TITUSVILLE, FL—For the second day in a row, Gov. Ron DeSantis ripped Vice President Kamala Harris for both casting the tie-breaking, "money-grab" vote on a law he says spiked inflation and for her "Orwellian" plan to tax unrealized capital gains as income.
In short, her policies are "absolutely nuts," he fretted.
DeSantis referred first to Harris casting the tie-breaking vote in favor of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which received zero GOP support. The $740 billion law was packaged as an investment in creating various jobs, lowering energy and medical costs, and cracking down on wealthy tax evaders.
DeSantis—along with most Republicans—called it a "money-grab" for "climate change ideology" and a misnomer that has actually increased inflation.
"If your house was on fire, would you bring in the arsonist to put out the fire?" DeSantis questioned Titusville onlookers at a Thursday morning press conference. He slammed Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, for "lying" to Americans by "pretending" that she is the solution to rocketed prices nationwide.
"[Her solutions] are a ruse to mask that the problems are...Biden-Harris created," he added. As of this month, the U.S. inflation rate is hovering at 2.9%, the lowest it's been since March 2021. While it's a decrease from 3% in June 2024, prices are still over 20% higher since the pandemic's onset in February 2020.
What does that mean? Prices are still inflating—just at a slower rate.
The Florida Governor turned to his newest Harris critique: her backing of a tax on unrealized capital gains. In March, Biden put out a budget proposal calling for new taxes on wealthy Americans and businesses, including a tax on unrealized gains as income for those with more than $100 million, Market Watch reported.
An unrealized capital gain happens when a person's property, stock, or asset that they have yet to sell increases in value. Under the Biden plan, those worth over $100 million would be taxed 25% of that increase.
DeSantis thinks it's an "Orwellian" idea, largely painting the proposal as one that would apply to all Americans—not just the wealthy—and as Harris', as the November general election draws closer.
"Why would you invest [in stocks] if you have to pay tax on it [before it sells]? I don't buy that it's just for the very wealthy because...a principle is a principle," DeSantis said. "It's absolutely nuts and financially illiterate."
"It makes you a ward of the state!"
