Florida House Republicans Supports Government Health Care For Themselves

Republicans in the Florida House of Representatives voted against accepting federal money to provide health insurance for one million poor Floridians. Since Republicans are the majority in the House a million Floridians will not receive health care. That didn't stop House Republicans to keeping their state government health care at $30 a month. Members of the House pay one-sixth of what other state employees pay for health insurance. Rep. Richard Corcoran provided a laughable explanation.

"I think the entire state health care system is broken, and what we tried to do is try to fix it," Corcoran said, noting that conservatives have called his proposal a national model. "When you do that, everybody is going to be treated equally and fairly."

In Corcoran worldview, the health care system is broken. His remedy is cheap health care for himself and denying Medcaid to a million Floridians. That is taking a broken sytem and smashing it with a hammer.

House Speaker Will Weatherford claims that he will eventually get around to addressing the discrepancy between what House members and other state employees pay.

In a statement Monday, Weatherford said: "We are aware of the differences in what House members pay compared to other state employees for health insurance and are looking forward to addressing it next session."

Weatherford fails to address why this wasn't addressed during the session. The Florida Senate was wise enough to increase to payments for state health insurance.

Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, insisted on the change, saying it wasn't fair for senators to pay less than low-level state workers. Senators now pay $50 a month for health insurance, or $180 a month for their families.

"I think the public expects the state Senate to be treated the same as our fellow co-workers in state government and not be given preferential status," Negron said Monday.

There is no excuse. Weatherford led the charge to fight the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Yet he wants to keep low cost health insurance for the House of Representatives. This is pure hypocrisy.

Farm Share Food Giveaway

Rep. Mike Fasano, Rep. Richard Corcoran and Sen. John Legg are doing the annual Farm Share Holiday Food Giveaway. Food has been donated from local farms Publix, AT&T and other local citizens.

"We are once again blessed to work with farmers throughout Florida to provide food at this special time of year," Fasano stated in a press release. "When so many families are hurting is is wonderful to see our community come together to serve others."

Fasano did the food giveaway last year and deserves praise for his efforts to help needy families.

What: Farm Share Food Giveaway

When: Dec. 14 from 10 a.m. to noon

Where: Redeemer Community Church, 9230 Ridge Road, New Port Richey

Screening: "The Farm Share program requires that families be asked for proof that they receive Medicaid, SSI and/or food stamps," Giordano said.

Where Has Republican Party of Florida Money Gone

Here is a breakdown of RPoF money spent on American Express credit cards. Much of the RPoF money is still unaccounted for.

Percent Of RPOF AmEx Spending Detailed31.25%
Percent Still Unknown68.75%

RPOF Individual Spending On AmEx Cards

Speaker Marco Rubio - $110,000
Indicted Speaker Ray Sansom - $173,000
Speaker-designate Dean Cannon - $175,000
Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos - *$2,347
Rubio Chief of Staff Richard Corcoran - $70,000
RPOF Executive Director Delmar Johnson - $500,000
Jr. Party Staffer Melanie Phister - $1,258,000
Total Charges Made Public - $2,286,000

[Sources: Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times, 4/11/10, Orlando Sentinel 4/12/10 ]
*Haridopolos only had AmEx card for 2 months, during period of intense media scrutiny before it was taken away.

Marco Rubio Protests Too Much

Marco Rubio is complaining those mean Democrats are picking on him. Rubio's campaign obitted what Rubio's latest controversy is about.

So it’s no surprise that Democrats are now targeting Marco with the first of many political stunts to distract voters’ attention from their flawed ObamaCare plan and the massive, out-of-control spending that has taken place on their watch.

The smears and attacks against Marco get more ridiculous each day. Today’s stunt is to enlist a maxed out Hillary Clinton supporter to file a frivolous complaint against Marco. It’s so frivolous that this individual wasn’t even willing to sign it.

Sadly, these stunts actually cost you, the taxpayer, money because government bureaucrats actually have to waste time on them. But worse, this illustrates the problem with politics today. When people can’t defend their indefensible big government policies, they turn to the same old politics-as-usual playbook of misleading, negative and false personal attacks.

What the Rubio campaign fails to mention is Rubio and his Chief-of-Staff during a two month period they spent $60,000 with a Republican Party of Florida credit card. Charges including a $600-a-night hotel and a limo. Chief of Staff Richard Corcoran had the audacity to say, ""Every penny was worth it." Talk about fiscal conservatism.

Rubio is being evasive about his lavish expensises.

"There might have been some that he paid, but I don't know which ones,'' Rubio said. "You're asking me about a (credit card) statement I've never seen.''

We are to believe Rubio doesn't know who paid his haircut or his $400 airline ticket for his (aborted) family vacation to Spain. That doesn't pass the laugh test. If we are to take Rubio at his word: how can voters expect Rubio to control federal spending when he is ignorant of his own finances?

Update: Fort Lauderdale resident Michael D. Ryan has filed an ethics complaint against Rubio. Usually, Florida ethics complaints don't go anywhere. However, the Ray Sansom credit card controversy and indictment is fresh in many people's memory. Ryan throws an interesting accusation about Rubio's political action committee.

Before he became speaker, Rubio and his wife started two political committees to support conservative candidates that raised about $600,000. Rubio failed to disclose tens of thousands of dollars in expenses and concealed other purchases by lumping them in credit card charges.

"It appears that Mr. Rubio believes that PAC stands for 'personal access to cash,' " Ryan says in the complaint, calling it a 'fraud upon his donors whose donations were solicited for political purposes, not to subsidize his lifestyle."

Ryan also implies that Rubio got an "Florida International University" during a time of lowoffs. Ryans is clearly linking Rubio's behavior to Sansom's. Ryan contends he doesn't have a political agenda.

Anyone involved with politics or files ethics complaints has a political agenda. Ask Kenneth Quinnell. My pet peeve is people having political agendas and saying they don't. I don't write this blog because the world of golf blogging is too tough. I write because I have a political agenda. I try to be fair and diss my side when it's deserved. I have a progressive idealogy and don't feel the need to hide that.