Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) joins Gov. Brad Little (R-ID) in the Idaho State Capitol in Boise, Idaho, to promote a Federal Balanced Budget Amendment.
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00:00about what what we're doing here in Idaho and he's on a road tour he this
00:06afternoon he's going to go to Montana and do the same road tour there I'll let
00:12I'll let him talk about it but you know in actually Governor DeSantis and I were
00:19sitting together at one of those three or four White House events we've been at
00:24in the last month and and we talked about this and in and he is he's very
00:30eloquent talking about it about the fact that out of total frustration with the
00:37lack of action at the federal level for the for the debt and if you look at
00:43Florida's economy there you know revenue and expenditures are about eight or nine
00:48times bigger than Idaho but both of us have balanced budgets have rainy day
00:54funds have balanced our budget or making infrastructure investments are given tax
00:59relief significant tax relief except I still got an income tax so we're working
01:05on it but I got a filled backfill so we're working that way but it with the
01:15commonality between the two states is stark we were just talking about the
01:20migration into Florida and the migration into Idaho I'm a little closer to
01:25Oregon Washington California than Governor DeSantis is but those
01:30fundamentals that I know are important to the people of Idaho are the
01:35fundamentals that Governor DeSantis has in fact one of the things we Republican
01:43governors are all you know we've all been about government efficiency
01:49Governor DeSantis has even got he's even working on a package to get doge down to
01:56the local level we haven't done that here granted we urge them and and
02:02cajole them and try and get them to be more efficient but I'll be very
02:06interested to see that so with that governor okay thank you well thanks Brad
02:11it's great to be here in Idaho and I will just say as somebody that lives in
02:16the northern part of Florida now in Tallahassee this weather's fine this is
02:20no not much different than what we've had in the morning I was expecting colder
02:24so that's really really great to see and I would also just like to point out for
02:29the record I've got a first son in first grade who's a big prognosticator in
02:36terms of football predictions and for the record in the college football
02:41playoffs he picked not successfully but he picked Boise State to beat Penn State
02:47and he was rooting for Boise State to beat Penn State but it was cool coming
02:50in being able to see the famed blue field as we were coming in and to be
02:55able to be here with a lot of like-minded folks I used to say until
03:00someone corrected me that Florida since I became governor has led the nation in
03:04economic growth and a lot of it is because we're comparing New York
03:08California Illinois some of those states and someone said actually Idaho
03:12has grown a little bit more than Florida over that so Idaho has had the
03:15most GDP growth since 2019 Florida a close second and if you look at a lot of
03:21the policies that have been done in Idaho there's a lot of commonality with
03:26Florida universal school choice they just enacted the death penalty for
03:30pedophiles which we did a couple years ago and we're eventually going to get
03:33the US Supreme Court to reverse a bad decision it made in Kennedy versus
03:37Louisiana they've done great things in the legislature on medical freedom so I
03:42think that there's a lot of really good stuff happening in Idaho and what brings
03:47me here today is I've been supporter of a long time to make some changes to how
03:55Congress operates particularly how they're spending our money and if you
03:59look at when the turn of the 21st century happened the US debt from 1789
04:05when the Constitution was ratified and then and the new new government took
04:09hold until the year 2000 the US accumulated 5.6 trillion dollars in debt
04:16and even at that time people were saying that that was a problem well fast
04:20forward 25 years the national debts now at 36 plus trillion dollars and as a
04:27proud conservative and as a proud Republican I have no problem pointing
04:32out the truth that this is both parties in Washington that have created this
04:38mess as much as I'd like to come up here and blame the Democrats the fact of the
04:43matter is it's happened under both parties the budget that was just passed
04:47in the US House of Representatives by the Republicans forecast the debt to be
04:53in the year 2035 56 trillion dollars at what point is this just going to break
05:01our country I think we all know there's a problem I am convinced that you are
05:07not going to have Congress all of a sudden change its behavior for the long
05:13term I think the reason we've gotten in this with respect to fiscal is because
05:18there are certain incentives for the people that are in Washington to behave
05:22the way they do and we need to change those incentives and that involves we
05:27the people in our states doing what the founding fathers put in the Constitution
05:32to propose an amendment to provide some of those constraints on their behavior
05:36in this case requiring a balanced budget for the US government now I have to
05:42balance the budget in Florida Idaho has to balance the budget don't tell me it
05:46can't be done when I became governor in 2019 if you take all the debt in the
05:52history of Florida from the 1840s when we became a state that we've accumulated
05:57until I became governor just in my tenure we paid off 41% of the state's
06:04total debt now that's not just an annual surplus we run that but we're actually
06:09digging in taking our surplus doing tax cuts and other things but then paying
06:14down this debt by the time my term expires we will likely have paid down
06:19over half of the state's debt that was accumulated over 180 years ago we had to
06:23make tough choices but part of the reason we're able to do that is because
06:26there's never a question that we have to at least balance the budget so it's
06:31either balanced or surplus we don't have the option to do others so people
06:35understand that and they're more willing to make really important decisions so
06:40Idaho has an opportunity to certify this proposed amendment under Article 5 of the
06:46Constitution there have been 27 states including Florida that have done it as
06:50Governor Little mentioned I'm going to be going to Montana and we're going to
06:54be meeting with those folks if Idaho and Montana join the fight that gets us
06:58to 29 there's a couple other states that are that are on the precipice as well
07:02you need 34 states to trigger Article 5 where you would actually write an
07:08amendment and then eventually send to the states for ratification I don't
07:12think it would even get that far I think if you got to 33 states I think Congress
07:16would see the writing on the wall and I think they would rush to write an
07:20amendment that they would then pass and then send to the states for ratification
07:24keep in mind it requires three quarters of the states to ratify any changes to
07:30the Constitution I'm a small C conservative I'm a big believer that the
07:34founding fathers did better than anyone has ever done in devising a plan of
07:38government it's not something that I would do lightly asking for an amendment
07:42to the Constitution but we can't keep doing the same things up there and all
07:46of a sudden just hoping that we're going to get different results I think we know
07:50that this is hardwired to go in a certain direction and at some point we
07:53the people have it within our power to choose a different course and that's
07:58what we're here to do to be able to do so we had a great meeting with a lot of
08:01the legislators really great questions I think people are thinking very deeply
08:06about the country's future but we can sit here and say oh Idaho's economy's
08:11growing they're doing this great legislation Florida's doing all this
08:14stuff and that's great and when when the Biden administration was in we had to
08:18fight them on almost everything to be able to do that but at some point the
08:23states are not going to even be able to be successful if the federal government
08:27just completely goes off the rail with the fiscal 56 trillion in 10 years
08:32what's the interest on the debt gonna look like at that point I think it'll be
08:36really really problematic as you're seeing it so we have an opportunity to
08:40do something I think the founding fathers understood that wherever the
08:44seat of government was going to end up and they didn't know was going to be in
08:47Washington DC when they did the federal gut when they did the Constitution they
08:52knew that there would be a danger where we just go off the rails and they knew
08:57they needed to empower the states to be able to take corrective action so that's
09:01really what a balanced budget amendment would do I would force them to make
09:05better decisions and would ultimately avert our country from really having a
09:10fiscal collapse and the final point I'll make is this the only time in modern
09:16history last 50 years where there has been a balanced federal budget was in
09:20the late 1990s and you actually had Bill Clinton was a Democrat president he came
09:25in he wanted to spend a lot the voters rejected that they sent Republicans in
09:30in 94 and and they ended up arriving at a balanced budget at that time they also
09:36were pursuing a balanced budget amendment that failed by one vote in the
09:40US Senate can you imagine if the balanced budget requirement were enacted
09:44was enacted in the year 2000 how much different our country would be in terms
09:49of our fiscal solvency today versus then how do we go from 5.6 trillion to 36
09:56trillion so we have an opportunity to act I commend everyone here in Idaho for
10:01the great work they've done across the board you guys are an example of a state
10:05that shows that conservative policies work common sense works and I think
10:10we're both in the same boat like when you do well and your neighboring states
10:15do poorly not really neighboring from us because Georgia some of those do well
10:19but you know you've attracted people and there's some benefits to that can help
10:23with the there's also challenges schools roads all these things I mean I see you
10:28know talking about Canadians are gonna boycott coming to the United States not
10:32if you drive on the roads in Florida that's not true I see these license
10:36plates everywhere and we have a bunch of Canadians we have other people moving so
10:40it does create challenges and I'm not anyone that's begged people to move to
10:44Florida and I don't know how I do approaches it because a lot of our
10:47constituents like there's so many people here but the reality is is people in the
10:51United States have the right to vote with their feet and they have voted with
10:54their feet over particularly these last five or six years they have fled
10:58California Oregon and Washington and they've chosen places like Idaho because
11:02they're seeking a better life just as many people have chosen Florida from
11:06even California and Washington but also New York and Illinois because we do it
11:10right so the common sense policies work we just need a little dose of common
11:15sense up in Washington DC okay we're happy to take some questions yes so
11:25here's what I'd say I think what happens when you go into Washington DC it's a
11:30culture that's developed over many decades and there's a lot of people that
11:33have very good intentions I know a lot of the people up there I remember when
11:37they were running for the first time they didn't want to be part of a swamp
11:41but what happens is is there's just a lot of inertia this is the way we do
11:46business like for example the way they budget you can have an agency that gets
11:50ten billion dollars whether it's successful or not the next year the
11:55budget starts off at ten billion plus seven percent they don't even have
11:59baseline budgeting I don't know how they do in Iowa in Florida no agency's
12:03entitled to anything you have to justify every single year in the budget and they
12:08don't do that so it would just change the culture there they obviously could
12:13work out a lot of different things about how to do I mean I would just say you
12:17know you just look at how much money the government was spending prior to kovat
12:21look how much it's spending now they did not even revert back to pre kovat levels
12:26of spending I think you could do that I think there's a lot of things you could
12:28do but one of the things that will do if they have to balance the budget look
12:33back to World War two we had a massive debt after war and rightfully so I mean
12:38it was a existential threat to humanity and we did the right thing massive debt
12:42and then within a couple decades three four decades you know you had that debt
12:46lower why because the economy really boomed and Congress focused on policies
12:51that would help our country advance in the economy to grow in Florida we just
12:57have to make decisions you know you make decisions every year there was one
13:01year and when kovat hit my legislature had already done the budget before
13:05things really got crazy and so I waited and held the budget till the end before
13:10I acted on it because we didn't know there was a lot of answer people were
13:13canceling vacations or all these things happening and I vetoed a lot of money
13:16because I said listen there's some of my priorities in here I'm vetoing because
13:20we don't know we got him and it turned out we did very well because we were
13:24open and the economy boomed and all that one year I had to veto 3% of the
13:28entire budget because it just wasn't the right thing to do for the state so so
13:33folks will be able to make those determinations the people be able to
13:36elect people on certain platforms to be able to work that out but we have to say
13:41that Congress cannot just keep charging to the credit card and definitely we're
13:46spending more than a trillion dollars a year which is more than we spend on
13:51military to just pay interest on the debt just think what happens if you
13:56have to refinance that at higher rates that will balloon you could be paying
13:59two trillion dollars just on interest on the debt so they need to change their
14:04behavior and I don't think they will do it on their own yes
14:09one I don't believe that that's accurate I just think the founding
14:23fathers put article 5 in for a reason why would they one have put a mechanism
14:29to undo what they work so hard in Philadelphia to create no they
14:33understood that there'd be a time where the governing class was just insulated
14:38from the best interests of the country and that you would need to have some
14:42constitutional reform that didn't require the people or the states to go
14:46through that same governing class and I would remind people the Constitution was
14:51created by the states and the federal government was created by the states not
14:55the other way around second I don't think it will actually come to that
14:59because I really believe history has shown once there's momentum behind this
15:04Congress sees the writing on the wall I do think they would write an amendment
15:08and send it to the states for ratification because they want to be
15:11able to control that amendment and I think states like Idaho and Florida if
15:16it's a good amendment we'll be happy to ratify if they play games with it I'm
15:20not going to amend the Constitution lightly so I think you're going to do
15:22that and I fully expect it to happen but let's just say you get 34 and you
15:26trigger it I can tell you in Florida when we did our convention call for this
15:31amendment we have limitations on what the delegates can do I as governor can
15:36recall people I mean just think about it if someone in one of our states got
15:41up and for a balanced budget amendment convention and they said well we really
15:46want to look at at reigning in the Second Amendment I would have those
15:50people on the plane to Tallahassee before they could even get those words
15:53out of their mouth it would not happen we've even put criminal penalties in for
15:57delegates that go wayward so I don't think that there's a real risk of that
16:01because you can take appropriate action to ensure that the subject matter at
16:05hand is what is debated but even if somehow all that didn't work out you
16:11need 38 states to ratify any changes to the Constitution is there anybody
16:17believing with the majority of states in this country being red states that you
16:21would see things like the Second Amendment or some of these things that
16:25would be whittled away there is no way that can pass muster the only reason I'm
16:30a supporter of balanced budget amendment I'm also supporter of term limits
16:33through this route but both of those have strong support from the public
16:37because people understand that the trajectory is bad fiscally they also
16:41understand Congress should be should be limited in terms so there's different
16:45reasons to do it but there's no way none of any of that stuff you get 38 states
16:50to ratify so I don't think it will come to even going it I do think Congress
16:54will enact what will pass one even if you did there's plenty of ways where you
16:59can offer protections to make sure that they're focusing on the task at hand and
17:03keep in mind when the founders did the original convention in 1787 in Philly
17:08they did it in secret they met to revise and extend the articles they went there
17:13was no media there was no anything obviously different era in terms of
17:16digital there wasn't any of that but they didn't even have anybody who could
17:20who could write an article and put out a pamphlet that would not fly nowadays I
17:25mean obviously this would be publicly broadcast and everyone would be able to
17:28see it's not like you're just gonna go and do it some convention and and and
17:32burrow in there and no one know what you're doing so I don't think it's a
17:35real risk and I think the people that say somehow the whole thing would would
17:39melt down they're basically saying that the founding fathers were wrong to give
17:43the people in the states an ability to restrain the federal Congress and I
17:47don't think they were wrong to do that I think they understood Congress could be
17:50the problem we met with the legislators earlier and so you hear a lot of talk
17:55about the dead and the fiscal obviously as a big problem you also hear a lot of
18:00talk and I totally agree with this and I know most of the people in Idaho do
18:04about the growth of the bureaucracy and the administrative state and how how can
18:09a bureaucrat be spending tax dollars through USAID to do to promote
18:14transgenderism in Bangladesh like how is that something that could ever be
18:18thought of as appropriate people say even the courts how judges are issuing
18:22these nationwide injunctions to restrain the president from doing really core
18:27article two responsibilities in this case transporting illegal alien gang
18:31members back to their country of Oregon or at least El Salvador is a holding
18:35area all of those problems the root is the fecklessness of the modern Congress
18:41Congress has the power of the purse they don't have to do continuing resolutions
18:46that empower the bureaucracy they could use the power of the purse to restrain
18:50the bureaucracy they haven't been willing to do it Congress can limit the
18:54jurisdiction of the federal courts they have plenary authority to do that in the
18:58Constitution they don't do that I know that they'll complain about when when
19:02courts do this but they don't take the action necessary and then of course
19:06they've chosen to pile on the debt so so I just think Congress as an institution
19:11particularly over the last 20 years has really gone off the rails and I think
19:16the founders understood there would be need for the states to step in and offer
19:19some reforms to that to that point I've all those concerns I've been here for a
19:26while you know got across my mind but the absolute desperate nature and the
19:33magnitude of it you know the minimal risk of what what happens if it goes to
19:38there we don't even think it's gonna we're get to 34 votes we think things
19:42are gonna happen there's all those sidebars all those guardrails we can put
19:48on those but then what's what's the alternative do we want that our federal
19:54debt to go to 70 trillion dollars and consume all of the capital and and
19:59basically burden our children great-grandchildren and great-great
20:05grandchildren I think there is no other usable option and our forefathers put in
20:12the Constitution for a reason and then also I made the point earlier it's like
20:15let's just say something popped out that was like really really bad
20:19literally it would take us an afternoon like I could call Brad I could call GN
20:2340 I'd call camp I can call these governors and say this is bad we put out
20:27a thing saying you know with our legislative leaders saying no and it
20:31would die like immediately we would be able to rally 13 states so I just I
20:36think the risk is so infinitesimally small compared to what governor little
20:41points out the big risk of continuing on our current current course and what
20:46that means for the country I'm not sure about that but I think the the questions
20:59were excellent I mean these are clearly legislators that are thinking very
21:02deeply not just about the issues confronting Idaho but the future of the
21:06country and you know I think we're in similar boats just like our states have
21:11had success that's great but we're also we're all Americans here and and we want
21:17the country to succeed and I've got four six I have a four six and an eight year
21:22old at home I know most of the legislators have kids and grandkids you
21:26start thinking about what does that future look like 20 years from what are
21:29we gonna be 75 trillion in debt how do you how do you square this circle and so
21:35I just think people are really concerned about the future of the country I think
21:38they asked all the right questions I think they're thinking very very deeply
21:42about it and I do think the fact like if you just had the balanced budget vote
21:45separately seems like there would be probably more support than then the
21:50package that that wasn't able to get the votes the other day yes
22:08so just for what he's referring to during the Biden administration we
22:18rejected federal funds on a variety of things because they had strings attached
22:22so some of the road funding we had to do all the DEI and woke policies which are
22:28totally contrary to our state's policy we had kind of led the fight against
22:32that stuff now it's more fashionable to be against it when we were doing it we
22:35were kind of having an uphill battle so so we did it and we told the Department
22:39of Transportation and the Biden ministration here's 350 million or
22:43however much it is we're not using it and they're like we don't know we don't
22:47know how to take it back they literally did not know how to take back the money
22:50same thing on refugee money to send back I believe to HHS they didn't do so I'm
22:55like sitting on almost 900 million dollars we're not going to accept it
22:59because we're not going to change our behavior so let's send it back and be
23:03part of the Doge efforts so we went up and met with Elon on Friday in
23:07Washington and he had one of his lieutenants there and they were just
23:11like you want to give back money like yeah we'll accept it they got on the
23:16phone to Treasury and like within like 30 minutes we had a plan to do it and so
23:21we have initiated that and so what's the promise of Doge generally I think
23:26there's a lot of promise I think when you see some of the spending that's
23:30happened nobody justifies some of the grants that have been going out on some
23:36of these things it was clearly taking taxpayer money and using it to push an
23:41ideological agenda it was not about serving the interests of the country or
23:46what's in the public's interest it was an ideological niche interest and
23:49basically these agencies had been taken captive by this viewpoint and and use
23:56your money for that so I think it's been great to expose here I think the
23:59challenge though we're here talking about a balanced budget amendment
24:03because Congress won't change its behavior Elon and they're using a lot of
24:07savvy tech and all this stuff are showing how the government mismanages
24:12money but also just substantively should government spend it on this because
24:17people have voted to do this in Congress for many years why are they doing it how
24:22do you justify it so you're running into kind of the momentum that Elon has with
24:27the Doge with the fact that Congress has not been willing to change its
24:31behavior right so the most recent continuing resolution that the
24:35Republicans passed in the House funds everything that Elon had pointed out it
24:40didn't change any spending from the Biden in fact that's a continuation of
24:45Biden's last year as president basically to do this continue resolution now what
24:49Elon will say is well they're not going to let these grants go out and I think
24:52that's true but ultimately if Congress is appropriating the money you know I
24:57at some point it's going to come to a head maybe you don't have to do a
25:00certain grant but can you just impound everything that's gonna end up in court
25:04there's a there's a law on that that the solution is if Elon's doing this
25:09Congress should codify the Doge cuts in the law there's no question Congress can
25:17do that they have the power of the purse but when you do continuing resolutions
25:22that's just government on autopilot so some people say how could someone have
25:26said to do this you know Fauci you know I was very upset at some of the things
25:32Fauci was doing over the years including these cruel experiments on these beagle
25:36puppies like how did that end up happening you know a lot I'm a dog on a
25:41lot of dog owners are looking like like are you kidding me but it's because the
25:44bureaucrats have no accountability it's an omnibus bill it's a continuing
25:49resolution year after year which is basically government on autopilot if you
25:54don't have the prospect of having Congress rein you in by defunding your
25:59program because you behave badly you're gonna induce bad behavior that's just
26:03the nature of it so I think it's really a battle between Doge and Elon and then
26:08the institutional swamp and so far I think that Elon success has been limited
26:14to the executive branch I have not seen Congress willing to step up and actually
26:19make these reforms permanent which you're you're absolutely gonna have to
26:23do and we were talking earlier about Congress could balance the budget
26:27tomorrow hypothetically let's say but it doesn't mean the next Congress is going
26:31to abide by that they'll say oh we just came up with the 10-year deal to balance
26:36the budget no you didn't because each Congress that gets elected they don't
26:39abide by that deal they can legislate with a clean slate they can choose to
26:43increase spending a constitutional balanced budget amendment you can't
26:47legislate around that that's the rules of the road and Congress will be
26:52restrained from plundering us further into debt yes
27:13so I haven't talked to President Trump about this President Trump understands
27:19that as much as we have governments too big as much as the bureaucracy has
27:24gotten out of control he understands that there are certain
27:27functions that the federal government should be performing and performing well
27:31you know for example there was this dust-up about the National Weather
27:34Service you know president understands he's dealt with these hurricanes like we
27:38do in Florida he understood so he's like no no we need that so I think it'll all
27:43work out because I know President Trump's view is government's doing a lot
27:48of things it shouldn't do and those are things that we should focus on but some
27:52of the things that are that are core functions well we should do now there's
27:55things that happen within those core functions for example the Department of
27:59Defense I'm a big supporter of I'm a veteran but at the same time that's a
28:04big bureaucracy and there's a lot of tail bureaucracy and non tooth the tip
28:11of the sphere that has grown over the years so paring back that actually
28:16frees up more money to be able to do more in terms of lethality so so I think
28:21the president totally gets all that you're gonna see different things that
28:25are gonna happen here or there but I think ultimately it will land in a spot
28:29that the American people are gonna support you know it's unfortunate and
28:32this is working its way through the courts and I personally think the
28:36president has article to the authority to hire and fire people within the
28:39executive branch that's not how it's been viewed in the more met maybe last
28:4520 30 years but you end up in this kind of weird situation where probationary
28:50employees even if they're really good they can be laid off but someone who's
28:54been there who has tenure or whatever the protections even if they're not good
28:59employees so much harder to get rid of them I don't think that that makes sense
29:02but I think they're working through a lot of this stuff in the courts and I
29:06think you're gonna end up seeing this this land and in a very very good spot
29:10there are things that as we have the lowest number of state employees per
29:14capita in America in Florida and while we're proud of that we also have
29:19invested strongly in disaster response and emergency management we've invested
29:25strongly in in law enforcement we've invested strongly in education we've
29:30invested strongly in conservation and I'm doing the biggest environmental
29:34restoration in the world with the Everglades so so we've really focused on
29:38things that really matter and I think that's President Trump's view as well so
29:43some of the stuff I know there's a blip here blip there some of the stuff I
29:47think quite frankly is not presented accurately by some of the outlets but
29:50that being said I do think I think it'll land in a really good spot yes
30:13yeah so on since of Florida yeah we we have a few people on Social Security in
30:21Florida you know they'll they'll do this this is like some of the people it's
30:26this political rhetoric they will say Florida is a is a is a not a donor state
30:31they're a recipient state and they count Social Security benefits but you know my
30:36seniors if they moved to Alabama the check would it's not like that money's
30:39going to the state government it's just the fact that it's going to people who
30:42now live in Florida who've earned those benefits I feel very confident certainly
30:47with President Trump that that they're going to be honoring the benefits that
30:51seniors have unfortunately a lot of seniors live check to check basically you
30:57know we do have some wealthy seniors that that don't need Social Security
31:01quote-unquote but even a lot of our middle-class seniors in this era of
31:05inflation for them not to have Social Security checks so they may miss a
31:09payment they and in Florida we're now having to go to the voters most likely
31:14in 26 to reform our property taxes which is done at the local level not at the
31:19state level but we have elderly who bought a home in South Florida let's say
31:23for $200,000 30 years ago and now it's being assessed at 1.5 million dollars
31:29well even though we have some protections against property tax how are
31:33they gonna come up with more and more money every year so we're gonna rein
31:37that in as well so when you talk about elderly on fixed income it's a really
31:42significant issue I know the president very much is sympathetic to that I don't
31:47think Social Security as much as is as much of the problem as some of the other
31:52particularly the discretionary the way some of the medical is done although you
31:58know we're gonna do of course Medicare for seniors and Elon's gonna get to this
32:02there is a lot I mean when you have hundreds of billions of dollars and
32:05improper payments I mean that should not be happening and I don't think it
32:09will happen once you have kind of doge get in there and do that same thing on
32:14unemployment insurance now different states handle it differently as you know
32:18in Florida we call it re-employment insurance you know we're limited on it
32:23we don't view it as a as a way of life we viewed as temporary our economy's
32:27been been good so people have ability to get jobs but if you look at the amount
32:31of fraud and unemployment insurance it's been especially since kovat so we
32:37volunteered with the doge team to kind of get them in our unemployment system
32:41and even though we've worked hard to police it and I think you'll see much
32:45different in Florida compared to like California where there were tens of
32:48billions in fraud we know that there's issues there like for example you are
32:53not allowed to have any of these benefits if you're in this country
32:57illegally but are they using fake Social Security numbers I know doge thinks that
33:01that's a big big deal so you're gonna see I think some serious overhaul of how
33:06the unemployment insurance system is work clearly there's a role for that but
33:11it's not for people to just dip in into abuse and so finally we're taking a look
33:16at all these things and I think it's going to be really really positive but
33:20if you just go back to 2019 levels of just the discretionary budget forget
33:25about Social Security just the discretionary budget pre kovat when we
33:29were still kind of spending a lot of money if you just kept it there and
33:32froze it for five years you would save massive amounts of money right there and
33:38I think what really kills us is that you have amount of spending and then you
33:43just that's the baseline that never goes below that no matter how effective or
33:47ineffective these programs are the balanced budget amendment or requirement
33:50that's going to cause them to totally overhaul the way they do budget so I
33:56really appreciate being here I want to thank the governor lieutenant governor
34:00thank the legislators for really leaning in on this we what we don't want is to
34:06wake up 10-15 years from now us being some major financial crash because of
34:12interest rates and the debt and everything and say man you know we could
34:17have done something in the states to avert this and we chose not to do it no
34:21we see the problem we've seen the trend lines we're not just going to sit back
34:25and just hope that Congress changes its behavior we the people have it within
34:30our power to make Congress change its behavior thank you all right