Ron DeSantis is trying his best to turn Florida into a conservative Utopia by destroying it in his run to secure the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, he’s exceeded the conditions he and other conservatives complain about regarding California. Along with a higher murder rate, Florida is now leading the nation in inflation thanks in no small part to DeSantis’s policies.
Per CNN, the inflation rate in Florida stands at around double the national rate, and it’s worse in some metropolitan areas. The current US inflation rate stands at 4% year-over-year; in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach market, inflation currently stands at 9%. The kicker: taking out normally volatile fuel and food prices, the core inflation rate in South Florida skyrockets to 10.5%. For comparison, inflation in pricey San Francisco stands at 5.8%.
The key driver to Florida’s out-of-control inflation is housing, which has been skyrocketing in cost because of DeSantis’s policies. After Hurricane Ian hit the state in September, Joe Biden provided billions in federal aid to help, even after DeSantis boasted about a $20 billion budget surplus. That aid didn’t reach local residents, tens of thousands of whom are still without rebuilt housing.
DeSantis’s demonization, kidnapping and political exploitation of migrants–a major component of the construction industry’s workforce–pushed thousands to leave the state, leading to a shortage of workers to needed to build and repair housing. DeSantis’s policies have also impacted food prices, with farmers in such desperate need for workers that Republican state legislators are looking for loopholes in the state laws to get more workers in. “It’s very dangerous for agriculture. We desperately need more legal workers and this is going to make it worse,” Republican state rep Rick Roth said.