by Andrew Powell
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday that he is calling for constitutional reforms to hold leadership in Washington D.C. accountable for the crisis Americans face due to weak border policies and unchecked spending.
The second-term GOP governor and former presidential candidate is calling for a balanced federal budget, congressional term limits, laws being made equally applicable for citizens and members of Congress and line-item veto authority for the president.
“One thing that Florida has always taken the lead on… is holding Washington accountable. At the end of the day, you look at what’s going on in D.C., and the results are always very poor,” DeSantis said, adding that those in Washington are not “doing the business of the American people” and are focused on their interests.
The four resolutions proposed by DeSantis would call an Article V Convention of the States to amend the U.S. Constitution. One of the two already filed would require a balanced federal budget. At the same time, another would mandate term limits for Congress.
Two proposed by DeSantis and legislative leaders but still need to be filed include one that would give the president line-item veto power for all appropriations bills. The last resolution would require Congress to abide by the laws it passes.
House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, says that Florida has proven that a balanced budget amendment and term limits work.
“That’s why we’ve passed resolutions urging Congress to enact them on the federal level,” Renner said. “We will pass additional resolutions that support amendments prohibiting Congress from excluding its members from any law it passes and giving the President of the United States line-item veto authority on the federal budget.
“It’s time Congress tries things the Florida Way.”
DeSantis stated that the recent border proposal is nothing more than a farce. He noted that President Joe Biden could close the southern border if he wanted to but instead continue to fuel the problem further.
DeSantis pointed out that Biden fueled the border crisis intentionally. As a result, he says Islamic terror group members who are also making their way across the border.
“So what do they do in Washington? They create a proposal that says he [Biden] can shut down the border once there are more than 5,000 illegals a day. Why would you wanna codify that and allow that, that’s almost over 2 million illegals a year that you’re just authorizing effectively.” DeSantis said.
DeSantis stated that Biden wants to continue giving illegal aliens benefits and that doing this will only exacerbate the problem.
“Just think about where we are fiscally in this country, from 1789 to the year 2000, this country racked up about $5.6 trillion in debt… That was 211 years to do $5.6 trillion. Today, in 2024, we are $34 trillion in debt.” DeSantis said.
According to DeSantis, the majority of that debt was acquired over the past decade, and despite the vast amount of spending, there is little to show for it.
“Washington’s never going to reform itself, it’s gonna require us working in our individual states using the tools that the Founding Fathers gave us to be able to take power away from D.C., and return it back to the American people to make sure the incentives are to produce good government,” DeSantis said.
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Andrew Powell is a contributor to The Center Square.
Photo “Ron DeSantis” by Ron DeSantis.
