DeSantis uses our money for his personal goals. And he still claims to be a conservative? | Opinion
Fiscal conservatives, this should set off alarm bells: Florida’s governor can now spend $10 million of our money to continue ferrying migrants around the country.
Is this really what Gov. Ron DeSantis — elected to the job of managing the state, not being head of Border Patrol — should be doing? Taking our hard-earned dollars and using them to move migrants not just in our own state, but anywhere?
Incredibly, that’s what is happening. A bill approved by the Legislature during the special session last week and signed into law by DeSantis on Wednesday allows him to take a sizable chunk of our money and use it to relocate migrants from Florida and other states to so-called “sanctuary” areas. It’ll mean more flights like one he authorized in September, flying about 50 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
We’re still trying to sort out the bills from that one. Even so, the Legislature had little problem giving the governor even more leeway to fly human beings around the United States brazenly on our dime, more proof that no one in this equation is being a good steward of our money.
Maybe you believe the Southern border is too porous. Fine. But the solution isn’t taking one state’s money and using it on what is surely nothing more than an empty gesture, simply to give the governor more headlines.
The last time we checked, our border was with Georgia and Alabama. The national border is not the responsibility of the governor. Worse, he’s sticking us with the bill.
It’s part of a growing pattern in Florida. The governor pushes for laws and actions, usually things within our actual borders, that are bound to be tied up in the courts, but that doesn’t seem to matter. We pay the costs while he gets the publicity, all in his single-minded drive for the Republican nomination.
In a Twitter post, DeSantis said that, “Florida is using all tools available to protect our citizens from [President] Biden’s open-border policies.” By “all tools,” he apparently meant “your money.”
The next time you complain about the mismanagement of federal money, look closer to home. DeSantis may call himself a conservative, but when it comes to using our money for his personal goals, he’s mighty liberal.
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This story was originally published February 16, 2023 at 5:21 PM.