Ron DeSantis Continues To Waste Taxpayer Funds To Pay For His Unconstitutional Culture Wars

[In It to Win It]

Remember when Republicans pretended they were the party of fiscal responsibility, not wasting taxpayer money, and limited government? Sure, sure, you say, that was all just sloganeering, and never actually true in practice, but it’s really starkly on display in Florida, where governor (and wannabe 2024 Presidential candidate) Ron DeSantis has taken this all to new levels. Sure, sometimes he still makes statements with those old GOP slogans and tag lines, but he’s taken big, intrusive government to new levels, stripping rights away from those he dislikes, and having no problem wasting taxpayer funds so long as it helps him wage a culture war that gets him headlines and sycophantic adoration from a new bevy of brainwashed fans.

A few months ago we wrote about how Florida had already wasted approximately $700k of taxpayer funds in its quixotic attempt to ignore the 1st Amendment and force social media companies to moderate the way Ron DeSantis wanted them to. At that time, Florida had already had the law blocked by a district court as unconstitutional. And, since then Florida has also lost on appeal at the 11th Circuit, which similarly declared effectively all of the law unconstitutional (with a ruling from a Trump-appointed judge).

Of course, eventually the bill comes due for all of that, and it appears that last week, Florida had to hand over some of its taxpayers dollars to the law firm of Cooper & Kirk. Florida’s CFO has now made the contract public, and we can see that Florida has now approved $1,030,000 to be paid to the law firm for the case, and after cutting a check for $171,526 last week, has now shelled out a total of $848,800 to have multiple courts explain to them how DeSantis and the Florida legislature is violating the 1st Amendment rights of everyone with this law.

https://www.techdirt.com/2022/06/13/ron-desantis-continues-to-waste-taxpayer-funds-to-pay-for-his-unconstitutional-culture-wars/

[jimfields33]

1. Luckily taxpayers don't pay to the state.

That’s a benefit to having no state taxes.

[qazplm135]

2. sure they do

sales tax, property tax, fees, fines...

[jimfields33]

4. In my county property taxes are only for county.

I’ll give you sales taxes though.

[qazplm135]

5. the point is it's all a scam

no state income tax just means higher taxes elsewhere to compensate.

The difference between California's annual budget and Texas, a state with high income taxes and no income taxes is only about 15 billion.

[IngridsLittleAngel]

3. They care more about hatred and bigotry than money

They'd gladly spend every penny on Earth to destroy LGBTQ's and put women in their place and Make America White Again. Sure, it's easier to go pissing away money when it's other people's tax money. But they'd spend their own - look at all the dummies who gladly donated to Drumpf's "stop the steal!" grift. But these people are so hateful and so brainwashed that all they can think about all day, every day, is how they're going to "pwn the libs" and "destroy the others."

They're beyond insane. They're beyond evil. And they're beyond reasoning with at this point.