Ron DeSantis had a message for supporters and bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., during a telephone town hall on Monday night should the Florida governor win the Republican presidential nomination and defeat Joe Biden in the 2024 election: Buckle up, a lot of changes will be made.
DeSantis outlined his ambitious agenda to donors during the town hall, including ending the weaponization of the federal government, securing the U.S. southern border, bringing back fiscal responsibility and reigning in the Federal Reserve. He did not mention former President Donald Trump, his chief rival for the GOP nomination.
DeSantis said there is no accountability in the administrative state because Congress continues to fund these agencies year after year, "so it's basic nature that power will be abused."
"This is a mass, mass abuse of power," DeSantis said. "We will have a new FBI director on Day One [of his administration]. We will reduce the footprint of all federal agencies by 50% inside Washington. The culture has really gone downhill. It has been infected by Washington politics and Washington is 95% Democrat."
He said he will use Article II of the Constitution to wield his authority over the executive branch by firing people who abuse their power and those who leak confidential material, such as grand jury testimony. He said he would have the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division police the civil rights of all Americans, no matter their race, pointing to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that could be used to discriminate on basis of race. He said he also would have the DOJ and FBI enforce violations of election law and hold people accountable for voter fraud.
Regarding immigration, DeSantis said it should not be an issue to have a border in this country.
"We will declare a national emergency on the border," he said. "We will build a border wall and stop mass migration into the United States. We can't obviously accept that. Hold Mexico accountable and hold Mexican drug cartels accountable. We're going to be focused and diligent in ensuring we end the problem at our southern border."
DeSantis said the coronavirus pandemic is the reason Americans have dealt with such high inflation over the past two years, especially given the trillions of dollars the federal government spent.
"You just can't do that, and not have negative economic ramifications," he said. "Because if you could do it, then just crank the printing presses. So, fiscal responsibility and getting this budget under control are important.
"Now what I've done in Florida is actually wield the veto power to reduce spending. So, I vetoed 3% of the budget in this current fiscal year. We're going through this year's budget; I will not have to veto that much because they kept a lot of the big-ticket items out that was pork because they knew I would veto it. And so that's good. And we're in really good shape in Florida. "
He said the Federal Reserve needs to be reigned in because it acts as an economic central planner, and "you can't economically centrally plan an economy as big as ours."
"It's a fatal conceit that you can even do that," he said. "I think you create a lot of problems as a result of trying to do that. The job, and I think the Fed should be audited, but the job should just be to ensure that we have a stable dollar and stable currency."
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