Ron DeSantis faces a new problem tonight
It will only grow in the days and weeks (and months) ahead. I’m sure you’ve looked at the hurricane damage down there today and since it hit as a Cat 3 (luck is relative in these things but less than an hour before landfall the eye was “cycling” to build in size so it dropped in strength from Cat 4 to Category 3) it cause a ton of damage. Yes, Florida is used to hurricanes and well-versed in preparing for things like large power outages by calling in out of state crews (and their equipment) and positioning them to get to work right away. Like other states FL has its own disaster agency, so the ability and more importantly experience of working with FEMA is well practiced.
However, Florida has had a not so slow moving train wreck of a crisis for decades now and it’s about to become big news again. Insurance. Florida has long faced the problem of home and business owners getting insurance companies to underwrite coverage which has forced the state to get creative. And given GOP rule which has come to dominate the state it hasn’t exactly been well run when it comes to practical matters like that. DeSantis and his Presidential ambitions have made things worse. His iron fisted rule of politics down there has caused the GOP dominated legislature to increasingly focus on culture war stuff, and things like disaster preparedness/relief have been on the back burner. So has providing insurance to folks in FL.
What this adds up to is that Florida is going to need lots, and I mean LOTS of help from FEMA and taxpayers around the country. Unlike a GOPer, President Biden isn’t someone who in a time of need will hold Florida’s Governor or citizens (strongly GOP) political opposition against them. He will bring the full weight of his Office to bear to help them recover both in the immediate and long term. THAT creates a whole new PR problem for the already imploding DeSantis candidacy.
Think back to hurricane Sandy. Hurricanes DO in fact strike mid Atlantic states and even further north (really rare) but since they cross over cooler water as they head north they aren’t usually as intense. Usually. Of course, as you move up the Atlantic seaboard you get a string of highly populated areas so even Cat 2 (or even Cat 1) still does a lot of damage. Both human and economic. Hurricane Sandy did plenty of both. NJ still, over a decade later hasn’t fully recovered but the point is that at the time the President was Democrat Barack Obama.
The Governor of NJ was Republican Chris Christie who was both highly critical of President Obama, and even with the 2012 Presidential election about to take place offered strong praise for and thanks to President Obama who would go on to win (handily) re-election. Mitt Romney wasn’t pleased of course but didn’t make nearly as big a deal out of Christie’s “betrayal” as tons of other GOPers. Lots of furious articles and commentary. Still, it died down enough Christie decided to mount his own Presidential bid in 2016. When the criticism came for “hugging” Obama (he didn’t) and being gracious Christie was typically blunt saying he’d never apologize for doing what any Governor should do in that type of situation. Because he (correctly) felt and stated snubbing a President’s help for political reasons would be wrong.
So the whole 2012 thing became a problem for Christie all over again. As we know Trump laid waste to the entire field but it was “Little Marco” Rubio of all people who delivered the kills shot. (from a 2022 NJ.com article):
Still, Christie’s short-lived surge in polling before the New Hampshire primary was cut short when a super political action committee backing one of his rivals, Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, ran an ad tying the New Jersey governor to Obama.
That brings us to Ron DeSantis’ problem. He and the people of his state damn well need every bit of help President Biden and the rest of American taxpayers can provide. President Biden WILL do everything he can, and use all his considerable skills to convince others both in government and the private sector and non-profits to help. And not just because it’s his job, but because he’s a good & decent, compassionate human being.
Ron DeSantis is the exact opposite. One trait he shares with Trump is that he’ll throw anyone under the bus who threatens his dream of being President. He doesn’t give a f**k about the suffering of those who’s homes, businesses and lives have been torn apart by this storm. Still, his candidacy is in trouble which is bad but an embarrassing loss in the early primaries and a humiliating exit means an awful lot of those FL legislators will think twice about following him. His days of saying “Jump!” and them asking “How High?” would be over. Hell, he might find himself drummed out of the state when his term is up.
So DeSantis needs to accept help from Biden and FEMA and the rest of us. Yet he knows that even acknowledging that help, and the weakest ever “thanks” even if he credits only FEMA and never mentions Biden’s name will bring out the most vicious attacks from his primary opponents, as well as folks like Gaetz and Rick Scott (and Little Marco too) and GOPers all over the country!
Keep an eye on this. DeSantis can either screw the suffering people in his state by pointedly rejecting Biden and FEMA or worse ham-handed efforts to sabotage them so he can complain. or do what Christie did and be grateful and gracious, which for all his other faults which folks in Jersey came to loathe they still appreciate him for.
I doubt Ron & Casey will be getting any sleep tonight and not much in the days ahead as they try to figure out a way of of the fix they are in.
Aw shucks, Ron & Casey have to “work” on figuring out their fix.
Maybe she can ask her kids, the ones that were in the house when the tree fell down.
Ronny is a “done Tom Turkey”! I’ll wager, this will “fix” his Political career! People will also be leaving this RW crack-pot’s, 3rd-World country in droves!
Well, I don’t think that Gaetz, Scott and Rubio will make anything of DeSantis’ accepting aid since two of those guys are elected by the whole of the state and even a GOP challenger could make some serious hay out of the pair “playing politics” with their constituents’ lives and well-being in the aftermath of a hurricane strike. Such plays have been remembered by other DC politicians when a Senator or Rep grumbles about “helping” disaster victims in one state and then being first in line demanding disaster relief for their own state/district. (I may be wrong but I think that Rubio’s attacking Christie’s accepting aid was rebuked by some of his own supporters over the seeming heartlessness of the attack.)
Also, just imagine what DeSantis would have to do to get help from Trump. Trump tried to extort Ukraine over aid that had already been approved by Congress and which he had no authority to do so I can just imagine the groveling that would be required before Trump would “graciously” send to Florida.
Florida’s big problem is getting “insurance companies to underwrite coverage”, and everyone forgets what that means. It means paying someone else, a company in business, to take the risk of something bad happening to you, that would cost you a loss of something, and reimbursing you for your loss.
By being paid by lots of people, all spread out, the risk per event is diluted, per person and the whole risk of the bad thing happening is spread out.
But when the risk of something bad happening nears 100% the risk transfer can’t work. It’s not like a storm MIGHT happen and damage things that need to be repaired afterward, it’s like a storm WILL happen. The company you want to pay to take the risk can’t make any money, unless they charge you their full costs, (plus a profit margin).
So they have to increase the cost of carrying the risk, or decide that no amount of money is worth carrying the risk and withdraw from the market.
This is where Florida is today. What is the chance that a big storm is going to strike and cause lots of damage that has to be fixed? 100% guaranteed. So the cost of paying someone else to take the risk of repairing storm damage, the insurance premium, has to cost what the cost of repairing the storm damage is, plus a profit margin, making the premium cost more than you just paying yourself to fix the damage, or the company itself decides it’s not worth it and withdraws their offer to take the risk.
This is happening now, insurance companies are withdrawing from Florida, you can’t pay them enough to take on the risk.
So who carries the risk now insurance companies won’t? The people of Florida, and this is a problem because they can’t afford it.
Worse, if they have a mortgage, they HAVE to have insurance, the mortgage companies don’t want to carry the risk either.
Who wants to buy property you can’t mortgage? Very few, and they don’t want to pay nearly as much.
Get ready for a property price crash Florida
The guy who taught Business Law where I went to school summary of how insurance works was similar. Author Heinlein said it famously: “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. (TANSTAFL)