster.
Personal Note: We are residents of Cape Coral, FL, one of the cities hit hard by Hurricane Ian. By design, we spend most of September and October in Albuquerque, NM. mainly because we do not want to be on the Gulf Coast during hurricane season. At this point, we have no idea of what damage our first-floor condo may have suffered. It will be several weeks before we return.