DeSantis' First Presidential Priorities: Border, Economy

Closing down the southern border and opening up energy and the economy are going to be first priorities for Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis if he wins the White House in 2024.

"Obviously we are going to shut down the border," DeSantis told "The Hugh Hewitt Podcast" on Monday morning. "We are going to do the border security. That is just point one. We have got to get that done.

"Two, we are going to repeal Biden's disastrous economic policies, his Green New Deal. And we are going to have things that are going to help jump-start this economy: Things like full expensing so that we have more ability to produce manufacturing.

"But we are going to have a huge package for reconciliation that is going to cover a lot of different things."

The budget reconciliation tactic has long allowed a presidential administration to get through one spending-related bill per year on a simple majority vote, instead of having to deploy the nuclear option in the Senate against a 60-vote threshold.

But DeSantis said he will not just squeeze through one budget-reconciliation bill, because President Joe Biden has unwound precedent.

"It is going to be more than just one because Biden expanded reconciliation," DeSantis told Hewitt. "They dumped a lot of stuff.

"So we are already going through what can we all put in there."

Also, DeSantis vowed to get even more conservative justices on the Supreme Court, saying former President Donald Trump's Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett are not as conservative as Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

"I would say we'll do better than that," DeSantis said. "I mean, I respect the three appointees he did, but none of those three are at the same level of Justices Thomas and Justice Alito. I think they are the gold standard, and so my justices will be along the lines of a Sam Alito and a Clarence Thomas.

"And in Florida, I inherited a very liberal state Supreme Court, maybe the most liberal in the country, very activist. But I was able to replace three of the four liberals my first month in office with conservative justices.

"I've since been able to make a number of appointments since then. So we now have the most conservative state Supreme Court in the country. And so I think we have a really good track record on doing that. And in fact, two of my Supreme Court picks in my first year of office were elevated to the 11th Circuit by President Donald Trump."

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