OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is warning anew that if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected president, her economic policies will lead to the next “depression.”
DeSantis sharply criticized Harris’ policy to lower soaring food prices by prohibiting price gouging, calling it a blatant “lie.” He argued further that her approach overlooks the fundamental problems of supply chain disruptions and the “massive” amounts of printed and borrowed money.
He also said he believes Harris’ policies could potentially push the country “into a depression.”
“Supply chains are interrupted and there’s massive amounts of printing money, which has had huge impacts,” he said at a Bradenton press conference Friday morning, according to The Floridian, referring to the nation’s $35.27 trillion debt, and the 2025 money print order valued at $83.2 billion to $113 billion.
“Harris was there for this—she cast the vote for some of these major spending initiatives that really fueled inflation,” he added.
Harris has noted that the U.S. inflation rate is currently at 2.5%, the lowest since March 2021. However, prices are still over 20% higher since the start of the pandemic in February 2020, indicating that prices are still rising, just at a slower pace.
For example, under the Biden-Harris administration, food prices have increased by 20%, but the VP attributes this to corporate price gouging.
“That is a lie,” DeSantis countered. “The reason why grocery prices have gone up is because of supply chain disruption from the COVID nonsense and the massive amounts of printing and borrowing of money. It’s effectively like a major tax on people—it’s just invisible.”
The Floridian added:
The pandemic, later coupled with the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, caused a global supply chain crisis. Chemical supplies, automotive sector shipments, and technology distribution sharply dropped—disrupting consumer patterns and damaging various countries’ economies.
So, when the U.S. started to experience rocketed inflation, Harris in 2022 cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the Inflation Reduction Act, which received zero GOP support. The $740 billion law was packaged as an investment in creating various jobs, lowering energy and medical costs, and cracking down on wealthy tax evaders, though Republicans have argued that it’s a misnomer that actually increased inflation.
DeSantis, meanwhile, turned to the Federal Reserve on Wednesday cutting its key interest rate for the first time in four years to lower borrowing costs on everything from mortgages to credit cards, CNN reported. The Florida Governor, however, was skeptically hesitant to discuss the nation’s economic future, even with the Fed’s slashed rates.
He blames the Biden-Harris regime for that.
“They’ve botched this from the beginning of COVID, and so they’re kind of the reason we’re in the mess, in addition to the Congress and the borrowing and spending,” he said. “If you get someone like Harris [who] tries to tax unrealized gains, this country will go into a depression. You’d see a massive flight of capital out of the United States, and I think that would hurt our state in particular.”
“It’s a lunacy to say you’re going to tax someone’s investment before they’ve even realized a profit on it—they just have to cut a check,” DeSantis said, referring to the Biden-Harris plan to put a new tax on so-called ‘unrealized capital gains’ on Americans earning more than $100 million.
These gains occur when the value of a person’s property, stock, or asset that they have not yet sold increases. Under their plan, those with a net worth of over $100 million would be taxed 25% of that increase.
DeSantis describes the proposal as “Orwellian,” arguing that it would impact all Americans rather than just the wealthy. In a previous press conference, he likened her economic plans to the crime of arson. “Would you bring in the arsonist to put out the fire?” he asked.
