While Governor DeSantis continues his campaign against “woke,” Florida is benefiting from the American Rescue Plan. As Governor DeSantis touts Florida’s strong economy and takes credit for job creation, remember it was federal legislation, opposed by every GOP in the Florida delegation that facilitated this growth.
Below are some key facts about the legislation.
- A strong economic recovery, with Florida’s unemployment falling to 2.7%, as compared to 5.9% when President Biden took office
- Helping foster 1.2 million new small business applications in Florida.
- Direct pandemic relief to ALL of Florida’s 471 towns, cities, and counties
- Vital education funding for nearly 70 school districts throughout Florida to support academic recovery post-pandemic
- Help for more than 7,000 child care programs in Florida to keep their doors open
- Working family tax relief for 2.5 million Floridians families and an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit for 1.3 million Floridian workers
- Affordable, high-speed internet for 48,000 homes and businesses in Florida
- Vital relief for almost 6,000 restaurants in Florida through the American Rescue Plan’s Restaurant Revitalization Fund
The Florida Squeeze 
This might seem unrelated but it increasingly seems like Ron DeSantis’s efforts to portray Florida as a free from Covid restrictions is really starting to back fire in the sense that he has made Florida even in relatively higher end communities such as Miami Beach attractive to a certain low brow kind of tourist that seeks to cause crime and mayhem. While there is still an expectation that Trump would not go after DeSantis on the crime issue in the same way Trump has gone after Democratic mayors and governors I wouldn’t be so sure of that.
The thing is I don’t know how RDS actually solves the increasing crime problem in South Florida. He can blame Democratic mayors all he wants and cite the relatively strong home rule powers that Florida municipalities have that prevent him from sending in the FDLE in the same way a Massachusetts Governor can deploy the MSP but RDS is really stuck between his pro”freedom” message, Florida’s lax gun laws, his penchant for seeking to attract a downscale downwardly mobile tourist and on the other hand a traditional GOP law and order message. Another example is look at how many air rage incidents there are on flights to and from Florida.
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