Posted on 09/12/2009 5:19:12 AM PDT by IbJensen
Florida is at the bottom of most national social, health and educational indicators. Yes, we're told, it's cheaper to live in Florida, and taxes are lower in conjunction with a high quality of life. Not true anymore.
In fact, while wages are lower in Florida and solid job opportunities are fewer, now the cost of living here is moving higher. Since Florida is, for the first time since World War II, losing population and our economy has been based on growth, the fact that we have no state income tax puts an unbearable burden on regressive Florida real estate and sales taxes.
When Bob Graham was governor, the state paid for 65 percent of public education. Now it is under 50 percent. In 2008 the state's contribution to K-12 dropped to 39 percent. Who pays the difference? Local communities. Tallahassee has been continually shifting government costs to local governments. Now, most Florida counties and cities are having a difficult time making ends meet, and some are on the verge of insolvency.
Nor is Florida getting its fair share from Washington. Yet, after Gov. Charlie Crist embraced President Obama's stimulus package, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ray LaHood wrote to Crist that Florida is 50th among states in using stimulus funds. It's actually worse.
Florida is supposed to get $11.2 billion ($610 per person) from the Recovery Act, ranking it last among the 50 states and U.S. territories. Puerto Rico, not even a state and also with a Republican governor, Luis Fortuño, will receive $6.05 billion in stimulus funds, fifth in rank nationally, above Florida.
Florida ranks 45th in education-related stimulus dollars so far and 32nd for healthcare-related spending. In infrastructure dollars, including transportation, energy and other construction projects, Florida again ranked dead last.
In the face of pending disaster, the question is: Why is Florida always a donor state? Tallahassee only gets back 85 percent of what we send to Washington.
Had Crist appointed former Florida House Speaker Dan Webster to consolidate his conservative votes, this would have been understandable. But, now is when Florida needs an effective advocate in Washington to ensure that Florida gets back a greater share of what we send to the Capitol. We also need to get a more equitable share of federal stimulus funds.
In short, we need someone who can ``deliver the bacon,'' the way former Congressmen Bill Lehman, Paul Rogers and Claude Pepper did effectively for the Sunshine State. Instead, Crist appointed lobbyist George LeMieux.
Passing over men and women experienced in the corridors of power, and those who have relationships with key decision makers in the Congress, the governor has appointed a political operative with no federal or legislative experience. I am sure LeMieux is a perfectly nice fellow and I understand he is a formidable fundraiser for the governor. But the idea of appointing a lawyer, whose real avocation is lobbying and ignoring many qualified individuals with real federal or state legislative experience is the wrong choice for our state.
Crist has given us a rookie when we need an experienced hand.
LeMieux's role as the chief negotiator of the recently announced gaming compact with the Seminole Indians, where he served the state on a ``pro-bono'' basis, should be examined in light of the almost $1 million the Seminoles have contributed to the Republican Party of Florida since Crist was nominated for governor, and at least $200,000 the RPOF paid to Mr. LeMieux's law firm. Perhaps this only creates the impression of impropriety, but that alone is enough.
At a time when we truly need Florida's best in Washington, Crist has sent us an inexperienced crony. That is a missed opportunity for Florida.
The most important job is to slash the monstrous central government to ribbons and keep it from taking over everything assigned to the states by our Constitution.
Additionally Florida needs to retire Charlie the Tuna from politics.
Charlie's plans are very simple, and laughable if he weren't well on the road to accomplishing them.
Obama took an good smile and White Guilt and became the first Black president.
Charlie wants to be the be the openly Gay president.
That's been his dream for 40 years.
Anyone know what the average is, after the federal blood suckers take there part?
We pray that Marco Rubio will stop Charlie the Tuna!
I don’t think America would sit still for a queer in the White House.
There are 12 voters in the ThreePuttinDudes posse that will
NOT be voting for Governor Suntan. As of right now, we are
backing Marco....
TPD
>>But, now is when Florida needs an effective advocate in Washington to ensure that Florida gets back a greater share of what we send to the Capitol.
Or we could elect people that think we shouldn’t be sending so much of OUR money to the Capitol in the first place so we don’t HAVE to beg to get it back as “federal money”.
Right on!
I’m going to make a guess here, that, the Miami Herald will endorse the Fascicrat for senator in the election.
And there are 5 in this posse that will also be backng Marco!
Florida must take the 10th Amendment seriously. Secession is, unfortunately, almost impossible with the intertwining fingers of the Feds everywhere. We can however:
Stop sending money to DC for “education” and put accountability and responsibility back in the hands of local government and individual schools. There would be threats, whining, and dire warnings but, in the end, what can the Feds do? Would “The Won” raise an army and invade, cut off aid (we then stop sending all taxes), whine that the move is clearly racial. We have the money and simply keep it.
Refuse to enforce certain Fed rules and/or regulations. The libs cheered when the city of Aspen (Vail?) refused to work with Fed drug warriors. If it is fine for them, why not for us??
to paraphrase Mr Buckley, we'd be better off with 535 people picked from the phone book
The Founding Fathers weren’t “pros” and they did a heck of a job. The “elites” are truly ignorant.
AMEN!!!!! If you have any doubt about the fact that “the pros” have screwed us royally, just look at the “pros” the State of Mississippi has had in the Senate since 1947. Stennis, Eastland, Lott, Cochran and now Wicker. 62 years with only five (5) Senators and Wicker has only been there 1 year.
Now look at Colorado, since 1947 they have had; Johnson, Millikin, Carroll, Allot, Haskel, Carroll, Dominick, Armstrong, Brown, Hart, Wirth, Nighthorse Campbell, Allard, Salazar, Udall, and Bennet. that's sixteen (16) in the same length of time.
Now tell me which state has benefited the most from the “pros”?
Never ever vote for a pro they will just feather their nest at your expense.
But they elected a marxist “magic negro”?
The problem, however, with high turnover, is that it puts Colorado at a disadvantage, because most freshman Senators (and sophomores, for that matter), won’t rise to become powerful members that chair committees.
Colorado and of those 15 Senators (not 16, since John Carroll served 2 separate terms), only 3 of them ever became Committee Chairman (party-switcher Ben Nighthorse Campbell given Indian Affairs, Democrat Ed Johnson given Interstate/Foreign Commerce and Chairman of the Special Cmte. to Censure Joe McCarthy, and Eugene Millikin given Finance - and Johnson and Millikin only got those chairmanships because both served 3 terms, hence seniority, and Campbell likely given Indian Affairs as a reward for switching parties). 2 other Republicans never got chairs, but headed leadership roles within the party, Gordon Allott and Bill Armstrong.
In the case of MS, 4 of those 5 rose to become very powerful members - at the expense of states like CO. Southern Democrats of the past when there was only one party understood that in order to reach real power was to get elected young and stay until they were old, that’s why so many (at least until Watergate) had control of many committees in the House and Senate. Lott and Cochran followed the same model, and that yielded them success.
It’s a complicated answer. There are upsides and downsides. CO doesn’t have a substantial Black population, let alone one that lives below the poverty line (it has poor Hispanic areas, of course, especially near the NM border). But CO is still at a disadvantage not having powerful senior members (both its Senators have a combined seniority of just barely more than a year). One could argue MS would be in even worse shape without having powerful senior members, nevermind a well connected and excellent Governor (contrast Barbour with the execrable Auggie Ritter in Denver).
The problem with the term limits measures is that a state can’t unilaterally impose them on federal offices, that could only be done via amendment to the Constitution. I’m a bit torn on term limits. When Colorado imposed them, it was the worst thing to happen to the state GOP, as CO was one of the few states with a usually reliable GOP state legislature, and within a few cycles, the Dems grabbed control, and now the legislature is moonbat. Federally, you’d have a problem where the staffers and AAs would become the real power behind the throne, with freshmen fighting over who gets the best ones. You can impose term limits on elected officials, but how do you impose them on the staffers, chiefs of staff, administrative assistants and the like ?
I do not know how to impose limits on the staffers etc, but I do know that someting must be done. These career politicians are killing this country.
as fro a term limit amendment, I am also torn but short of repealing the 17th amendment I know of no other way to control the entrenched politicians. They will give taxmoney to anyone that will give them a vote.
By the way Thad Cochran (R-MS) our senior Senator is also number one (1) in the Senate in pork. Buying votes. 31 years in the Senate and 8 or 10 before that in the House! Barbour is good. Maybe the best Governor this poor state has ever had. But the entrenched state politicians are as bad as the Federal ones.
I think I would take Colorado’s system over this one any day.
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