Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis railed at President Joe Biden as prices continue rising on Americans for virtually everything they buy, terming it “Bidenflation,” which has become popular with Republican critics.
The GOP governor also predicted that there is more economic pain on the way for American consumers.
Responding to a question about rising rent in the Sunshine State, DeSantis said “general inflation is causing” rents to spike, and noted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) moratorium on evictions.
“The CDC basically had a moratorium, so that people … really didn’t have to pay rent,” DeSantis responded. “What’s happening is now all the people that own these properties are charging more to make up for what was [lost].”
“Biden was warned about this,” DeSantis slammed. “He was told that this was going to happen and they had to take it all the way to the Supreme Court.”
Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court barred the Biden administration from enforcing the CDC-ordered rent moratorium.
“Then you also have the issue where there’s a lot of demand,” DeSantis pointed out.
The governor noted that people from across the nation are moving to Florida because they’re “fed up” with liberal policies. “This is kind of the center of the universe right now,” he said.
DeSantis also noted that massive congressional spending has also worsened inflation.
“We warned about this inflation last year. They came in and did the massive spending; the Fed has printed trillions and trillions of dollars, the biggest increase in the money supply that we’ve seen in quite some time. Of course you’re going to have inflation when that happens,” he said.
“That’s what’s happened, and I don’t see it ebbing anytime soon,” DeSantis predicted. “I think this is likely to be something that we’re going to have to contend with.”
He said the best way to provide Americans relief from rising prices is to “reverse” a lot of Biden policies, which he said the administration has “not shown an inclination to do.”
“Make no mistake about it, what you need to do is reverse those policies that are causing the inflation to begin with,” he told reporters.
“Why are we not producing more energy here in the United States?” he asked, noting that the U.S. needs more pipelines, natural gas, and permits for drilling.
Speaking of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge off the coast of Alaska, DeSantis added “there’s more oil and gas up there than in Saudi Arabia. It’s a massive, massive opportunity and basically, from the time Biden’s come in, he said, ‘No, no, no.’”
“Well, of course, that’s going to cause [inflation], and it’s not just fuel prices,” the Republican explained. “When energy prices are going up the way they are, that permeates the entire economy. It’s more [expensive] to transport … goods … everything is permeated by that, and it helps contribute to rising prices.”
“Let’s do what we can at the federal level to reverse some of the policies that have caused this,” DeSantis said. “And let’s try to give people relief throughout our economy, and if they did that it would make a really significant difference. But they have not shown any inclination to do that.”