Saturday, October 1, 2022

Ron DeSantis Changes His Position on Disaster Aid, Now that Florida Needs the Help.

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“New Reps. Ron DeSantis, Ted Yoho vote against Hurricane Sandy aid”, Jan. 4, 2013, Alex Leary | Times Washington bureau chief, Tampa Bay Times, at <https://www.tampabay.com/content/new-reps-ron-desantis-ted-yoho-vote-against-hurricane-sandy-aid/2104196>

Ron DeSantis changes with the wind as Hurricane Ian prompts flip-flop on aid”, September 30, 2022, Martin Pengelly, The Guardian, at <https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ron-desantis-changes-with-the-wind-as-hurricane-ian-prompts-flip-flop-on-aid/ar-AA12rSB4?rc=1&ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=bfce162e6e3e40f38ceb98e1385ca2e3


Voices: Ron DeSantis doesn’t think federal funds should be used for hurricane relief — except in Florida”, Sept 30, 2022, Opinion by Skylar Baker-Jordan, The Independent, at <https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/voices-ron-desantis-doesn-t-think-federal-funds-should-be-used-for-hurricane-relief-except-in-florida/ar-AA12s0qU?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=4565e6280d1c484ea0a9b8d63064e506>


Did Rubio and DeSantis vote against Hurricane Sandy aid?”, September 30, 2022, Amy Sherman, Politifact, (this selection consists of excerpts, not the entire article), at <https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/sep/30/yuh-line-niou/did-rubio-and-desantis-vote-against-hurricane-sand/>


3 Full Articles that point out his hypocrisy and, in addition, excerpts from a Fact Check by PoliticFact

~~ recommended by dmorista ~~


Introduction by dmorista:


Ron DeSantis, the current governor of Florida, is now in the position of asking for financial and substantive assistance from the Federal Government.  Of course, in keeping with his snake in the grass political and personal traits, he is a total hypocrite in this area.  He is on the record opposing Federal Assistance to New York and New Jersey in 2013, after the damage they suffered from SuperStorm Sandy in 2012.  This occurred  while he was a freshman far-right Tea Party aligned member of the U.S. House of Representatives, just a day after he was sworn-in.  He even delivered some standard boilerplate right-wing rhetoric on the subject when he spoke about opposing the Federal help for the largely Democratic Party controlled region.  He along with 66 other Republicans voted against a resolution to provide $9.7 billion to keep FEMA from running out of funds. Then later he voted against the $50.5 Billion Federal Aid package for NY and NJ.  That was the first time ever that a significant number of members of Congress voted against a federal disaster recovery measure.


As a recent New York Times article pointed out:


“As a freshman congressman in 2013, Ron DeSantis was unambiguous: A federal bailout for the New York region after Hurricane Sandy was an irresponsible boondoggle, a symbol of the “put it on the credit card mentality” he had come to Washington to oppose.

“ 'I sympathize with the victims,' he said. But his answer was no.   ….

“In 2017, as he was poised to run for governor, Mr. DeSantis supported an aid package after Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria as places like Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico strained to recover.  ….

“Some Northeastern lawmakers, including Republicans, have not forgotten how Mr. DeSantis and some of his peers responded when the New York area was under duress. 'Year after year, we had given them billions of dollars,' said Peter King, a former Republican congressman from Long Island, alluding to aid packages for Southern states and calling the resistance to Sandy relief his angriest moment in office. 'Every one of them comes to New York to raise money. They either go to the Hamptons or they go to Manhattan. And both areas were devastated by Sandy.(Emphasis added)

“This week, Mr. DeSantis said he was 'thankful' for the Biden administration’s efforts so far, moving to place himself in the tradition of above-the-fray leadership from past Florida governors who negotiated catastrophic weather events on their watch.”

(See, “DeSantis, Once a ‘No’ on Storm Aid, Petitions a President He’s Bashed”, Sept. 29, 2022, Matt Flegenheimer, New York Times, at < https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/29/us/politics/desantis-biden-hurricane-ian-aid.html >)

The spectacle of this far-right demagogue, the Governor of the extremely disaster-prone State of Florida, being pilloried by Liberal Media for his hypocrisy is an interesting development. We should note that Florida has been the beneficiary of a wide variety of Federal Subsidies as it grew from a population of 2.77 million in 1950 to 22 million today,  The development and growth of various parts of the Sunbelt, starting in California in the 1920s and accelerating after WW 2 across the South and Southwest, saw one of the most massive transfers of wealth in U.S. history.  The Interstate Highway System, the massive ongoing military spending, the growth of the computer industry and aerospace production, the development of a national trucking industry, and the construction of the massive systems of dams, aqueducts, and reservoirs in the West are just some of the immense expenditures made by the Federal Government.  These programs were largely funded by taxpayers in the Northeast, Great Lakes, and Midwestern regions but that mostly benefited the South, West, and Southwest. To a large extent the Confederacy, that was militarily defeated over 150 years ago, in the end won the peace and the political processes that followed.

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https://www.tampabay.com/content/new-reps-ron-desantis-ted-yoho-vote-against-hurricane-sandy-aid/2104196/

New Reps. Ron DeSantis, Ted Yoho vote against Hurricane Sandy aid

 

Jan. 4, 2013, Alex Leary | Times Washington bureau chief, Tampa Bay Times

The House today overwhelmingly passed a bill providing $9.7 billion in flood insurance aid for Hurricane Sandy victims. All 67 votes against the aid came from Republicans, including Florida Reps. Ron DeSantis and Ted Yoho, both whom (sic) were sworn in yesterday.  (Emphasis Added)

All other Florida reps. joined the majority.

"I sympathize with the victims of Hurricane Sandy and believe that those who purchased flood insurance should have their claims paid. At the same time, allowing the program to increase its debt by another $9.7 billion with no plan to offset the spending with cuts elsewhere is not fiscally responsible," DeSantis said in a statement.   

"Congress should not authorize billions in new borrowing without offsetting expenditures in other areas. If a family maxes out its credit cards and faces the need for new spending, it is forced to prioritize by reducing its spending in other areas. Here, Congress has failed even to attempt to identify reductions in nonessential spending. This 'put it on the credit card mentality' is part of the reason we find ourselves nearly $17 trillion in debt. Indeed, the Senate passed legislation that went in the opposite direction by stuffing a bill designed to aid storm victims on the northeast corridor with money for such extraneous matters as fisheries in Alaska. The storm occurred more than two months ago and it is sad that Congress has not used that time to find room in the budget for needed disaster relief."   (Emphasis Added)

The Club for Growth was urging members to vote no. "As we have said in a previous key vote alert, the proper way to address disaster relief is to release the funds in installments to make sure the resources are spent wisely. They should also strip out all immaterial line items, and fully offset all expenditures with spending cuts elsewhere. Serious reform would also include a way for the states to take over the responsibility for future disaster relief funding so that accountability is more localized."

The bill goes now to the Senate. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio already voted against a larger version of the aid package.

UPDATE: It passed the Senate by voice voice. Rubio's office said he supported the "clean" funding package. The bigger version, which will come up for a vote later this month in the House, has items critics describe as political pork.

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“Ron DeSantis changes with the wind as Hurricane Ian prompts flip-flop on aid”, September 30, 2022, Martin Pengelly, The Guardian, at < https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ron-desantis-changes-with-the-wind-as-hurricane-ian-prompts-flip-flop-on-aid/ar-AA12rSB4?rc=1&ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=bfce162e6e3e40f38ceb98e1385ca2e3 >  


As Hurricane Ian has devastated parts of Florida, the national political spotlight in America has shone brighter than ever on Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor, rising star of the hard right and likely presidential contender in 2024.



Since his election in 2018, DeSantis has made his name as a ruthless culture-warrior as he has become both an ally to Trump and perhaps his most serious rival in any presidential nomination contest.


DeSantis has embraced an extremist agenda, on everything from immigration to election integrity, positioning himself as Trumpist on policy but more mainstream on personality and temperament. He has championed “don’t say gay” legislation in Florida schools and this month used taxpayers’ money to send a planeload of migrants from the southern border in Texas to Massachusetts, a Democratic-run state.


That last move prompted a blizzard of anger and indignation. The transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, said DeSantis was “hurting people in order to get attention”. But such opprobrium did not deter a governor playing to a Trumpist base. For his next move, DeSantis suggested, he would send his next planeload of unsuspecting asylum seekers to Delaware, where Joe Biden has a weekend home.

But then Hurricane Ian hit. And like ambitious Republicans before him – most famously Chris Christie of New Jersey, whose photo ops with Barack Obama after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 were reckoned to have hurt him in the 2016 primary – DeSantis realised he needed to talk to the president.

On Wednesday, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked: “Given how politicised things are at the moment, are you confident you’re gonna get the federal support?” 

DeSantis said: “So I actually spoke with the president and he said he wants to be helpful. So we did submit a request for reimbursement for the next 60 days at 100%. That’s significant, but it’s a significant storm.” 

“… We live in a very politicised time, but you know, when people are fighting for their lives, when their whole livelihood is at stake, when they’ve lost everything, if you can’t put politics aside for that, that you’re just not going to be able to do so.

“So I’ll work with anybody who wants to help the people of south-west Florida and throughout our state.”

Critics were quick to point back to Hurricane Sandy, which battered the east coast 10 years ago, and how DeSantis approached the matter of federal aid then.

DeSantis was elected to Congress in November 2012, becoming a founder member of the Freedom Caucus, the far-right House group which would morph into the nest of Trump supporters and election deniers it constitutes today.

Sandy hit in late October, unusually far north, bringing chaos to New Jersey and New York and leading to more than 100 US deaths. Months later, in January 2013, DeSantis was one of 67 Republicans to vote against a $9.7bn federal aid package for Sandy victims.

He said then: “I sympathise with the victims of Hurricane Sandy and believe that those who purchased flood insurance should have their claims paid. At the same time, allowing the program to increase its debt by another $9.7bn with no plan to offset the spending with cuts elsewhere is not fiscally responsible.

 

“Congress should not authorise billions in new borrowing without offsetting expenditures in other areas. If a family maxes out its credit cards and faces the need for new spending, it is forced to prioritize by reducing its spending in other areas … this ‘put it on the credit card mentality’ is part of the reason we find ourselves nearly $17tn in debt.”   (Emphasis Added)

Times change. Now DeSantis – who budgeted $12m, from federal Covid relief funds, for efforts to move migrants to Democratic states – is facing “one of the biggest flood events we’ve ever had” and knows he needs federal help.

“Dear Mr President,” his formal aid request began. “I request that you issue a Major Disaster Declaration for the State of Florida as a result of Hurricane Ian and authorise and make available all categories of individual assistance and public assistance.”

Ironically, in light of his comparison of aid for Sandy victims to irresponsible home economics, DeSantis also said that as Ian would “hamper local activity … federal aid through the Individuals and Households Program will help alleviate these household budget shortfalls”.

Reporters noticed. Responding to the New York Times, a spokesperson said DeSantis was “completely focused on hurricane response” and added: “As the governor said earlier, we have no time for politics or pettiness.”

Late-night comedians, however, had plenty of time for pointing out DeSantis’s hypocrisy – and pettiness.

Stephen Colbert, host of The Late Show on CBS, perhaps put it most pithily: “If you can, get out of the storm’s path. Worst-case scenario, tell Ron DeSantis you’re Venezuelan, maybe he’ll fly you to Martha’s Vineyard.”Florida needs?”

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Voices: Ron DeSantis doesn’t think federal funds should be used for hurricane relief — except in Florida”, Sept 30, 2022, Opinion by Skylar Baker-Jordan, The Independent, at < https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/voices-ron-desantis-doesn-t-think-federal-funds-should-be-used-for-hurricane-relief-except-in-florida/ar-AA12s0qU?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=4565e6280d1c484ea0a9b8d63064e506 >


Death and destructions are not the only things Hurricane Ian brought to Florida this week. Along with the storm surge and high winds which devastated the southwestern portion of the Sunshine State, Governor Ron DeSantis’ chickens have also come home to roost.



The man who first made his name in Congress by opposing hurricane relief is now begging the federal government to bail out his state. In doing so, he’s providing a timely reminder to the American people as to why Republicans — and DeSantis specifically — cannot be trusted to govern this great country.

First, let’s state what should go without saying: Floridians need and deserve our help. Following tornadoes in the western portion of Kentucky last year and flooding in the eastern part this year, I condemned liberals who suggested my home state “reaped what it sowed” by voting for the likes of Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul. Florida is no exception. The people there, regardless of politics, are human beings and our fellow Americans. We have a moral and patriotic duty to come to their aid.

Yet, there was one thing those Twitter liberals got right: their criticism of McConnell and Paul. They too have opposed disaster relief for other (Democratic) areas. Indeed, Republicans seem to only care about Americans when they’re in red states. That’s despicable.

Florida’s answer to these heartless and calculating politicians is, of course, Ron DeSantis. We know just how cruel he can be – this is the man who ‘kidnapped’ refugees and flew them halfway across the country just this month. But DeSantis has always shown his true colors, going back to his earliest days as a Tea Party congressman.

In January 2013, the newly elected Congressman DeSantis opposed a $9.7 billion flood insurance aid package to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy in New York and New Jersey. Though he expressed sympathy for the victims, he said that “allowing the program to increase its debt by another $9.7 billion with no plan to offset the spending with cuts elsewhere is not fiscally responsible.” In short, DeSantis was sorry for what happened, but not enough to help. His response was basically the equivalent of a shrug emoji.

Fast forward nine-and-a-half years. Now-Governor DeSantis wants the federal government to pick up 100 percent of the cost for debris removal and emergency protective measures for the 60 days following the hurricane. Yet when people bring up his hypocrisy, the governor’s spokesman says that “we have no time for politics or pettiness.”    (Emphasis Added)

It isn’t politics or pettiness to point out a glaring double-standard, one that seems to prove Republicans are incapable of caring for anyone but themselves. Nor is it petty to point out that Florida — a state governed by Republicans since 1999 and in which Republicans control both houses of the legislature — is in the midst of an insurance crisis.

Since the beginning of 2020, ABC News reports, “at least a dozen insurance companies in the state have gone out of business, including six this year alone.” A further 30 are being watched by the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation “because of financial instability.” Meanwhile, the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corporation — created as a last resort for desperate homeowners — has seen the number of policies it underwrites more than double since 2020.

The problems facing Florida’s homeowners are compounded by the shockingly low levels of flood insurance in a state barely above sea level. The New York Times reports that in the counties under an evacuation order for Hurricane Ian, only 18.5 percent of homes are covered through the National Flood Insurance Program. Of those, only 47.3 percent of homes inside government-designated floodplains have flood insurance, while outside of the area designated a floodplain by the NFIP — areas still very likely to have been damaged by the storm surge — only about 9.4 percent have flood insurance.

Ian, like Sandy in 2012, was more of a flood event than a wind event. As such, traditional homeowners’ and even hurricane insurance is unlikely to cover much of the damage. Those without flood insurance will be left to foot the bill to recover and rebuild, or to rely on the government for assistance.

In fairness, not all of this is DeSantis’ fault. He can’t control the fact that Florida is susceptible to hurricanes, nor can he control whether people have flood insurance or national insurers do business in the state. I’m also not inclined to blame him for the rampant litigation and insurance fraud in the state.

But it’s worth noting that insurance premiums more than doubled during DeSantis’ term. Former governor Charlie Crist, who is DeSantis’ Democratic opponent in his race for reelection, pointed out that “Floridians now pay the highest property insurance premiums in the country.”

Despite a new law allocating $2 billion to a reinsurance fund, which Bankrate says “can help home insurance companies share risk, which lessens the likelihood that any one company will become insolvent,” the damage from Hurricane Ian is likely to far exceed what that reinsurance fund can handle. It’s no surprise, then, that DeSantis is looking to Washington — and to President Biden, a man he routinely denigrates and insults — to bail his state out.

Washington and President Biden should and, I expect, will do just that — because unlike Ron DeSantis, Joe Biden is a decent man. He doesn’t play politics with people’s lives and homes the way DeSantis has done from quite literally the moment he first entered Congress. Biden will help Florida, not because it is politically beneficial to him, but because it is the right thing to do.

DeSantis will, no doubt, try to take credit for that. We should not let him. The man has shown us who he is time and again. The only reason he is advocating federal aid in this disaster is because it’s his own state, one which will suffer immense economic and humanitarian harm without it. Had this hurricane hit a blue state, though, DeSantis would probably be demanding we let our fellow citizens fend for themselves.

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Did Rubio and DeSantis vote against Hurricane Sandy aid?”,

September 30, 2022, Amy Sherman, Politifact, (this selection consists of excerpts, not the entire article), at <https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/sep/30/yuh-line-niou/did-rubio-and-desantis-vote-against-hurricane-sand/>


“When Hurricane Ian hit Florida, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican, joined Florida’s full congressional delegation in signing a letter to President Joe Biden seeking a major disaster declaration, which allows for temporary aid. Gov. Ron DeSantis, also a Republican, sent Biden a similar letter

“The requests from the Republicans for help from a Democratic president and administration prompted many Twitter users to suggest that Rubio and DeSantis are hypocrites. They said the Republicans opposed federal relief for New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy battered those states in 2012.

“ 'Just a reminder to New York … Marco Rubio and Ron DeSantis (who was then in Congress) voted against aid for Hurricane Sandy. But because we are New York, we care about everyone,' tweeted Yuh-Line Niou, a Democrat who represents areas of Manhattan in the New York Assembly. 'Even when they don’t care about us.'    ….

“Hurrianne (sic) Sandy made landfall Oct. 29, 2012, and devastated portions of the East Coast, including New York and New Jersey.

“The path to passing a relief package was slower than after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005.  ….

“Then-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, sought to divide the relief funding. FEMA warned that it would run out of money in January if Congress didn’t provide additional borrowing authority to pay claims. The first vote, a $9.7 billion measure, passed the House Jan. 4.   ….


“DeSantis, a newly sworn-in congressman, was one of 67 House Republicans who voted against the bill.    ….


“The second part of the disaster relief, a bill for $50.5 billion, passed the Senate Jan. 28, 2013, 62-36 largely along party lines. Rubio voted against the bill and DeSantis voted against the measure that passed in the House. Obama signed it into law.   ….


“Until Sandy, disaster spending prompted little acrimony, Ellis* said. Sometimes, there were quibbles about continued appropriations for a period after a disaster, such as subsequent appropriations for Hurricane Katrina, but not much.

“ 'This changed with Sandy because of two things: One, it affected primarily the ‘blue’ states of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, and two, it came right on the heels of fiscal conservative pushes.'

“DeSantis and some of the other Republicans who voted against Sandy relief later would form the Freedom Caucus, which often sought to block Democratic budget deals.”

(*Steve Ellis, president of the government spending watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.)


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