The dollar has lost 87 cents of its purchasing power since Washington cut it loose from gold in 1971.
Now Ron DeSantis is doing something about it.
Florida's legislature just sent him a bill that locks gold and silver in as legal tender – and what he said about the people who wrecked the dollar explains exactly why every conservative in America should be paying attention.
Florida Finalizes What DeSantis Started Last Year
The Florida Senate passed HB 1311 on Friday, 31 to 1.
The House approved it unanimously the day before.
The bill codifies the regulatory framework that Florida's Department of Financial Services and Office of Financial Regulation built to implement DeSantis's original gold and silver law from 2025 – the one that kicks in July 1, 2026.
Under the rules now locked into statute, qualifying coins must display their weight, purity, and mint of origin, purchases are exempt from sales tax, and no one can be forced to use or accept them.
DeSantis signed the original bill last May and left no doubt why.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/1973426317736673704?s=20
"We've seen the downgrade in the credit rating over multiple administrations," he said. "We've seen a lot of problems with the D.C. swamp. This is our ability to give you the financial freedom to be able to protect yourself against the declining value of the dollar."
Biden and Democrats Spent Decades Building This Crisis
Here is what Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer will never tell you.
The dollar has been in slow-motion collapse since Washington decided it could spend without limits.
When Biden left office, he handed the next generation a $36 trillion national debt – the largest in human history.
Three separate credit agencies have now downgraded U.S. sovereign debt.
S&P went first in 2011. Fitch followed in 2023. Moody's finished the job last year.
Three agencies. Multiple administrations. One verdict: Washington cannot be trusted with your money.
And while Biden was spending trillions on Green New Deal giveaways and open-border welfare, gold was quietly doing what real money always does.
Gold hit an all-time high of $5,589 per ounce on January 28, 2026.
That is not an investment trend.
That is the market screaming that something is broken with paper currency.
Central banks around the world are buying gold at historic rates – roughly 755 tonnes expected in 2026 alone.
China's central bank extended its gold purchases for a 15th consecutive month in January.
When the institutions that run the global financial system are quietly stockpiling gold, they are telling you something they will not say out loud: they don't entirely trust the dollar either.
This Is a Movement, Not a Moment
Florida is not alone.
Utah was the first state to make gold and silver legal tender back in 2011.
Oklahoma followed in 2014. Louisiana, Wyoming, and Arizona have passed similar measures.
More than a dozen states have now passed laws recognizing precious metals in transactions or eliminating taxes on them – a growing bloc of conservative states saying the same thing in different languages: we do not trust Washington to protect the value of your savings.
And they are right.
The Federal Reserve has printed trillions since 2008.
https://twitter.com/profstonge/status/2022306649323520163?s=20
The national debt crosses new records every month.
And Washington's answer to every crisis – every single one – is to print more of the thing that is already losing value.
Gold can't be printed. Washington can't debase it. No bureaucrat can inflate it away.
That's why DeSantis called it "financial freedom" – because that is exactly what it is.
The Constitution already gave states this power.
Article I, Section 10 says no state shall make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts. Florida isn't doing something radical.
Florida is doing something the Founders already wrote into the law of the land.
Democrats spent decades pretending that clause didn't exist because it stood in the way of unlimited spending.
DeSantis just reminded them it does.
Florida takes effect July 1.
Every conservative in every other state should be asking their own governor one simple question: why not here?
Sources:
- News Service of Florida, "Legislation Approved To Enact Gold, Silver As Legal Tender," Florida Trend, March 6, 2026.
- FOX 13 Tampa Bay, "Gov. DeSantis signs bill to make gold, silver legal tender in Florida," FOX 13, May 27, 2025.
- Trading Economics, "Gold Price," TradingEconomics.com, February 2026.
- United Precious Metals Association, "State Legal Tender Laws," UPMA, 2023.
- Congress.gov, "Article I, Section 10, Clause 1 – Legal Tender Issued by States," Constitution Annotated, Library of Congress.
