Voldemort's State of the State

Sure, Rick Scott oversaw historic fraud as the head of HCA, but we need to judge him now by the integrity he brings with him to the office of Governor. The State of the State address offered a glimpse into how he will govern. Any guesses how that turned out?

Well in the spirit of judging the man not on campaign tactics or his suspicious past, let's pick apart what he says about how Florida should move forward in the future. Below are excerpts of Scott's prepared text. Let's see if I've been too hard on him through comparisons to a fictional lord of darkness and evil magic.

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"Thousands of our fellow Floridians have assembled here in our Capital – some to criticize our budget priorities, and far more to thank us for our willingness to make hard choices."
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Well, Scott's presence in office incited the Awake the State rallies, but also drew Tea party activists to celebrate his arrival. While no impartial body can offer good tallies on who was in Tally for each side, I can't call shenanigans on this, but I do think it is a little laughable to suggest pro-Scott forces so vastly outnumber anti-Scott forces when this election was decided by such a close margin.

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"All the cans that have been kicked down the road are now piled up in front of us. Floridians have been encouraged to believe that government could take care of us. But government always takes more than it gives back."
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Ha! Not under Republic administrations it doesn't. Jeb Bush worked tirelessly to slash the intangibles tax into nothingness, thereby destroying a reliable revenue source which only impacted the very wealthy, i.e. those who could afford it. The liberal Gov. Charlie Crist spend his time finding ways to kill property taxes and expand the already unfair homestead exemption. The result of all of these measures, coupled with the decline in actual value of property throughout Florida, is that people are paying far less in taxes than they were 12 years ago.

And that is why the cans have been kicked down the road. Our Legislature has to produce a balanced budget every year, so with every cut, they put off or passed off the funding of important programs, and left us with very little fat to cut today.

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"Some thought that businesses could tolerate a strangling web of regulations, and that government could grow without starving the private sector or destroying jobs. The result of that experiment is in: Government grew way beyond its ability to pay for its promises, and the jobs disappeared."
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Again, the Florida Legislature has done little to increase regulations in the past decade. And certainly government has not grown. We see layoffs year after year at the state and local level. This sounds once again like a man more interested in national politics than in what is actually happening in his own jurisdiction.

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"On my first day in office, I ordered a review of every regulation in the pipeline and every contract exceeding $1 million.
These steps sent two clear signals. First, that Florida will not allow unreasonable regulations to stand in the way of job creation. And second, that we intend to watch state spending like a hawk. On my watch we will never allow another wasteful project like the “Taj Mahal” Courthouse to slip under the radar."
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Ok, I'll give him this one. Better auditing is a good idea. And the Court of Appeal courthouse in Tallahassee, the "Taj Mahal" Scott references, is indeed a smite on the state which has been ridiculed from the left and the right. It also is a sign of the type of chronyism which has run rampant in the capital, and why an outsider like Scott found traction with voters this year. I do think Scott will be more steadfast is stopping this type of embarrassing pork from getting in the budget this year, even more so than most veto-happy freshman Governors.

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"We also sold the state airplanes as I had promised to do. And we created the most fiscally conservative state budget in the country."
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No mention of the fact this was probably illegal.

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"Our “jobs” budget is targeted to create private sector jobs, increase accountability and reduce the size of government.
Every day since elected Governor, I’ve gone job hunting for the people of Florida. In my business career I was never shy about picking up the phone and making a cold call to try to make something good happen. As Governor, I’ve been making those calls every day to recruit job creators, and I will continue making those calls until every Floridian has the opportunity to get back to work. As we meet tonight, unemployment in Florida stands at 12 percent."
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And this gets me to my main peeve with Scott. Notice how he says "private sector jobs" as if government workers are not a part of the economy. So far, Scott has done nothing but promise to fire people. In Republican-land, that may be considered job creation. But it will not help chip at that 12 percent unemployment rate. It just won't. Scott has literally turned away billions in government funding which would create government and private-sector jobs, but continues to push the myth that if you fire government workers, private-sector positions will magically appear. I don't know if this makes him as stupid as the voters who support him, or some type of evil genius convincing us this poison will cure what ails us.

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"Joining us tonight are four business leaders: one who decided to move a business to Florida, and three who decided to expand their business here. I’d like to recognize them now."
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Now this was just patently dishonest. It is wonderful that Chromalloy is coming to Florida, and that the other manufacturers are coming here. But the Scott administration has little been in power for a matter of weeks. None of this job creation has anything at all to do with his election or leadership. He is just claiming credit for anything that happens from the moment he stepped foot in the Governor's Mansion. I guess politics is starting to rub off on him faster than expected.

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"Last month, I delivered to you a budget that puts that plan into action and cuts taxes by $2 billion. These tax cuts put money back in the hands of families and business owners who will grow private sector jobs."
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That budget will take money out of the hands of Florida families whose breadwinner hold a vital government job which is getting eliminated. And it cuts the amount of money those families take home by forcing workers to cut their pay in order to pay for pensions with less personal financial security.

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"An important priority in our “jobs” budget is to consolidate government’s economic development efforts into a single, highly focused agency. Working with our public-private partner, we will have the resources to be effective, and the flexibility to adapt to particularly promising opportunities. This agency will be headquartered two doors down from my office, and its work will never be far from my mind."
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I have my doubts about combining organizations devoted to protecting the environment and curbing sprawl, but I guess we'll see how that works.

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"I know the members of this body have thoughtful, constructive modifications to our “jobs” budget. But we must not lose our focus or blunt our momentum. Business people in Florida and around the world are watching what we do in the weeks ahead. They can locate anywhere. They will be deciding whether to invest in Florida, based, in part, on our ability to work together to remove the obstacles to business success. I am convinced that putting this plan into action will put our state on the road to prosperity."
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More Scott arrogance at work. Lawmakers will adjust the budget because that is their job. Yes, there need to be economic incentives included and there must be efforts directed toward job creation. But to saw changing the budget would waste time is a failure to understand or respect the legislative process, and is probably begging for trouble.

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"We also need to focus on our incredible opportunity to improve our K-through-12 education system. We now have real innovators offering a 21st century approach to education. And many of those new approaches offer better outcomes without increasing costs. With so many Floridians out of work, and the exhaustion of one-time federal handouts, Florida educators will face challenges in managing limited resources. But our commitment to positive change must not waiver."
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So why are you refusing to consult with educators about this issue? And why grumble at things like Race to the Top while you are slashing permanent funding? Those one-time handouts are about the only thing keeping Florida education going while you plot to restore unconstitutional vouchers.

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"Great educators are priceless. Every one of us has a teacher in our past who made a lifelong difference in our lives. Educators, like other professionals, should be rewarded based on the effectiveness of their work, not the length of their professional life. That’s why Florida needs to pay the best educators more and end the practice of guaranteeing educators a job for life regardless of their performance."
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Welcome back, SB6. I though we killed you.

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"With these principles in mind, Florida can become the most innovative and effective place in the country to educate the workforce of the future."
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Yes, with all the innovation that already-failed ideas can provide.

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"We will also modernize our state government. Florida is currently the only state where taxpayers pay for the entire pension of state workers. We need to secure the state’s pension system and be fair to the taxpayers of Florida. We will bring Florida’s retirement system in line with other states by having government workers contribute towards their own retirement, just like everyone else. Providing a modern, health care safety net for our low-income and disabled citizens is an important state function, but the costs of this program have been spiraling out of control. Yet there are ways to save money and provide better care by adopting market principles and giving patients more choice."
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Translation: Screw ObamaCare. We will run hospitals the same way I ran HCA.

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"The costs of unemployment insurance cannot be allowed to deter job creation. By working with the legislature, we will bring those costs down. And finally, we need lawsuit reform. Every Floridian should have access to the courts for redress of harm. At the same time, we can’t allow frivolous suits and unreasonable awards to give our state a reputation that frightens away new jobs."
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So we need to keep the poor poor, and make sure they have no way of getting money from wealthy people who do literally physical harm to them. Republicans don't want to stop rich people from making money. That would be un-American. But stopping poor people from getting money owed to them, that makes perfect sense. Tort reform was the banner for Republican-policy-making in Washington for most of the Jeb Bush administration, but lawsuit caps did nothing to abate the rising costs of health care. I can only imagine what further steps Rick Scott wants to take in curbing the rights of people who are sick and get hurt by the people tasked with caring for them.

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"We are a state that has regularly done the impossible. We build magic kingdoms. We launch ships that fly to the moon. Florida can be the place where the American Dream continues to be a reality."
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This inspiring note was a good way to end his speech.

That said, I remain thoroughly unimpressed with Scott's assessment of what needs to be done, and am continuously appalled at the total disregard of facts in reaching the conclusions he has reached. I fear we are seeing the beginning of a very predictable course of events that happens when the CEO of a corrupt health care chain becomes governor. I hate to keep bringing it up, but then, how many times does Scott bring it up in this speech alone, as if his disgraceful career is the perfect resume to become a Florida politician.

Ok. I guess that isn't such a crazy conclusion.