Roadblocking the Stimulus

It is one thing to disagree with the policies of a president, but to intentionally prevent efforts from helping the state of Florida is destructive and unpatriotic. Sadly, it is no surprise at all that this would be Gov. Scott's response the Obama's jobs plan.

The president wants to create jobs? Well not in my state, says Mr. 700,000

From TBO:
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Gov. Rick Scott and top Florida Republicans are sending early signals they could reject the billions in federal aid that could flow to the state under President Barack Obama's jobs proposal.

Florida has a 10.7 percent unemployment rate that is higher than the national average. But Scott and GOP legislative leaders said the plan outlined by President Obama was too similar to the nearly $800 billion stimulus package that was approved by Congress back in 2009.
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The article also quotes Speaker Dean Cannon saying Obama still "doesn't get it." I personally feel like the president finally "gets it" and realizes jobs are the issue he must place above health care, continuing unnecessary wars, coddling Wall Street and making clear to America he will negotiate every good idea away upfront.

But the actions of Scott and Cannon speak to something more nefarious. Informed people can disagree about policy, but standing in the way of your opponent's success, when that success would mean the restoration of America's economy, is another thing altogether.

Rick Scott has already said he doesn't want people in Florida earning a living from high speed rail. Now he is making sure nobody new gets employed in a job that is paid for with federal, out-of-state revenues.

Apparently, Republicans do not believe the problem is that too many people are out of work. It is that too many are employed. It should be no surprise since the this governor, who wants us to believe jobs are his first and only priority, responded to the state budget by vetoing numerous job-creating products.

Partisanship aside, I understand Rick Scott wants more jobs created in the public sector than private sector, and I respect all of his efforts to stimulate job creation there, but it has become apparent he will never allow the government to directly create, or in many cases even assist, in job creation.

Also important. Barack Obama was elected to the presidency. Whether you personally voted for him or not, it is not the role of Florida's governor to stand in the way of a federal effort to create jobs. Is this an experiment that could go awry? I guess it is possible, but the American people will judge Obama on the results soon enough. His ideas deserve the chance to succeed or fail on their own without the meddling of an ill-willed state executive .

This will hurt Scott in the long-run, as he is clearly stopping the creation of jobs more often than he is promoting it, and when third-parties measure his progress toward this 700,000 jobs in seven years goal, they will include the many minuses Scott was responsible for every time he turned away money could provide a middle-class family with a paycheck.

Until then, Rick Scott may doom the rest of us who live in Florida to watch jobs created in other states and hear a governor fiddle as the Sunshine State burns.

Eliminate Term Limits

It is no secret in Tallahassee that term limits have not been what they were cracked up to be. Imposed by voters in the late 90s, the idea had its appeal to voters across the spectrum. Since then, though, we have seen only a growth in the influence of lobbyists, a steady drum beat of corruption and a sad state of affairs where no decent lawmaker can make a difference before getting escorted into retirement.

I covered the Legislature in 2000, the first year the true effects of term limits were felt. Back then, so many new lawmakers were coming to town that Tom Feeney had them all where name tags with pictures. The House at the time still had its share of long-timers waiting to be wiped out by the full effects of the law in 2002, but already the problems were making themselves known. Rookie lawmakers were won over by big ideas that had shallow supporting facts. I know one lawmaker who voted for a bill that would allow dirty water to be injected into the aquifer, and within days had turned his position around as he got new facts. How did this happen? It was just too easy for lobbyists to convince lawmakers of anything just long enough for them to cast a vote.

In the coming decade, the Senate would increasingly become frustrated with terms. This body will always have the most experience just because so many House members move from one Chamber to the other, but the fact Senators with less than a decade of experience can seem long in the tooth in Tallahassee shows an enormous problem.

Rick Kriseman in St. Pete is trying to improve the situation by lengthening the terms of lawmakers and making their stays in Tallahassee a little bit longer. But with all due respect, this isn't enough.

For any change to happen, there must be a voter-approved amendment to the Constitution. And if you are going through the expense of a campaign convincing voters term limits are bad, you may as well fix the problem entirely.

We need to eliminate term limits entirely.

I know this is a touch sell. And I realize pointing at chambers full of incompetent or outright corrupt lawmakers is not something which instinctively makes people desire career politicians. But it is important people understand the fundamental reasons why Tallahassee is broken.

Most legislators in Tallahassee are generally good people. Even the ones whose agendas are bad are there with good intentions. But they simply don't know what they are doing. The incompetence is a byproduct of ignorance, not stupidity. Perhaps lawmakers would be less inclined to believe glossy PowerPoint presentations by high-priced lobbyists if they had the savvy to tell basic facts from bullshit slides. That comes with time, not training.

It also comes with years of communicating with constituents, which is where I think Kriseman might have something wrong. There are problems with the year-round campaign cycle, but a good thing about having House members up for vote every two years is that they have to face the music back home for good and bad choices. I don't really want to lose that, especially when I see potential for Democrats in the coming campaign cycle to make real inroads for the first time in years.

But I also don't want to see good lawmakers lost. If a public servant, regardless of their political philosophies, is representing his or her constituency well and delivering good government practice, then they shouldn't get tossed after eight or 12 years just for getting re-elected too many times.

Our problem is that lawmakers stick around too short a time, not too long. We have a Senate President right now who never served in Tallahassee before 2000, when that first heavy freshman class I was talking about first arrived at the Capitol. But Mike Haridopolos is an old-timer compares to House Speaker Dean Cannon, who just arrived in Tallahassee in 2004. Mix that in with a new Governor and a Cabinet full of folks in their first years at their current jobs and you have a mess of inexperience and brash reactionaries.

So I am sorry Rep. Kriseman. Your intentions are correct, but your solution is short-sighted. Maybe if you had a little more experience...

The Omission of Oversight

The future of government is Florida is pretty bleak right now, and I think some readers are correct to anticipate legislation like the teacher pay bill will be coming back in the coming session. Now, I don't know that everything will return in exactly the same form, but the bigger problem we face as citizens in Florida is that this go-round there will be virtually no scrutiny on lawmakers as they play with our government.

I think the teacher pay bill will come back, but it is telling the Legislature did not simply override Charlie Crist's veto last month when they were in special session. Other high-profile legislation, such as the abortion bill, also were passed over, but I think the Legislature this year will simply do something even more Draconian.

This is a Legislature where right-wingers have unprecedented control over the lawmaking process, and one where leadership is already spitting in the eye of dissent. See, for instance, the early remarks of Speaker Dean Cannon. He attacked both the courts and Congress as he boldly stated Republicans the Florida House were new kings of the universe.

Via the Miami Herald:

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Cannon criticized ``government run amok'' in Washington and blasted Congress for ``taking over banks and financial institutions . . . socializing medicine . . . and trampling the property rights of citizens and the sovereignty of states.''

He criticized the Florida Supreme Court for striking three constitutional amendments crafted by the Legislature from the November ballot, saying the work of lawmakers was ``demolished by five unelected justices on the Supreme Court.''

Cannon, a lawyer who personally defended the Legislature's substitute amendment for two redistricting referendums backed by Democrats, called the court decisions to strike down the proposals and congressional actions ``just a few examples of threats to freedom,'' but added ``there are many others.''

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/16/1929602/8-crist-vetoes-overridden.html#ixzz17G0l8XJm

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Notice, this isn't just judicial activism anymore, but apparently legislative activism but higher legislative bodies. No branch of government dare trounce on the will of the House representatives.

To describe a Legislature-generated constitutional amendment intended to undermine the voter approved Fair Districts referenda as a "freedom" under threat is the ultimate in hubris.

But why focus on all of this. 'The elections are over, Jake,' you say. 'Now we need to focus on issues.'

Sadly, politics is the biggest issue facing the state right now. We have no minority party with any standing to act as even a speed bump in the legislative process. We have a governor with no interest in moderating legislation, and no power to do so even if he wanted. And we have lawmakers already planning to challenge Roe v. Wade, gut teacher pay and block federal healthcare reform. Those hated courts are the only left to stop legislation, and judges will only stand in the way of the most heinous over-reaches.

That means the top priority of progressives in Florida right now is not trying to block legislation passed this session. It is to convince voters throughout the state that we need to reverse some of these acts. Our biggest legislative focus on the next two years has to be on getting a fair shake in the redistricting process, and sadly, our best options there may also be within the courts. While I doubt Fair Districts will have an enormous effect on the process, it at least offers a judicial release valve. We need to fight for decent redistricting both in Legislature and in the state and federal courts.

But most of all, we need to prep for 2012. A president will be on the ballot then who will do what he can to activate the Democratic base statewide, and we need to make sure local parties and Democratic candidates all the way down the ballot are prepared to fight for votes. We need to be able to take back seats in the state House and Senate which were lost this year, and take a few back that never managed to get into play.

Florida is a state where Democratic voters far outnumber Republican ones, but where Democratic lawmakers are a dying species. And every year, those Dem voters become a little more liberal. WE must convince those voters that what is happening in Tallahassee is just as important as what takes place in Washington, D.C., if not more so.

We face tremendous challenges as progressives in Florida, but we also are faced with an opportunity. We will learn in the next two years what one-party rule truly means in the Sunshine State. We will see what happens when one extreme end of the political spectrum is allowed to run amok in the halls of the state Capital. And we need to seize the change to bring about change.

This cannot be done by Barack Obama. It cannot be done by the few Democratic lawmakers allowed to step foot on the floor of the state House and Senate. It must be done by us. It must be done by grassroots, netroots and the average Democratic voter.

And that is why I continue to focus on politics. All we have left is ourselves.