🐊Let's Talk About That $57 Million Dollars: Welfare State for Politicos at the Expense of Floridians In Need

Why They Really Fear Casey DeSantis

A gator can always sense a snake. Especially when the swamp starts hissing in unison.

There is a uniquely Floridian species of hypocrisy—sunburned, cufflinked, and deeply afraid of church ladies. And it lives, feeds, and multiplies inside the Florida Legislature.

This week, the same self-satisfied class of lawmakers who restored $57 million in public funds for their own “support services”—IT upgrades, salary padding, lobbyist-tracking systems—are clutching their pearls over a $10 million private donation to a welfare program that has, brace yourself, reduced dependency and worked.

Hope Florida, the First Lady’s initiative to connect families with charities, churches, and community organizations, has moved over 30,000 Floridians off public assistance and into stability. No bureaucratic labyrinths. No backdoor payouts. Just human dignity through subsidiarity.

That is precisely why they want to kill it.

Bureaucratic Welfare for Tallahassee Elites

Let us not pretend the legislature’s $57 million veto override they chose as their first action in their session this year was a principled act of institutional independence. It was a panicked clutching of the purse strings by a ruling class that has mistaken its own job security for the public good.

The Legislature’s override of Governor DeSantis’ veto wasn’t about “transparency.” It was about self-preservation—about protecting the patronage ecosystem that props up insiders and punishes reformers.

Let’s follow the money.

In September, Florida’s Attorney General secured a $57 million Medicaid settlement. The moment that money touched state coffers, it was effectively earmarked—not for the public, not for Medicaid recipients, but for legislative self-enrichment.

By January, as soon as the Legislature gaveled into session, they moved with surgical precision to siphon off that $57 million—restoring every dime to themselves after DeSantis had vetoed the funds.

And what did they sacrifice to get it?

They adjourned the very session Governor DeSantis had called to address urgent priorities—immigration enforcement and amending a flawed condo-safety law that is crushing elderly homeowners under the weight of impossible financial mandates. Those reforms? Dead on arrival. Killed by a Legislature more interested in preserving its own perks than relieving the burdens of Floridians.

So let us ask: in exchange for abandoning border security and leaving elderly condo residents in the lurch, what exactly did this $57 million go to?

Here’s the answer:

• 🧑‍💼 Salaries for legislative staff whose productivity is inversely proportional to the size of their LinkedIn banners

• 🖥️ Upgrades to internal IT systems that track bills, not benefits

• 📺 The Florida Channel, where taxpayer-funded stagecraft masquerades as governance

• 🧾 Lobbyist registration infrastructure (yes, they funded the bureaucracy that manages their own revolving doors)

In other words, it’s a welfare program for people who already have benefits, pensions, and parking spots at the expense of a different welfare program: Medicaid.

Now ask yourself: What in this $57 million has helped a single Medicaid recipient?

Nothing.

There is no program in that bundle that gets a working mother access to a doctor. There’s no line item that accelerates care for children. There is no service in that spreadsheet that moves a family from subsistence to sustainability.

Yet, the Legislature—mouths full of martini olives—wants to investigate Hope Florida for accepting a donation from a Medicaid settlement, while they diverted public funds to themselves.

You’d have better luck finding ethics at a strip mall slot parlor.

The Real Grift: Protecting the Cartels of Influence

Follow the money, and the picture sharpens.

🟢 Trulieve, Florida’s cannabis Goliath, failed to pass its recreational marijuana amendment specifically because of DeSantis. So it launched lawsuits and political vengeance agains the state of Florida. Not only did they try to damage the state through a shady constitutional amendment, they’re tying the state up in court costing taxpayers.

⚖️ Trial lawyers, whose power rests on perpetuating misery, see any reduction in dependency as a reduction in future clients.

And then there’s Susie Wiles, former Mercury Public Affairs operative—whose firm represents marijuana clients—now whispering in Trump’s ear and grooming Byron Donalds as a pliable successor to the DeSantis legacy.

These are not random actors. These are intertwined networks, terrified that Casey DeSantis might take the wheel next —not because she’s running, but because the idea of her running is enough to shatter the status quo.

Their coordinated campaign isn’t about a policy disagreement. It’s about survival.

Fear, Exposed

There is no mystery in what’s happening. The Legislature, once composed of mild-mannered stewards of fiscal sanity, now resembles a cartel of fear-motivated animals, lashing out at the very notion of another 8 years of a command executive who puts the people before the PACs.

This isn’t just about Ron DeSantis. This is about the DeSantises as a concept. An archetype. A governing philosophy that doesn’t ask permission before doing the right thing.

They saw what Hope Florida did.
They saw how fast it grew.
And now they fear what comes next:

• More families off food stamps.

• Fewer contracts for consultants.

• A public that no longer needs them.

They are not acting out of principle. They are reacting from instinct—the instinct to survive accountability.

The Threats, the Smears, the Swamp

What’s more grotesque than the spending is the extortionate climate lawmakers now create:

• Members are threatened behind closed doors if they don’t parrot the right talking points

• Legislation is held hostage to protect the egos of men who haven’t read a book since their bar exam

• Conservative reformers are iced out of committees, bullied into silence, or punished for... governing

It’s time to name this for what it is: a protection racket run in pinstripes.

The media won’t do it.
The influencers won’t touch it, hell they’re being paid to promote the lie.
But we will.

Why They Really Hate Hope Florida

Hope Florida isn’t a “slush fund.” It’s a mirror. And when these elites looked into it, they saw themselves reflected—and recoiled.

Because if Casey DeSantis can succeed without them, what’s left for them to do?

They don’t fear corruption. They fear irrelevance.

They don’t hate the DeSantises (“DeSanti” ?)because they failed.
They hate them because they succeeded without compromise.

Call It What It Is

Let’s drop the pretense:

• $57 million was returned to the state by DeSantis and his AG

• The Legislature this year choose to use it to protect legislative largesse

• The attack on Hope Florida is a political hit, not policy oversight

• The marijuana lobby and trial lawyer class are pulling the strings and out for revenge.

• The threats against honest lawmakers are real—and they’re cowardly

• The idea of Casey DeSantis terrifies them because she doesn’t need them

They’re not playing chess. They’re flipping the board.

Let’s Name Names. Let’s Mock the Mob.

You want to fight corruption? Start here.
You want to defend actual conservatism? Subscribe.
You want to put the swamp on notice? Share this.

This post is free because Truth shouldn’t be behind a paywall when the Swamp is busy filling the air with lies

🧨 Support this reporting. Paid subscribers will receive the full investigative archive: PAC ties, influence maps, and names that keep showing up on the same donor lists. And they’re not ready for what’s coming next.

Want more clarity in a world of clutter? I cover these topics—and the intellectual battles behind them—on Substack: The Rational Purview

🟩 Subscribe.
🎙 Listen to Firing Lane.
☕ Support the anti-grift with a Buy Me a Coffee.
🛍 Check out @MrsCroaky’s merch store.

The fight for reason isn’t won in a day. But we can win it one argument at a time.