It's a common scene and, to some, an all too familiar situation. As a response to the jobs report released this morning, we've just launched our new ad, "The Dinner Table" online. It's uncomfortable, awkward, and a real-life example of the impact of President Obama's harmful economic policies and failing agenda.
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| I love ya, Florida, but Massachusetts definitely wins the June weather contest. |
The legislative scorecard allows our 86,000 members to see how their elected officials voted on issues affecting individual liberty and economic prosperity. The 2011 legislative session was one of the most business-friendly in years, with successful reform measures addressing unsustainable pensions and Medicaid, health care freedom, and burdensome regulations stifling job growth. These are the issues that will move our state forward and guarantee continued economic growth for Floridians.
Americans for Prosperity-Florida applauds all 79 Legislators - six Senators and 73 Representatives - that received A+ scores for advocating for less government, less taxes, and decreasing burdensome regulations on businesses. These are critical policies our lawmakers must support in order to ensure Florida can compete on the national and international level. The elected officials that received scores of D and F show hostility towards the free market and protecting the individual liberties on which our country was founded.AFP also awarded State Representative Scott Plakon its "Legislator of the Year" award, noting that he had "repeatedly proven to be a principled leader set on protecting liberty with his sponsorship of vital legislation including the Health Care Freedom amendment." State Senator Joe Negron was chosen from the Senate.
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| If Governor Scott starts wearing sunglasses all the time and driving a classic Cadillac, we'll know for sure. |
UPDATE: Here's a link to some additional commentary by Javier Manjarres at The Shark Tank:Members of Florida's Congressional Delegation and the Florida Legislature are plotting to circumvent Governor Scott's decision to reject $2.4 billion in federal funds to build a high speed rail from Orlando to Tampa. Unlikely bedfellows were made today when a group of 26 State Senators, including ten democrats and led by high speed rail supporter Paula Dockery, sent a letter to Obama’s Transportation Secretary asking him to circumvent Gov. Scott and send the dollars directly to a state commission created in 2009. They noted that politics should have no place in the future of Florida’s transportation, but they are doing exactly that with this political power play to quiet your voice and that of your elected Governor.Governor Scott's decision to reject the federal stimulus dollars is backed by sound economic policy and represents the voice of fiscal conservatives - he doesn't think it is in the best interest of the state to commit to a project we can't afford down the road. The Federal Railroad Administration has proposed a plan for Florida that will cost an estimated $11 billion to build, and it is projected that along with SunRail and Tri-Rail it will cost $100 million per year to operate once completed. With unknown ridership numbers and a budget shortfall of $3.5 billion and growing, the state of Florida simply can't afford Obama and Dockery's High Speed Rail plan.For Prosperity,Apryl Marie Fogel
State Director
Americans for Prosperity - Florida
It’s not often that common sense and fiscal discipline wins the day at any level of government, but Governor Rick Scott deserves big kudos from you (and your kids if you have them) for doing the right thing for Florida and its long-term fiscal health, as he effectively killed the so-called High-Speed Rail (HSR) project which was planned to connect Tampa to Orlando. Governor Scott, like most other clear thinking people who understand the value of a dollar and what a cost/benefit analysis is, looked over the horizon and saw that Florida would have been saddled with an enormous long term fiscal loser in exchange for what?- maybe 20,000 jobs over the next five years, many of them temporary, that would be paid for with more borrowed federal money. Consider it yet another “stimulus” project that wouldn’t stimulate anything but our debt and the growth of government.
It’s a pretty good bet that either a Governor McCollum or a Governor Sink would have approved the HSR project regardless of its bleak long term fiscal projections, as that’s the very short-term thinking we’ve come to expect from politicians of all stripes. But as is typically the case in government, no good deed goes unpunished, and Scott is getting blowback from every direction, including a somewhat unexpected source, as a veto-proof group of State Senators have issued a public rebuke of Scott’s decision to kill HSR.
It’s almost embarrassing to read the letter this group of 26 State Senators sent to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood practically begging him not to give these rejected federal monies to another state as if it were somehow their birthright. Their letter deadpans that "Politics should have no place in the future of Florida’s transportation, as evidenced by this letter of bipartisan support."
Come again, Senators? Governor Scott’s decision to kill HSR is based on his very sober cost/benefit analysis of the project. You can agree or disagree with Governor Scott’s decision, but your support of HSR is as every bit “political” as his decision was to kill the project.
