Fort Myers Beach sits five miles from my home.
Last year, the beach town suffered a direct hit from Hurricane Ian.
A nine-foot wall of sea pushed through the entire area, wiping out buildings, taking innocent lives. And even now, it’s fueling a desperate sale of property on one of the most beautiful beaches in Florida.
Drive past it now - it still looks like a hurricane hit last week.
Piles of rubble are still scattered across the landscape. “For Sale” signs stretch every 15 yards.
Then, go on YouTube or read partisan Tweets or Xes or whatever-they-are-now from people with political axes to grind. They’ll tell you we deserved it because of our governor. The federal government left this entire area to the wolves. It’s become a free-for-all on real estate.
The middle working class is gone… In come the billionaires.
Leaders and media elite in Washington don’t like our governor.
Fine, but they largely abandoned the people in Western Florida.
So, imagine my horror when I read the stories of the events in western Maui. More than 1,000 people remain missing after a deadly wildfire spread across the region, including historic Lahaina.
The local government didn’t sound alarm sirens. The county water manager delayed releasing water for five hours. He’s resigned since.
One Associated Press report seemed to indicate state troopers, who were trying to block access to downed power lines, may have barricaded a route to safety, turning people back into an uncertain fate.
In some cases, the people who survived were those who defied the orders. One family went off the road and drove into oncoming traffic to escape the fire. Another cut through the woods.
The headline tells you all you need to know moving forward.
It tells you those who took their lives into their own hands… survived.
This is starting to feel like a theme in this decade.
$700?
The state and federal government response to the crisis and its immediate aftermath has been pretty embarrassing.
How embarrassing? Well, the federal government is about to mail a check for $700 to every resident who lost everything.
That’s not a typo. Seven hundred dollars. American dollars, even.
To quote Lewis Black, “they’d be better off if someone just came to their door and pissed on their foot.”
Meanwhile, we’ve authorized another $13 billion for Ukraine.
The optics are stunning.
They don’t care.
They live off you.
They’re stealing… and they’re all incompetent. Hurricanes, earthquakes, floods – none of them can manage to mount an adequate response.
It doesn’t matter if they’re Republican or Democrat… Whig or Tory… Bull Moose or Radical Socialist… Nothing changes.
We have an incompetence problem, and it needs to change.
It has become increasingly apparent to me that Washington has zero interest in helping the American people. Instead, I only see people raiding the Treasury and lining their pockets.
In Florida, I’ve lived this for the past 12 months – and I hope that people see it now.
Maui is a staggering example of government failure at the local, state, and federal levels.
This is not a government for or of the people.
It’s parasitical.
I’ve simply walked away from our system. Opted out. I encourage you to do the same.
It’s not about left or right…
It’s about up and down.
And it’s a reminder that no one is coming to save us.
What’s worse… they don’t seem to care what happens.
Stay positive,
Garrett Baldwin
Secretary of Finance