South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
For DeSantis, a big stage demands a bold new agenda
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ second inaugural address Tuesday will attract greater attention far beyond Florida because of his undeclared but overt campaign for president.
From now on, everything he says and does will be scrutinized not just for what it means for our state but also for how he would campaign for the world’s most important office, and how he would govern.
His performance in Florida the past four years has been stridently and increasingly right-wing, as if calculated to compete with former President Donald Trump for the hard-core Republican voters who are the top prize in GOP primaries.
But they don’t decide a general election. Those voters will be looking for the responsibility Trump didn’t show them and that DeSantis hasn’t so far.
Conservatism, not authoritarianism
Moreover, his potential primary rivals may include other current or former governors, among them Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, Larry Hogan of Maryland and Nikki Haley of South Carolina. All of them governed conservatively without becoming authoritarians.
For his own future, as well as Florida’s, it behooves DeSantis to advance a program of constructive, compassionate conservatism in Tuesday’s address.
That isn’t an oxymoron. It means spending the public’s money — sometimes more, sometimes less — as wisely and efficiently as possible to make the citizens healthier, better educated and more secure in their communities. In economic terms, it means investing for future returns.
Here are some constructive conservative ideas that many Floridians would be pleased to hear from their governor Tuesday:
Health care. Florida should join 39 other states and the District of Columbia that have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act of 2010. They include 11 red states, such as Arkansas and West Virginia. Republican leaders understood that it would save money and lives to provide health care to people who would otherwise rely on ultracostly hospital emergency rooms that shift their losses to the insured public.
Before the pandemic and President Biden’s declaration of a public health emergency, about 3.7 million Floridians were enrolled in Medicaid, a number that has since grown to 5.6 million. Biden’s declaration brought substantial federal funds to add more people to the Medicaid rolls but they’ll be cut off if Biden lifts the emergency, as DeSantis and 23 other Republican governors want. That would take Florida back to the bad old days.
Florida is leaving an estimated $6.6 billion a year on the table, some of it paid by Florida taxpayers, by not accepting the 90% federal match for Medicaid expansion to cover more people just above the poverty line. That money would benefit Florida hospitals and health care providers.
In rejecting Medicaid expansion at the outset, Florida Republicans said they couldn’t depend on the federal government to continue the 90% match. At the time, congressional Republicans were committed to repealing Obamacare, but it didn’t happen. Obamacare is here to stay. DeSantis would gain credibility, not lose it, by calling on the Legislature to take advantage of the expansion.
Prisons. Numbers declined the past two years due to COVID-19, but they’re rising again, with 82,922 inmates. That’s still too many with too few people to guard them, even with pay raises.
Florida taxpayers still pay a terribly high price for shortsighted crackdowns that abolished parole, mandated life without parole for some nonviolent felonies and required prisoners to serve 85% of their sentences, no matter how good their behavior. Nearly half the people sentenced to state prison in fiscal 2021 had not been there before, and nearly one-fourth were there for drug offenses. Florida is long overdue for a comprehensive study of savings, in human capital and money, from easing those policies and by restoring parole as some legislators have proposed. DeSantis should make this happen.
DeSantis would have solid conservative support for this. Criminal justice reform is a priority of Americans for Prosperity, which applauded Attorney General Merrick Garland for instructing U.S. attorneys to treat powdered cocaine favored by wealthy users the same as crack cocaine used by poor ones.
Sex Trafficking. This is one category of crime where the laws may be too lenient and their enforcers too lax. As the Sun Sentinel reported in its four-part series Innocence Sold, Florida hotels are getting away with violating a 2019 law that requires them to fight human trafficking. Every first violation should be fined the maximum, with zero tolerance for a second. The state itself contributes to the problem by placing troubled teenagers in privatized group homes where pimps easily find them. So far, legislative leaders sound more concerned than the governor is. With his job comes the responsibility.
Sex trafficking of minors is infinitely more serious than whether parents can take children under 18 to a racy drag show. The people of Florida would love to hear from their governor Tuesday that he’s now willing to get his priorities right.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.