Warns Florida Voters: "We've Got to Take This Election Seriously"

0:00 Speaker 1 Let’s go to Florida. Well, it’s 9-11 weekend. And with us today is Byron Donalds, the congressman and future governor, hopefully, in Florida. And Byron Donalds, would you give us an update? What the heck is going on in Florida? And give us the pulse of the situation.

0:22 Speaker 2 Well, I mean, look, right now it’s about making sure the people of our state know what’s at stake in this race for governor. Our plan as a state’s next governor is to build on the success of Governor Ron DeSantis, to continue to push the envelope on lowering insurance costs, lowering housing costs in our state. And that’s something that

0:42 you really have to put in the right policy, and it takes time versus what we’re seeing today. from David Jolly and the Democrats, which is more of the same, more taxes, more regulation. David Jolly has a plan to do a government takeover of property insurance in our state.

0:57 I mean, just crazy. We’ve never seen property insurance work when the government takes over the whole thing, but that’s his plan. And to give people an example, the National Flood Insurance Program, that was a government takeover of flood insurance.

1:10 What we have seen, the prices have gone up. The coverages aren’t even that good. The National Flood Insurance actually still owes the federal treasury $ 20 billion, and that’s after Congress already wiped $ 17 billion of the debt it owed off the books, just forgave it. And it still owes the treasury $ 20 billion. So government-run insurance just never works.

1:34 It always sounds good to people who are trying to figure out prices, but it never works in the long run, and so this won’t work as well. It would be a hurricane tax on every insurance holder in the state of Florida.

1:45 Speaker 1 Donald, can I interrupt you for a second? Sure. The Floridians, I get a lot of complaints when I travel in Florida because we’re also in the real estate business, and there’s a lot of complaints about insurance. Do we have a solution that can do it better?

2:04 Speaker 2 Yes, actually we do. First, the tort reform Governor DeSantis put in place a couple of years ago, that actually is beginning to work. So we want to keep that in place, and not to get too far into the weeds, but the actuaries for an insurance company, they need five years of consistency in the regulatory market so that they

2:24 can write the risk properly in Florida. Number two, we are going to do reforms to our catastrophe fund, which already exists in Florida. It’s a small-scale fund. not the one David Jolly is talking about, but there are reforms to that one that we can do, which will also lower premium costs. Three, doing some more targeting with our

2:43 home hardening programs in our state. to make sure they’re going directly towards what it costs to make a house more secure from wind damage. So you do those three and you do a couple of other items, we can lower costs 20% to 25% in the state of Florida.

2:59 And that’s real money back in your pocket without Floridians having to carry the burden of what happens the next time a big storm comes.

3:07 Speaker 1 Now, the other big thing in Florida is, well, you tell us– DeSantis has really done a great job in Florida. What items are still open? Other than insurance, is there another item that you feel you can do better?

3:26 Speaker 2 It’s not about doing better. It’s about what comes next. I think, look, property tax reform is on the ballot this November. I support it. The governor supports it. But whether it passes or fails, this is not the end.

3:39 This is just the beginning. Next year, we’re going to have our Tax and Budget Reform Commission study all taxes and fees in the state. We want to fully eliminate homestead property taxes. But if we can’t make that happen, we’ll target that to seniors on fixed income and working families.

3:53 I think that’s important policy for the future of our state. One that doesn’t get talked enough about, but permitting costs. You talk to developers and contractors, they get it. Most people don’t see it, but 30% of the cost of a new home is government. And so what we want to be able to do is streamline that entire process,

4:13 modernize how we permit jobs that get constructed so it lowers the cost for people. And another one is health care. The cost of health care continues to rise because of Obamacare. The Affordable Care Act is not affordable, but what we can do in Florida is have real price transparency. So we’re requiring... all hospitals and doctors’ offices to post the

4:38 real cash price for the top 20 services they provide. We just think that market transparency of prices in health care will help stabilize health care costs in the state of Florida.

4:48 Speaker 1 Understood. Anything else you want to tell the American people? This is 9-11 weekend. Where were you in 9-11?

4:55 Speaker 2 I was actually getting ready for business law class at Florida State. When 9-11 happened, it shocked me. It shocked everybody at school. I remember calling home to see if my mom was okay, to see if my younger sister was okay. And so it really shook me. That’s where I was. The thing I think about when I reflect

5:18 on it 25 years ago, is that the tragedy of 9-11 was awful, but the unity in our country was tremendous. We were one United States of America. There wasn’t a lot of the silly political games after 9-11. My hope is that it doesn’t take a terrorist attack or a catastrophe in our country for all of the American people,

5:41 regardless of your politics, regardless of your race, to realize that we’re all Americans. We have inherited A legacy of the greatest nation on God’s earth. And we want to keep it that way for another 250 years.

5:55 Speaker 1 Last question. Tell us about your lieutenant governor that you picked.

6:00 Speaker 2 Brian Avila is a great guy. He’s somebody I’ve known for a decade. He served in the legislature, both in the state House and the state Senate, respected by people across all sides of politics in the state of Florida.

6:15 He’s an academic dean in one of our universities in Florida, so he’s also shaping the minds of future generations in our state. He is a captain in the Florida National Guard. He’s commanded soldiers during hurricane response and during the COVID-19 response.

6:31 And then, you know, for him, he’s just a quiet guy, unassuming guy, but somebody who’s a conservative, who’s committed to making sure Florida remains the best. He is the son of Cuban exiles. So he knows what socialism is. And, you know, he fights against that every single day. And he married his high school sweetheart, Cindy. They have two

6:50 awesome kids. He’s just a great man. And so he’s been on the road traveling the states. And I get text messages and calls about him. And I’ll be like, man, I really like him. This guy is awesome. He made a great pick here. And I told them, I was like, look, we were going to make sure that the lieutenant governor

7:05 was going to be prepared to lead this state into the future if need be. And so Brian’s a great pick. We’re great to have him on the team. And we’re just focused on the next 50 days or so because it’s about keeping Florida as the free state of Florida.

7:20 Speaker 1 Well, Representative Byron Donalds, thank you so much. And DeSantis has done a great job. We hope you’ll be able to continue that great job because a lot of people moved to Florida. depending on Florida being a great state and common sense rules the land and your opponent does not have any common sense. So thank you so much

7:44 for coming on this Sunday morning.

7:47 Speaker 2 Listen, thank you so much. Take it easy.