Tuesday, April 08, 2014

If Rick Scott only had a heart … by gimleteye


I had missed this February OPED from the Tampa Bay Times. Too bad more Miami readers don't have the chance to read this kind of hard-hitting opinion. It is right on the mark. A notable feature is that the online version deploys the same photoshop humor that G.O.D. has perfected on our blog. Rick Scott has got to go.

IF RICK SCOTT ONLY HAD A HEART

This time four years ago Rick Scott was a stranger to Floridians. Then he spent $73 million on his first political campaign and rode an angry voter wave to the Governor's Mansion. For Florida, this has been a hostile takeover by the former CEO of the nation's largest hospital chain. In three years Scott has done more harm than any modern governor, from voting rights to privacy rights, public schools to higher education, environmental protection to health care. One more legislative session and a $100 million re-election campaign will not undo the damage.

This is the tin man as governor, a chief executive who shows no heartfelt connection to the state, appreciation for its values or compassion for its residents.

Duke Energy is charging its electric customers billions for nuclear plants that were botched or never built. Homeowners are being pushed out of the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and into private insurers with higher premiums and no track records. Federal flood insurance rates are soaring so high that many property owners cannot afford the premiums but also cannot sell their homes. The governor sides with the electric utilities and property insurers. He criticizes the president rather than fellow Republicans in Congress for failing to fix the flood insurance fiasco they helped create.

In Scott's Florida, it is harder for citizens to vote and for the jobless to collect unemployment. It is easier for renters to be evicted and for borrowers to be charged high interest rates on short-term loans. It is harder for patients to win claims against doctors who hurt them and for consumers to get fair treatment from car dealers who deceive them. It is easier for businesses to avoid paying taxes, building roads and repairing environmental damage.



Florida's modern political era began in 1954 with the election of Gov. LeRoy Collins, who skillfully steered the state through the early years of desegregation and is widely regarded as the state's greatest governor. Other governors from both political parties had an instinctive feel for Florida and a passion to help its people. In the 1970s, there was Reubin Askew. In the 1980s, Bob Graham. In the 1990s, Lawton Chiles. In the 2000s, Jeb Bush. There were some mediocre and average governors along the way, but even the least of them demonstrated a deep affection for this state and its residents.

Scott, who moved to Naples just seven years before running for governor, treats Florida like another faceless corporate acquisition to be dismantled and repackaged. Collins created the community college system; Scott ordered the colleges to create a gimmick, a handful of bachelor's degrees that can be purchased for $10,000. Askew established the water management districts and reformed the appointment process for judges; Scott gutted the former and injected more politics into the latter. Gov. Bob Martinez pushed ambitious efforts to manage growth and preserve environmentally sensitive land; Scott decimated both.

The state's refusal to accept billions in federal money illustrates how this governor ignores the needs of everyday residents. He fought the federal Affordable Care Act all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and lost. He stood by as the Legislature turned down $51 billion in federal money to help cover 1 million uninsured residents, and now he refuses to reaffirm even his tepid support for taking the money. Tens of thousands of Floridians are signing up for health coverage in the federal marketplace in spite of a governor who refuses to help them.

Scott's decision to reject $2.4 billion in federal money for high-speed rail between Tampa and Orlando was just as callous. At a time when the region was desperate for more jobs, Scott dismissed federal guarantees and let the money go to other states. He called high-speed rail financially risky but then approved far riskier projects to please powerful state legislators. He embraced the expensive SunRail project in Central Florida and the creation of Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland, a boondoggle that diminished the University of South Florida and will cost taxpayers dearly for generations.

This governor shows little respect for individual rights. He advocated drug testing for state employees and welfare recipients; the courts ruled against him. He pursued a purge of voter rolls that threatened to disenfranchise minority voters; the county elections supervisors revolted. He signed into law restrictions on early voting; the public outcry forced changes.

Scott sides with developers seeking an easier time building their projects, utilities winning routine approval of higher electric rates and health insurers that now need no state approval to raise rates. For homeowners, there is less protection from leaking septic tanks. For motorists stuck in traffic, the governor's solution is more toll roads.

The state spends less per public school student than when Scott took office. Parents and teachers have lost faith in a school accountability system in chaos. College students hear the governor's disdain for a liberal arts education as he demands results on the cheap. Meanwhile, Scott eagerly promises hundreds of millions in tax breaks to businesses pledging to create jobs in future years. His administration approved nearly 350 job creation deals in his first three years in office, but only four jobs have been created for every 100 promised.

The son of a truck driver and a store clerk, Scott grew up poor, lived in public housing for a time and worked his way through law school. He moved to Florida as the former head of a hospital company that paid a record fine for Medicare fraud, and he got himself elected to the state's highest office. Yet the governor who overcame so much adversity himself shows remarkably little empathy for Floridians and their everyday challenges as they seek a brighter future for themselves and their children. Scott's soulless approach to governing is turning the Sunshine State into a cold-hearted place, where the warm promise of a fresh start and a fair shake are fading fast.

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is utterly ridiculous that an electorate would put a 7 year resident in the Governor's office. What were they thinking? I've lived in FL for 20 years. Ten of those years were spent in the Keys. There is an immense and spectacular array of things to discover and appreciate in our state. There is also a rich diversity of culture. (And no, I'm not talking about the homogeneous 305.) I can't imagine a wealthy man, living in a secluded, gulf-front mansion, could have any clue about what he calls his home state.

Geniusofdespair said...

If he only had a heart...and a brain.
My sister worked under him at one of his hospitals as a nurse. They were ordered to use handiwipes on patients instead of soap and water. They hired people off the street to respond to
patient calls for nurses. Then they would call the nurse if it was warranted. Nurses were ordered to place patients into Scott's nursing homes.

She said Scott would come in every so often for pep talks. She doesn't like
Scott.

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Anonymous said...

The topic is about the State of Florida. Funny to see the Blind Republicans (good name for a punk band) posting here and attempting to shift discussion. What is good for the nation may or may not be good for the state. Let's not confuse the two. While the Gov wants to say that he has created jobs by cutting govt spending, the truth is that state spending has not been cut. It has GONE UP.

Anonymous said...

The above statement is not true.
According to the Florida Budget Office, spending has been significantly reduced.

Madeline A said...

If only Charlie Crist had some cojones or scruples.

Anonymous said...

If only democrats had another candidate? Oh wait! We do!

Where are all the women who post on this blog in favor of Hillary? And Daniella?

Wake up! We DO have an alternative to Rick and Charlie!

Anonymous said...

President-in-waiting Clinton and Commissioner-to-be Cava are highly visible, and working hard to be elected. You can't just sign-up to run, and wait for people to vote for you simply because you are a woman.

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Anonymous said...

I see Missy Lynda's a-blog bombin' again!

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Anonymous said...

This is about the state. After the honeymoon period the states are on the hook too.

And just as Sergeant York was largely created by the military to redirect the critics of horrible command decisions by Pershing at the battle of the Argon we are going to see lots of cherry picked success stories trotted out by the administration to deflect critics of this windfall for business.

Case in point.. much ballyhooed enrollment success...since when did solely meeting the CBO's capation projection mean victory? If 7.2 million sick people signed up or switched from another plan, is that a victory?

We do know only 80% of them have actually paid their bill, why wasn't that in the press release? .

Shouldn't the metrics be the CBO's actuarially soundness not the number of bodies enrolled?

Na, just move the goalpost, create some heros and declare victory.

Siri

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One Born Every Minute said...
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Anonymous said...

Let's get back to Scott. He is a scum-down dirty dog limiting our democracy, hurting voters, poor people, the sick and infirmed, the elderly, the unemployed, job growth and economic growth, the environment, and the list goes on. And interestingly, makes fun at the self-mutilating Hispanics who support him. I read the article yesterday and whole heartily agree with the observations of the writer.

Geniusofdespair said...

Trolls you are off topic!!! Read our rules.

Geniusofdespair said...

No more ACA

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Anonymous said...

Why do people not like Rick Scott?

Give reasons other then he is a rich man and the medicare issue which nothing has been proven he did anything illegal.

Maybe because he believes a marriage is between a man and a woman, a family has a wife and a husband, does not believe in gays wanting the same right as my husband and I have, is working to clean up Florida by removing the criminal trespasser illegals from our state?

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Anonymous said...

What's most disconcerting for me is that our choices come down to Crist and Scott in the first place. While most folks will argue which of the two is worse, they'll ignore that both are bad regardless. The choice is like physically disciplining a child for no reason, but giving them the choice between whether it's with a belt or a paddle out of "fairness."

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Anonymous said...

Bob says hi

Geniusofdespair said...

Too Many Trolls Off Topic

Anonymous said...

What a lot of these republican trolls do is to throw out awful comments on any subject, and expect people not to challenge it. They try to practice Don Draper's advice. "If you don't like what is being said, change the conversation". (Mad Men)

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Anonymous said...

I concur!