DeSantis Pushes for Reform in Washington Using Article V

NAPLES, FL—In a press conference Monday morning, Gov. DeSantis outlined the "weakness" of President Biden and the desire for fiscal responsibility and holding Washington accountable.

"Weakness invites aggression, and Biden has been weak since the day he took office. He gave Iran a lifeline with massive reliefs and sanctions, of course, they're going to use that to do things like fund terrorism," DeSantis said, addressing the deaths of 3 U.S. troops at a Jordanian outpost, killed in an Iranian airstrike. "What's happened is his weakness has continued to embolden countries like Iran and terrorist groups,"

"A strong president would have that marker down that if you mess with U.S. Service members, you're going to have hell to pay.  Right now our adversaries do not believe that's the case, and so they're going to continue to do this," He continued. "I think he's been lackluster on all these issues, but the reality is our troops are in harm's way, he's inviting attacks on our troops because of his weakness, and that's wrong."

The Governor moved into the Legislature's new proposals advocating for federal term limits, a balanced budget, and holding Congressional members to the same standard as American citizens.

"The Florida Legislature is going to be certifying a series of Amendments—Constitutional reforms—under Article V of the Constitution that will rein Washington in and hold Washington accountable," DeSantis said, highlighting the importance of working with other states to reform current Washington standards. "These are the types of reforms I think the founding fathers would have looked kindly on, they recognized that states need to be able to make these kinds of proposals,"

The Governor then juxtaposed the Federal debt with the Florida debt, citing differences with political leadership and power held by the people, saying, "Today, 2024, we're $34 trillion in debt. If you look at that 34 trillion, a lot of that has been over the last 10 years. You see these things time and time again, what happens with putting the political class first, putting the American people last,"

He talked about the Florida debt's large downturn in recent years, adding, "You wouldn't be counting up, you'd be counting down. We've run surpluses, we've cut taxes every year, we have paid down a large portion of the debt."

"California, they're running like a $60 billion deficit, Illinois is financially insolvent basically, New York, they have millions fewer people than we do in Florida, now, and yet their budget is twice the size of our budget," DeSantis said, comparing Democrat-run states to Florida. "And yet if you look, we have better infrastructure, roads, services, and education. Where is all that money going?"

"Our state government per capita—the number of state employees—is the lowest in America," He added, "So we're doing these things with a small footprint, and respecting taxpayers, and making sure that the state is solvent for the long haul,"

DeSantis wrapped up, urging Florida to work with other states to reform Washington, and his projection that Florida will have "a net 1 million more registered Republicans than Democrats," by November.

"Let's stop complaining about Washington, and do something to restrain Washington for a change,".