On Thursday’s broadcast of Fox News Radio’s “Brian Kilmeade Show,” 2024 Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said that Republicans have added trillions to the debt, including under the Trump administration, and “There’s something about these rich men north of Richmond in the D.C. area, they borrow and spend, and that D.C. area does much better.” And that in the federal budget, “you’ve got to revert a lot of that money back to where we were four or five years ago” for agencies like the CDC.

DeSantis said, [relevant remarks begin around 7:35] “As much as we rightfully criticize Biden for what he’s done since he came into office, Republicans have spent and borrowed trillions and trillions of dollars. And I think, just with the Trump administration, they did $7-8 trillion in new debt added on. So, that’s just the reality. There’s something about these rich men north of Richmond in the D.C. area, they borrow and spend, and that D.C. area does much better. Five of the eight wealthiest counties in our country are suburbs of Washington, D.C. So, those policies that hurt the American people do benefit the politically connected class.”

Host Brian Kilmeade then asked, “But two-thirds of our budget goes to automatic payments on entitlements that people paid into. But how do you get elected and tell people, I’ve got to revamp Social Security and Medicare?”

DeSantis responded, “But that is — it’s true in terms of the two-thirds. But, if you look at the debt that’s been added in the last six or seven years, most of that was from Congress spending discretionary. They didn’t have to spend the money and they chose to do it. Then what happens is, you’re locking in these high levels of spending that they justified with COVID, and that’s kind of the new normal. You can’t sustain that. So, I do think you’ve got to take the actual budget that we deal with every year, and you’ve got to revert a lot of that money back to where we were four or five years ago. You won’t miss a beat. These agencies have grown by 50% in terms of their budget, like the CDC and all those. Are you 50% better off than you were within the last four or five? Of course not. So, this is something that I think, with the Congress, you absolutely can do. And, part of the thing with like talking about like Social Security, Congress has spent Social Security money for decades. Social Security has run up big surpluses through the years. They’re not doing it anymore. Congress would take that surplus and they’d spend it and they’d write an IOU.”

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