As a member of Congress, Ron DeSantis voted against providing federal financial assistance to New York and New Jersey after Superstorm Sandy. Now, as governor of Florida, he's all for delivering federal money to his state.
A little dose of hypocrisy is nothing new in politics. But DeSantis' rise to political stardom since becoming governor has been characterized by an unusual level of indulgence in free-lunch politics. And his ability to position himself as a culture warrior reflects not just political savvy (though he surely has that) but a set of fortuitous circumstances that has allowed him to mostly avoid the hard parts of governing, such as setting priorities and making trade-offs.
His little adventure sending a charter plane to Texas to take Venezuelan asylum-seekers to Massachusetts is a case in point. It was clever in terms of raising the salience of an issue that is bad for Democrats. And it was very clever in terms of injecting DeSantis into a story that has nothing to do with him.
But most governors would hesitate to incur this level of expense for something that even its admirers concede is just a political stunt. After all, who wants to hear that the state highway through town isn't getting repaved because the governor spent the transportation money on charter flights from San Antonio to Martha's Vineyard?
But DeSantis didn't need to face any trade-offs, because he was able to use funds sent by the federal government for state and local government assistance under the American Rescue Plan. The cash even went to a plane charter company that donates to Florida Republicans, making it a win-win for everyone involved.
It is hard to fault a governor for making use of funds that are available to him. But it's worth emphasizing that DeSantis vocally opposed the American Rescue Plan — especially the state and local relief money, which he characterized as "designed basically to bail out the poorly governed states."
And this has been the story of much of his tenure: He bashes big government while benefiting from its largesse. His attacks on "woke indoctrination" in the state's schools have been paired with generous pay increases to the very teachers who are its agents. While denouncing President Joe Biden's spending as contributing to inflation, he's using federal money to send stimulus checks to Florida families, which he says will help them cope with inflation.
A new style of populist conservative politics that focuses on right-wing cultural themes while being generous with disaster relief, teacher pay and direct cash payments to needy families would be an interesting development. To make it a reality, however, conservatives would need to revise their traditional hostility to taxes. DeSantis hasn't done that at all. While raising spending he's also cutting taxes, taking advantage of the strong economy to run irresponsible pro-cyclical fiscal policy.
