Hour 2 - Gov. Ron DeSantis

Summary

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The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show – Hour 2: Gov. Ron DeSantis

Date: November 20, 2025
Podcast: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Host: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

In this hour, Buck Sexton (with Clay Travis largely absent from the mic) tackles heated current issues in American politics, focusing especially on a controversial PSA by Democrat lawmakers about military orders, alleged “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” and an extended, insightful interview with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The discussion combines forthright criticism, humor, and in-depth policy talk—especially around property taxes and Florida governance.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Controversy Over Democrats’ Military PSA

• Background: Several Democrat lawmakers, including Mark Kelly, Jason Crow, and Elissa Slotkin, released a public service announcement (PSA) reminding U.S. military and intelligence officials about their duty to refuse illegal orders.
• Buck's Reaction: Buck finds the PSA vague, unnecessary, and subversive. He points out there’s no clear example of any “illegal order” at issue.
  • “Yeah, we know. What's the point of this?” (07:18)
• Implied Motive: Buck argues this PSA is part of a persistent Democrat narrative painting Trump as a would-be tyrant/fascist, therefore, the military needs a reminder.
  • “A big component of the Democrat resistance is this fantasy that Donald Trump is a king, a tyrant, a Nazi, a fascist, all this stuff.” (08:28)
• Critique of Specific Lawmakers: He expresses skepticism about Elissa Slotkin's credentials in this context, suggesting the message is more about political posturing than real concern (05:00–06:30).
• Subversion Alleged: Both the hosts and guest Stephen Miller call the PSA potentially “insurrectionary,” stating it’s a veiled call for mutiny.
  • Stephen Miller: “It is insurrection, plainly, directly, without question.” (20:58)

2. Listener & Veteran Pushback

• Listeners Respond: Buck reads VIP email responses from veterans who found the Democrats’ PSA “insulting,” “subversive,” and unnecessary.
  • “As a military veteran of 23 years, I am disgusted by the recent PSA from the Democratic Congress...” – Dave (45:00)
  • “No military member is going to listen to these clowns and refuse to follow an order. Not going to happen...” – Reed (46:20)
• Tone: Deeply frustrated, sense of insult to the armed forces’ professionalism.

3. Democrat Leadership & Trump Derangement

• Marsha Blackburn’s Commentary: The Senator sharply labels Democrats as suffering from “stage four Trump Derangement Syndrome” for issuing the PSA.
  • “It is inconceivable that you would have elected officials that are saying to uniform members of the military... that they would defy the orders that they have been given ... I find it inconceivable.” (12:38)
• Pelosi Soundbite: Pelosi is quoted calling Trump “the worst thing on the face of the earth,” with Buck denouncing her leadership style and generalizes it as childish, extreme rhetoric.
  • “And she's an imbecile, honestly. Very rich, very powerful, but an idiot... The worst thing on the face of the—, I mean, how can you...?” (22:48)

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Interview Segment: Governor Ron DeSantis

Begins: 26:14

Main Topic:

Florida’s Proposal to Eliminate Homesteaded Property Tax

Key Points from DeSantis:

• Impact of Property Taxes

  • “If you look at what's pinching people, property taxes is one of the biggest thing that's pinching people, particularly young families...” (27:08)
  • Differentiates between long-term residents and recent homebuyers who pay much higher taxes due to property value increases.

• Homestead Protection Limits Are Not Enough

  • Even with 3% annual limits, compounding effects mean taxes can become burdensome for long-time residents or retirees.
  • Local governments, not the state, get the property tax revenue—local budgets have ballooned (from $32B in 2019 to $56B in 2025).

• State Financial Health Argument

  • Florida, unlike many states, does not rely on property taxes for its budget and possesses a strong surplus and a maxed-out rainy day fund.
  • “I have a surplus, I have a maxed out rainy day fund. I don't get property tax revenue, I don't need it.” (28:08)

• Plan Details & Guardrails

  • Ballot measure planned for November 2026.
  • Structured to avoid “tax tourism” (people moving just for a tax break)—must be a longstanding resident to benefit.
  • Major beneficiaries: young families saddled with high assessments and elderly on fixed incomes.

• Rebuttal to Critics

  • Praises tax reduction as “letting people keep what they’ve earned.”
  • “If I reduce your taxes, I'm not giving you anything. That's your property, you own it, it's not the government's.” (33:02)
  • Criticizes arguments against it as “a leftist argument.”

Notable Quotes:

• “Is that really home ownership? I think Florida... we're in a situation... where so much of our tax base is comprised of people that aren't even full-time residents.” (30:45)
• “If you're doing a homestead exemption, the young family, they gain way more… than the elderly homeowner who's been grandfathered in on the homestead limitation.” (34:20)

Florida vs. New York Governance

• Efficiency Comparison:

  • Florida has more people than New York, with half the budget; NYC’s budget alone exceeds Florida’s.
  • “New York City's budget is bigger than the entire state of Florida's budget. And we have close to 23.5 million people.” (36:11)
  • Cites waste and patronage in NY’s budget as the chief difference, with Florida spending on tangible infrastructure, school choice, and environmental conservation.

• Predictions for New York:

  • Warns that if New York’s leadership continues its high-spending and anti-police trajectory, it will further lose residents to Florida.
  • “The number one thing that's going to drive people out of that city is that he hates the police. He wanted to abolish the NYPD.” (37:43)

• Closing:

  • Buck thanks DeSantis for “phenomenal work.” DeSantis promises further updates as the property tax measure develops.
  • “Please keep up the phenomenal work and come back and talk to us again soon about what you're up to.” (39:15)

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On the military PSA:

  • “It's like putting out a PSA: like, ‘don't murder people.’ Murdering people is bad. I just want you all to be clear. Do not murder people. We got it.” — Buck Sexton (09:13)

• On Pelosi:

  • “She was running the Democrat caucus with an iron fist... And she's an imbecile, honestly. Very rich, very powerful, but an idiot. And she says things like this. The worst thing on the face of the earth...” — Buck Sexton (22:48)

• On Property Taxes:

  • “If I reduce your taxes, I'm not giving you anything... that's your property, you own it, it's not the government's.” — Gov. Ron DeSantis (33:02)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–03:11 – Ad Reads, Show Introduction
• 03:11–16:19 – Discussion on Democratic military PSA, including Buck’s criticism and guest analysis
• 12:38–13:14 – Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s “Trump Derangement Syndrome” remark
• 20:14–22:34 – Stephen Miller's reaction; Pelosi soundbite and Buck’s commentary
• 26:14–39:19 – Extended Interview with Gov. Ron DeSantis covering Florida’s property tax plan, comparison to NY, and governance philosophy
• 44:39–46:20 – Listener emails from veterans responding to the military PSA

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Tone & Style

The episode is direct, sharp, and unfiltered, mixing policy wonkery with blunt political criticism. Buck’s commentary is often sardonic, especially when discussing Democrats, while DeSantis’ tone is practical and numbers-driven, focusing on policy implementation and defending his positions with specific data and philosophical reasoning.

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Conclusion

This hour offers a mix of national political critique—especially regarding Democratic messaging and so-called “Trump Derangement Syndrome”—and state-level policy insight, centered on Florida’s potential to abolish homesteaded property taxes. Governor DeSantis gives a detailed defense of his plan, targeting both economic rationale and local empowerment, while the show maintains a confrontational, lively tone as it skewers Democratic leadership and promotes conservative reforms.

For listeners seeking a deep dive into current political controversy, critiques of Democratic narratives, and a substantive policy discussion with a Republican governor poised for bigger things, this episode delivers sharp insight and memorable soundbites.

Transcript

[Clay]

This is an I heart podcast.

[Buck]

Shh.

[Clay]

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[Buck]

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[Clay]

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[Buck]

Everybody's second hour of play and buck kicks off now. And this was, this was a little trip into crazy town here. You had a bunch of Democrat lawmakers. Oh, by the way, we've got Governor Ron DeSantis joining us at the bottom of the hour. Florida, great things happening here in Florida, but also conversations that I think affect the rest of the country. If Florida can get rid of property taxes on homesteaded properties, meaning the place you live, not businesses, not second homes, not investment properties or whatever. But if Florida can get rid of the house you live in, you get to live in and the government can't just take it from you because you stop giving them money. Why can't every state do that? People go, oh, but where are they going to pay for the, the property tax is actually a pretty small percent overall, the kind of property tax I'm talking about just on homesteaded properties, pretty small percentage of many of these counties, at least in Florida. And there's a lot of waste, a lot of money being spent on things that shouldn't be spent on. So anyway, we'll get into that. I think that's a really important conversation because if you live, I think, doesn't Texas, don't some of you in Texas have pretty high property tax? Depends maybe where you are in the state. I don't know how it works there. I've heard, I've had friends complain about their property taxes in Texas. So that I do know people in the Dallas area for sure. Yeah, we could, we could get away from this because I do believe that there is something philosophically wrong with you work your whole life, let's say to Pay off your 30 year, not your 50 year, your 30 year mortgage in a house, you pay it all off. And then if you don't keep sending a check to the government based on the increasing taxation, it doesn't even stay the same. Right. Increasing taxes that you pay over time on that house, they can seize your home. How is that right? It just, it just doesn't feel like the America we should be in, my friends. You know, I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm very much in favor of getting rid of this. You know, you can, people say, well, it'll be on a sales tax. Okay, yeah, you can cut back on. You, they're not putting the, they're not going to make the sales tax on, you know, ground beef and, and milk. Okay. And that's not where the money's going to be made up. So you can cut back on, on consumption of other things if you have to and still stay in your house. Anyway, I, I, I feel strongly about this one and I wanted to talk to the governor about that and some other things as well. So we'll discuss that. But okay, back to this. This is, this is for all of us can look at this one. This Democrat lawmaker, psa. So you have Mark Kelly, Jason Crow, they're both veterans. Elise Slotkin, like me, she's former CIA, former CIA analyst. We write great memos and make amazing cappuccinos. Like we are not former military. So you know her in this, in this ad is kind of interesting to me. I'm like, what are you doing there? You know, I, you don't, you don't know anything about UCMJ and lawful orders. But tell you something, Slotkin wants to be at the big dance. She wants to be president, probably vice president, I think, is what she realistically thinks she might be able to achieve. But she definitely has ambitions beyond. She's already a senator, so this isn't, it's not crazy. She's going to run. She's going to run. I think she's more likely to run than Kamala Clay. How about that? Clay's not here to make fun of my bad analysis on that. So we'll get back to this next week. Here's this psa, though. It's just a general public service announcement they put out to members of the military telling them the following. Play 19.

[Guest or Interviewee]

This administration is pitting our uniform military.

[Buck]

And intelligence community professionals against American citizens.

[Guest or Interviewee]

Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.

[Clay]

You can refuse illegal orders.

[Buck]

You must refuse illegal orders.

[Clay]

No one has to carry out orders.

[Buck]

That violate the law or our Constitution. Yeah, we know. What's the point of this? We'll get into that. Here's my first objection to it, though. What's the illegal order they're worried about? Or give us the, Give us the, what are you talking about here? Where are the orders? Illegal. The deployment of National Guard because of a crisis in the state. No, the President has the authority to do that. So what exactly are they talking about? If they want to make the case, and I think they're getting close to this. If they want to make the case that this is about the strikes against narco terrorists in the Caribbean and in the eastern Pacific, which means off the coast of Mexico, basically West Pacific side of Mexico. If they want to make that case, say that, why leave it so vague? It's a very strange thing to do. It's a very subversive thing for lawmakers. Look, yeah, free speech, fine, they can say it, but I'm allowed to say it's subversive. Is also like people these days. Yes, you can ask any question you want, but people can also say, well, that's a dumb question. There are such things as dumb questions. I don't know. I don't know where we got this. People say, well, when I was in school. Yeah, they say that to encourage people to ask questions in the classroom or in the workplace or whatever. There are dumb questions. Otherwise, what do you call it when somebody says, well, when do you stop beating your wife to a politician just to try to malign them, knowing that they never beat their wife? Right there. Of course there are dumb questions, but I won't get into that any more than I already have. Uh, yeah. Why not just say that this is what they think is going on, that there's some problem here? Well, I think we all know a big. A big component of the Democrat resistance is this fantasy that Donald Trump is a king, a tyrant, a Nazi, a fascist, all this stuff. And so that's why they want to create this narrative that there are elements of the United States military that need to be reminded. Need to be reminded that they can choose not to or they're obligated not to follow in a legal order. Yeah, they know. It's like putting out a psa. Like, don't murder people. Murdering people is bad. I just want you all to be clear. Do not murder people. We got it. We knew that before. Thanks. Now, I gotta give Credit here. Martha McCallum and Jason, Congressman Crow of Colorado. Quite an exchange here over what this is and what this is really all about. Martha MacCallum getting right into it. This is cut 20. Listen in. What needs to happen is they need to come to Congress, and we needed to debate this. And for him to say there's no new war. That's exactly the problem, because only Congress can declare a war. Only Congress, according to our Constitution, has the authority to send our men and women. We know how it works. Well, apparently you don't because you're saying that's not true or exists or it's not a problem. The United States Congress is the one.

[Guest or Interviewee]

That has to make what your issue is. And so for members, prominent members of.

[Buck]

The United States Congress, to tell young.

[Guest or Interviewee]

Men and women of the military that.

[Buck]

They should not abide by illegal orders.

[Clay]

And to leave it to so vague and to talk about comments that have.

[Buck]

Been made in the past and what.

[Guest or Interviewee]

They might lead to, I think could.

[Buck]

Potentially be very confusing for young men.

[Clay]

And women who have committed to service.

[Buck]

Which you honorably did and I commend.

[Clay]

You for the sacrifice that you made. Let me just show you this. This is Senator Schmidt.

[Buck]

I'm going to respond to that.

[Guest or Interviewee]

Go ahead.

[Buck]

Military service is tough. It's really tough. We send our men and women into very difficult, very sometimes untenable situations. I know that, I've been in those situations. That's why moral clarity, that's why reminding people about what their obligations are, that's why abiding by the law and providing guidance and training them in advance is important. So what's the problem? I'm still waiting to hear from this guy or any of the others what, what the problem is. And also, you know, we're talking about a policy, we're talking about politicians, millions of people served in the United States military during the war on terror era, went to Iraq, went to Afghanistan, a few million Americans. So, you know, he's not the only one. You know what I mean? There's this thing of, well, I serve. So you don't get to have an opinion on this. No, actually we all get to have an opinion on lawmakers telling our military, hey, don't do the illegal stuff. What is that? You know, these aren't left wing professors at some third tier liberal arts college making fools of themselves. These are senators and congressmen. What are they doing? What are they doing? So, yeah, there you go. I just think it's one of these moments in time where Democrat derangement. Oh, here you go. Senator Marsha Blackburn, she gets right in, she says, yeah, these guys got TDS. And she's right.

[Guest or Interviewee]

Play 21, they have stage four Trump Derangement Syndrome. And it is inconceivable that you would have elected officials that are saying to uniform members of the military who have taken an oath to protect and defend that they would defy the orders that they have been given to execute their mission. I find it inconceivable, but that is what they have chosen to do. I Find this just so disturbing that they would say, defy the orders if you do not like the orders.

[Buck]

Now they're saying illegal orders, but that leaves it like, why are you saying this? If you're going to put out a psa, at least establish for us what the illegal order is that you're, you're concerned about. What is it that you think you're not, not allowed to do or you should not be doing? And also, where were these PSAs from? Democrats, as I've said, during the Obama years, when he was the drone warrior, just blowing people up all over areas of Pakistan, places in Yemen, Somalia, just blowing people up. We're not at war in any of those countries. Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia. And yet a lot of stuff going on there with the presidential executive authority that's taking lie and taking life. Look, the Democrats, the great advantage they have is that there's no principle they feel they must adhere to. That is a problem politically. The second it's a problem politically, the principal gets tossed out the window. So great. When they need the principles, they reach for them. Oh, we can use this as a, as a complaint against Trump, as a part of our hashtag resistance. No one uses hashtags anymore. I gotta stop saying hashtag. But that's what they used to call it. And the second that it's, hey, guys, our team is doing this. Well, our team's allowed to do it. We're in charge. The Democrats approach everything. It's certainly how they approach this. So, yeah, that's where it is. I, I thought this was very. Oh, Stephen Miller, by the way, is not. You know what? Well, I'll come back to Steve. We'll come back to Stephen Miller on this PSA here in a second. Cause he's not having it. He's. He's letting them have it. Actually. Is there a better thing that can arrive on your doorstep in a package than good Ranchers? It's like Christmas morning every time. And this is for November, May, July, whenever. I love my good ranchers. Great tasting steaks, burgers, pork chops, bacon, even salmon arrives via overnight shipping, packed perfectly to preserve these proteins. Good ranchers gets 100% of their food from American ranchers doing the hard work on our behalf. With good Ranchers, your meals are that much tastier and more memorable. You can taste the difference. And there's such a positive difference in the quality of the food when you can buy it from a farmer who's raising cattle, pigs and chicken the right way and without antibiotics or unnecessary hormones, become a good rancher subscriber. Today you'll get $25 off every box delivered, free shipping and a free gift in every order for Life. To shop America's best meat, visit goodranchers.com, start your subscription and if you order before December 1st and you're a first time subscriber, use my name Buck as your promo code. You'll get an additional 100 off your first three orders plus free meat for life. That's code Buck for $100 off plus free meat for life goodranchers.com code Buck stories of freedom. Stories of America. Inspirational stories that unite us all each day. Spend time with Clay and Buck. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast. Then the space hamster flew his hot.

[Clay]

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[Buck]

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[Buck]

So they put out this psa. These Democrats, lawmakers like Mark Kelly, Elise Lock and Jason Kyle Crow, some others as well, they put out this psa. Very weird. But you know, no kings, Trump's a fascist. All these things you hear. They have to come up with some way to deal with this. They have to come up with some explanation of why Trump is so bad. And so they put out this PSA because he's the commander in chief of the military and there's a department of War. Now they have officially changed the name. As you know Here is Stephen Miller, though, on this situation of telling our national security apparatus to make sure they don't do anything illegal play 22.

[Guest or Interviewee]

It is insurrection, plainly, directly, without question.

[Buck]

And when you have one of the lawmakers on that video being unable to state in, as you say, lengthy cross.

[Guest or Interviewee]

Examination, a single so called illegal order, it just proves the point. It's a general call for rebellion from the CIA and the armed services of the United States by Democrat lawmakers saying that you have not only the right.

[Buck]

But the duty and the obligation to.

[Guest or Interviewee]

Defy orders of the commander in chief, that those who carry weapons in America's name should defy their chain of command and engage in open acts of insurrection. These lawmakers should honestly resign into grace and never return to public office again.

[Buck]

Well, it's not going to happen, but I appreciate Stephen's fire on this and the sense that it's, there's something, a line that feels like is crossed by, by this. And if we're going to talk line crossing, we might as well get into Pelosi here. Pelosi is not going to be a problem in politics much longer. Right. She's not going to be running. And so now I guess she's going to really say whatever's on her mind, although she's probably been doing that all along, certainly when it comes to Trump. But here she is saying that calling Trump vile is no big deal. And she could have said much worse stuff. This is 23. One of the things you said recently in an interview. You said, you said that President Trump is a vile creature, the worst thing.

[Guest or Interviewee]

On the face of the earth.

[Buck]

Do you think he's different now than he was in his first term in.

[Guest or Interviewee]

Terms of his abilities, his leadership? By the way, I said that as a euphemism. I could have done much worse.

[Buck]

You could have done worse. You could have said worse. Yeah. Ha, ha, ha, ha ha. Worst thing on the face of the earth. Think about this. This woman was speaker of the House. She was third in line for the presidency. She was running the Democrat caucus with an iron fist for many, many, many years. And she's an imbecile, honestly. Very rich, very powerful, but an idiot. And she says things like this. The worst thing on the face of the. I mean, how can you have I ever said that any Democrat is the worst person on the planet? No, you know, you have to think about this in terms of like children throwing tantrums or they'll say, you know, I, I'm never going to, I'm never going to talk to you again or something. It's like, yeah, okay, like mommy or daddy said, you can't have another cupcakes, you're never going to talk to us again. Sure. But these people have power. So there are emotional outbursts and the fact that they can't control themselves and that they allow themselves to go to this place where they can say the most extreme things and they do, regularly. And they have so much just bile when it comes to Trump that they're spewing all the time. It just, oh, it's so awful. They're very unhappy people. That may sound like a simplification, but it's really not. They're very unhappy people. There's something deeply amiss and a lot of you I know a lot of the Christians in the audience would say we really need to pray for someone like Pelosi. And you don't say that just jokingly or ironically. You mean that seriously? The demons have gotten to her in many different ways over a long period of time and made her think and do very bad things. And I think it's unfortunate that the Democrat Party has people like this in leadership. I mean, Pelosi, after Obama, I think you'd have to say Pelosi has been the most consequential democrat of the 21st century. Much more so than Joe. But Joe Biden was a puppet. We all know that, for obvious reasons. So Pelosi, Pure Talk has put forth their best offer yet. And it's a lifetime one as well. Pure Talk is offering unlimited talk text and data with a 30 gig hotspot for just 29.95amonth for life. That's their lowest price ever. So if there was ever a time to make the switch, it's now. This is PureTalk's top tier plan. Normally $65 a month, now through December 7th, $29.95 a month. You're saving over 50% a month every month for life. And if you're wondering, yes, that's on their fast 5G network. This offers extremely short lived. So make that Switch today. Dial pound250, say Clay and Buck for PureTalk's best unlimited plan for just $29.95 a month for life. Pure talks US customer service team could have you switched in minutes. Keep your phone, keep your number and start saving with unlimited for life. For less than 30 bucks a month. Dial £250, say Clay and Buck. To switch to my wireless company, pure talk. Dial £250, say Clay and Buck. Taxes and fees not included. Some restrictions apply. See purertalk.com for details. Offer expires December 7th. Welcome back in here to Clay and Buck. Governor Ron DeSantis joins us now. The governor of my great home State of Florida, Mr. Governor, thank you for making the time for us.

[Guest or Interviewee]

Kyle, it's good to be with you. How are you?

[Buck]

I'm good, man. You're just doing such a good job. Honestly, my wife and I were the, we're the relatively new Floridians, although she grew up here, but we moved back here. And it's just nice to be in a state where, say, I always tell the audience, I'm like, good and sane. Things are happening that I don't even know about. I read about things that you guys are doing up in Tallahassee and I go, oh, that makes sense. I like that idea. You know, when I was in New York, I was like, can we stop the crazy for five minutes? Can we just stop the crazy? And by the way, the answer is generally no. Let's start with this possibility because this is interesting. This has gotten some, some pretty big names in the commentary space have been having a little back and forth online. You support getting rid of homesteaded property tax in this state. Can you walk through why, how and whether this is something you think we can actually get done?

[Guest or Interviewee]

So one, if you look at what's pinching people, property taxes is one of the biggest thing that's pinching people, particularly young families. Why? Because property valuations have gone up. And so you'll have somebody that's had a house for 30 years, they're homesteaded. You have a young family bought a house three years ago, their valuation is way higher, so they're paying a much higher amount in property taxes. You have to sell a house, maybe you get transferred from Miami to Tampa, you buy high tax basis and you're there. So we do have homestead protection. It does limit the increases, but even that it compounds 3% a year. So taxes is something that we're completely in control of. I can't control the price of housing. I mean, we can do some things to have a good market. You know, we have done big insurance reforms and we now have 17 new companies come in. And our biggest insurer, Peninsula, just did a rebate or just did a 8% reduction. And so we're, we're in, no, no storms this year. So we think there'll be positive things there. But ultimately that's a private market. We control the tax. So here are some numbers. If you, in the state of Florida gets no property tax revenue I have a surplus, I have a maxed out rainy day fund. I don't get property tax revenue, I don't need it. So anyone that tells you, oh, the state's going to have to raise that? No, we, in fact, I'm going to give money to some of these local governments that are more fiscally constrained to make up. So that's the first thing. It's all administered and decided by your local authorities and they get 100% of the revenue. If you go to Covid, you go right before COVID 2019 local governments in Florida brought in a total of $32 billion in property taxes. You know how much they're bringing in today, six years later? $56 billion. Now listen, we have had inflation, we've had had population growth, but it hadn't been that much. And so they're spending this money that this gusher of property tax revenue they're spending and we've been dojing the local governments blaze In Golia, our CFO is doing a fantastic job. You know, he's exposing hundreds of millions of dollars in Miami Dade, in Jacksonville and all these places that they're overspending. So that's just the first thing. We've had a huge increase in the size and scope of local governments because they're getting this. Now another fact, if you take all the property tax revenue, you have residential and business, the residential, the majority of it is non homesteaded Floridians. So second homes, Snowbirds, Airbnb rentals, you name it, that's the majority of residential property tax revenue. And then you have the corporate or the business tax revenue. So the total amount of residential Florida homestead property tax revenue is between 30 and 33% of all of this. Now mind you, the budgets have gone up way more than 30% in the last few years. So our view is, is well, let's. If you own your home and then you stop paying taxes in 20 years, the government takes it from you. So is that really home ownership? I think Florida, we're in a situation and we're still working on the particulars because the details do matter and we're going to have something very positive for all this. But we are in a unique position where so much of our tax base is comprised of people that aren't even full time residents. People that own these big luxury, you know, houses. Are they staying for three, three months? I'd rather them pay the tax than have, you know, a cop that's got a house worth $400,000 in Miami. So we have the luxury of being able to relieve our citizens of more and more burden of taxation. So. So that's the nature of it. Now you've mentioned there have been some stuff. All I can tell you is like having watched debates when you all of a sudden start seeing the same talking points sprouting up, just like magically, you know that that's coordinated. Right. That's an op. So there's some people out there who don't want to see this, and it's being orchestrated, but none of the arguments really make sense against it. And a lot of these people, I think all of them don't even live in Florida. So we have a specific way we want to go for Floridians that'll make a difference. Another thing, Buck, just because there's a whole there, you got to think out what are the incentives and how this. So, for example, I don't want to do a situation where it's going to incentivize people to flood into the state to claim a tax benefit from other states. So it's going to be structured in a way that, you know what you elected, Mandami, you're not going to just be able to come down here and get, and get no homestead property tax like that. You're going to have to be somebody that's been here for longer now. Any citizen who's here now, you're 100%. So there's all these different things that we're working on. We're working on it very smartly and I've got a lot of people that are working on it. But the goal is to have something on the ballot in November of 2026 where voters will be able to vote for it or not.

[Buck]

Well, I, you know where I stand on this one, and I've been talking about it for a while, and I think it's, it's really important. And one thing that I see is also a lot of people who would perhaps even want to move within this state, they don't want it. You know, if they want to get a little more space or whatever it may be, they're worried if they have to pay at the new rate on property. You know, property tax creates all these often, I think, problematic disincentives in the market. So that, that, that's an issue that people don't talk about enough. But the opposition to this, you know, I've, I've seen. So I know actually some of the people publicly who are very like, no, you have to. Someone has to pay the taxes. Is it just Some philosophical, oh, we can't give away more to the boomers, or are there special interests who are aligned against this? Because honestly, I think, and I'm sure you know this, other states are looking to see how this goes here and they might want to do some restructuring too.

[Guest or Interviewee]

Yeah, well, first of all, I think it's both. I don't think it's, I don't think those are mutually exclusive. But you know, there's this argument that somehow this is a quote, giveaway to boomers. Now, first of all, Buck, I think you and I agree if, if I reduce your taxes, I'm not giving you anything like, like that's your property, you own it, it's not the government's. And so we go in this situation where, like, are you an AOC or view where everything belongs to the government and then government determines, you know, what you get to keep. No, my default is you own your home. You, you get your income, you get 100% of your income in Florida because we don't have an income tax, any tax we cut. You're just keeping more of what you already have had. You earned your home, you purchased that home. So philosophically, when they're talking about giveaway with respect to reducing taxes, to me that's a leftist argument. Second, and you brought it up indirectly, elderly people. Now there are some elderly that are getting strapped with the taxes too, because they're on fixed income. Their taxes don't go up as much because they're homesteaded, but it still compounds over many years. And so they're being in a situation where it's tough. But if you're in a typical residential community in Florida and you have somebody that's lived in a home for 30 years, and then you have a young couple that bought a house, say in 2021, that young couple is going to have a much higher tax basis for property tax. They are going to pay way more in property tax than the elderly homeowner who's been grandfathered in on the homestead limitation for the last however many decades. So if you're doing a homestead exemption, the young family, they gain way more with respect to the total dollar amount that they're doing. So I think what it does is it when you have people out of state, they don't understand what, how Florida works. You know, they somehow think that like, you know, elderly person has a half million dollar home, young couple as a half million dollar home. Oh yeah, the elderly is getting as the same benefit that in reality, that is just not the way it works. Because of people having, having owned their home. So, you know, I think that it's, it clearly is not being done with people that are actually in Florida want to do. But I do think some of it is special interest, but I do think some of it is ideological and I think it's more of a left bent.

[Buck]

Yeah, I, again, I totally agree with that one. And they are, this audience already knows that. So that's not anything new. I'm, I'm a little surprised to see some of the voices, quite honestly that are on the right who seem to be, have a problem with this. I think it's bizarre. But anyway, I actually wanted to, if I could. You probably saw this Governor, tomorrow Trump and Mamdani are meeting and I just think this is an opportunity for you to just. In the broadest terms, we have a huge Florida audience, we have a huge New York audience and obviously people all across the country are listening. You have more people in this state, right? 21 million and half the budget. Yeah. Half the budget of New York. How is that possible? Like what is New York doing? How is it spending twice as much money with less people?

[Guest or Interviewee]

Well, not only that buck, New York City has 8 million people and New York City's budget is bigger than the entire state of Florida's budget. And we have close to 23 and a half million people. And that's before Mandami, you know, takes over the grocery stores and does things which going to cost even more money. It's crazy what would happen. So I think a lot of it is, you know, they direct money to special interest. They have different people who are kind of part of their patronage network. In Florida, you look what we spend money on. You know, obviously, you know, we have a federal state that does, that does Medicaid as all states do, where we didn't expand it under Obamacare. But we do have that portion. Education. The state has a, has a big role in helping to fund school districts as well as our school choice scholarship program which is, has a half a million students on it now. Infrastructure. I've been able to accelerate projects all around the state of Florida. So we're delivering some five or 10 years ahead of schedule. And that's meaningful for people in terms of their family time and not have to be in traffic so much. And I know there's other, we got a lot of work in some other areas. Miami's tougher because it's nice. Harder to build in different areas. But in other parts of the state we've made really good progress. I think on that. And then we've done the biggest conservation program and environmental restoration with Florida's Everglades, which is a huge success that we've done. We did a Florida wildlife corridor because we don't want the whole state to be a concrete jungle. So we're spending money on things that really matter to people, but that's really what we spend it on. I think New York, it's all about kind of whoever's in the barnacles attached to the ship. And all the different constituencies in the Democratic Party, they're doing it. And it's interesting. They'll say, oh, well, you know, they're. They pay better pension benefits, you know, for their police officers and fire. Well, the thing is, a lot of those people move to Florida and spend those pensions in Florida. So it's like you're doing that and it's like benefiting our economy down here because you're driving these people away. But I really think, you know, in terms of. There's obviously a big difference between the president and Mandami. Madame is going to do dumb things in terms of the economy. He's going to try to raise taxes. He's obviously going to be governed by a woke agenda, educational stuff for all that. But the number one thing that's going to drive people out of that city is that he hates the police. He wanted to abolish the nypd. He thinks he should send social workers to answer the 911 calls. So he goes down that road. It was bad under de Blasio. It didn't get much better under the current mayor. But I think he's going to make Bill de Blasio look like a right winger. I mean, it is going to be really scary.

[Buck]

I think that's the place. Unfortunately, having worked at the NYPD for a short while, Governor, I can tell you that's the place where the mayor, he is kind of the alpha and omega. Like, he can make the determinations about what policing is like in the city. These other things, the economic things, probably can't. But Governor DeSantis of Florida, thank you, sir, for all you do. Please keep up the phenomenal work and come back and talk to us again soon about what you're up to.

[Guest or Interviewee]

Okay, Roger that. Bye. Bye.

[Buck]

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[Clay]

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[Buck]

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[Clay]

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[Buck]

Welcome back in here to Clay and Buck. Great chat there with Governor DeSantis. Coming up we'll talk to Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. We're going to discuss FBI reform. The Epstein file release for the, for the right Epstein, meaning we're, you know, the Epstein that we're all talking about, not the Jasmine Crockett Epstein picked out of the phone book at random. That's not good. That's not a good move. And a lot of you, we're not gonna have time to get to all of them, but I appreciate, we remember, we read what we can on the air, but we see all of your VIP emails and we see the, all the talkbacks that you send in the transcript of them. So, you know, your, your, your voice, in a sense is. It's being. Well, being read. I was gonna say heard, but we're seeing your content. So we just have a tight turnaround on some of this stuff. But a lot of you veterans are like, how dare they with this psa. And we got a huge veteran audience here. Clay and I are both. Honestly, it's one of the, our things about this show that we're super honored about day in and day out is how many of you are veterans. And listen in here, VIP email from Dave. As a military veteran of 23 years, I am disgusted by the recent PSA from the Democratic Congress. People reminding the military they can disobey unlawful orders. Duh. To suggest otherwise is insulting. In fact, I consider their action highly seditious. We, the military, are well aware of our duties under the Constitution. Are they? Dave? I totally, totally agree. You nailed it. It's a weird and really subversive. You said, wrote seditious. That too. Really subversive thing to do.

[Guest or Interviewee]

A.

[Buck]

It's very underhanded and it's really meant to be. It's an unfair attack. That's the part of it. You know, there are things you can criticize Trump or the Republicans for. Fine, lots of things. Tons of things. You know, and I may disagree with it, but it's fair game to criticize unlawful orders that the military would have to say, I'm going to disobey a direct order. Well, what, what is that exactly? Meaning what is the unlawful order? VIP email from Reed. Also, here we go. Having served the United States submarine force for 20 years, I can assure you one thing. No military member is going to listen to these clowns and refuse to follow an order. Not going to happen. No man or woman is going to risk their career and time in the brig because they're upset over one of these causes. These Democrats are nuts. I mean, yes, these Democrats are nuts. And so it's a Submarine force. And so then you're a submariner, right? That's what I believe I have learned the hard way here. Not a submariner, a submariner. But the baseball team is the Mariners still, right? It's tough to keep up with all this stuff. A lot of nautical terminology out there too. That I got I gotta learn. But stand fast. We will come back in with Senator Ron Johnson here shortly. So ahoy. Yee, matey. Senator. That's pirates. That's not military. You know what I mean. Senator Ron Johnson's coming up. We'll be with you in a second. Shh.

[Clay]

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[Buck]

For all the holiday parties.

[Clay]

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[Buck]

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