Ron DeSantis backed deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare while in Congress. Trump is ready to hammer him for it ahead of 2024.

• Ron DeSantis is coming under fire from both parties as he weighs a presidential campaign.
• Trump has made it clear that he will attack DeSantis’ past support for changes to Social Security and Medicare.
• DeSantis’ time in Congress could become a further source for future campaign fodder. 

It seems everyone wants to go after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

Both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump took shots at him just this week, even though the popular Republican governor has yet to announce a presidential campaign. 

These early attempts to define DeSantis also underline how one of this biggest liabilities may be his past as a rank-and-file conservative in Congress before his meteoric rise as a Purple state governor. The frequent Fox News guest is popular with some of Trump’s populist base. 

Even a brief review of DeSantis’ record showcases the vulnerabilities that could lie ahead. 

Here’s a look at some of the key topics DeSantis’ anticipated presidential campaign is almost certain to have to contend with:

DeSantis went even further than Paul Ryan on changing Social Security and Medicare 

As a congressional candidate, DeSantis repeatedly expressed support for Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed overhaul to entitlement programs by privatizing aspects of Medicare and Social Security, as CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck uncovered earlier this week.

Congressman DeSantis went even further than that position. As Josh Barro wrote, DeSantis supported the even more drastic Republican Study Committee’s budget proposal that aimed to balance the federal budget in four years, instead of Ryan’s decade. To achieve such cuts, as the Committee for the Responsible Budget detailed back then, required changing Medicare to a partially private system by 2019 and raising the retirement age to 70. It would have also increased the full retirement age for Social Security to 70 as well.

There’s a reason why changing these massively popular programs is regarded as one of the “third rails” of American politics. The AARP tore into Ryan’s proposal at the time, particularly for its proposed changes to social security. The Obama campaign later delighted in bashing Republicans over Ryan’s ideas after then-former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney tapped him as his 2012 running mate. And DeSantis endorsed changes that went beyond what Ryan wanted.

Normally, this would be considered a general election vulnerability. Republicans for decades proposed all sorts of changes and cuts to entitlement programs.

But Trump is not an average Republican. He has certainly never been a movement conservative unlike DeSantis or former Vice President Mike Pence, who chaired the influential Republican Study Committee less than a decade before DeSantis arrived in Washington. How else would you explain someone who used to be a registered Democrat, flirted with the reform party, and once explained his pro-abortion views as a product of living in New York and not Iowa?

Trump has made it clear that he would not propose cuts to Social Security and Medicare and is ready to attack 2024 nomination challengers who have in the past. 

He backed a nationwide sales tax to replace the current tax code.

Like other 2024 contenders, DeSantis supported a nationwide sales tax system known as the “Fair Tax.” Less than a month after joining Congress, the Floridian co-sponsored a bill that would have abolished the IRS and empowered states to collect what would start out as a 23% national sales tax*. (Different calculations could mean that the tax would be 30%) There would have also been some monthly rebates for certain families that met size and income standards.

The idea has been around for decades. The once-fringe proposal has received renewed focus amid the possibility that Speaker Kevin McCarthy may allow a floor vote on it. 

Outside of conservative circles, the idea is viewed as politically dicey. On its very face, the tax would be far more regressive than the current system. A Tax Policy Center analysis found from 2012 found that middle-class households would see a net tax increase while wealthier Americans would bank a “sizable cut.”

But once again, this might not just be a general election problem. Trump, as Semafor previously reported, is keen to remind Republicans who used to support this idea.

He voted against renewing the Violence Against Women Act

This is not a new potential attack. Florida Democrats hammered DeSantis when he first ran for governor over his 2013 vote against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. Insider couldn’t find any comments he made at the time, but he was far from the only Republican or even the only Florida Republican to vote against the bill. 

—andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) February 9, 2023

Sen. Marco Rubio said then that he opposed the bill due to new provisions, including what he viewed as an improper shift from domestic violence programs to sexual assault programs, Politico reported at the time. Other House Republicans were also opposed to the Democratic-led Senate bill that would have expanded access to certain visas to non-citizens who were victims of domestic violence, CNN reported at the time. This provision was later removed from the bill.

Biden, who was then vice president, later took aim at House Republicans whose opposition slowed the renewal by a year, saying they were “this sort of Neanderthal crowd.”

Republicans haven’t had to deal with a nominee with a voting history in a long time.

It is expected that DeSantis may not announce until after Florida lawmakers complete their regular session in May. In the meantime, his potential future rivals, including Biden, will continue to attack some of his current actions. The president went after DeSantis earlier this week for blocking Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Florida is just one of 12 states that haven’t expanded Medicaid.

Republicans haven’t faced the possibility of nominating someone with a congressional voting record in over a decade. Besides DeSantis, Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem all served in Congress. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott is reportedly weighing a campaign too. While his colleagues Sens. Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio both ran in 2016.

Trump had made a plethora of public statements over decades, but roll call votes lay bare critical issues in a way few other things can. Even now-Sen. Mitt Romney carried the GOP banner as a former governor and executive. It was Ryan’s history that gave the Obama campaign more positions to tear apart.

This being Congress, votes often take place for messaging bills that stand little chance of becoming law or massive compromises that include a bunch of unrelated policies.

In recent years, Republicans have taken a number of votes that could age poorly in a general election. Voters are looking at abortion positions with fresh scrutiny. After years of failing to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare now enjoys majority support. And some of the ways the GOP tried to repeal the law, including a last-ditch so-called “skinny repeal,” may be tough to explain. 

This content was originally published here.