DeSantis touts balanced budget amendment in Idaho, Montana

Gov. Ron DeSantis continued his bashing of Congress during a Monday press conference Monday in Boise, Idaho, to promote a constitutional amendment requiring the federal government to balance its budgets.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke joined DeSantis in urging more states to support a constitutional convention to add the balanced budget requirement to the U.S. Constitution; 34 are needed to trigger the convention. If the legislatures of Idaho and Montana support the move, it would up the tally to 29 states.

“I think if you got to 33 states, I think Congress would see the writing on the wall, and I think they would rush to write an amendment that they would then pass and then send to the states for ratification,” DeSantis said.

He was scheduled to meet Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte later in the day, when the governors were to host another press conference.

“We don’t want us to wake up 10, 15 years from now, us being some major financial crash because of interest rates and the debt and everything and say, ‘Man, you know, we could have done something in the states to avert this and we chose not to do it,'” DeSantis said.

House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell called DeSantis’ press conferences in the other states political stunts.

“Neither of those places is Florida. We have real issues right here in Florida. Why is the governor traveling to these states?” Driskell asked during a press conference Monday morning.

“First of all, during the work week. Second, who is paying for this trip? Third, where are his proposals on property insurance and lowering the cost of living, and how are we going to handle maybe these cuts that are coming to Florida’s health care budget?”