Perry Thurston: Obama will Determine What's Best on Ports

Florida Democrats gave a backhanded compliment to Gov. Rick Scott as he repeated his call for the White House to step into the looming longshoremens strike because of its potential economically crippling impact on Florida jobs and families.

While Scott said the White House has yet to respond to him, Florida House Democratic Caucus Leader Perry Thurston, D-Plantation, used Scotts conference call with Florida port directors on Thursday to push state leaders to focus on state health care and education issues.

Florida House Democratic Caucus members wish to thank Governor Scott for his newly discovered interest in Floridas families, Thurston stated in a release.

We agree that the ongoing contract negotiations and a potential ports strike are a serious concern to Floridas economy and to the hundreds of thousands of jobs mentioned in the governors statement earlier today.

We note with interest Governor Scotts request that the federal government involve itself in the labor dispute. We hope that the governor now turns his attention to other critical family needs in Florida.

Specifically, we look forward to Governor Scott's leadership on full implementation of the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion. We look forward to the governor's action regarding the 85,000 frail and low-income seniors on waiting lists, and the 21,000-plus awaiting services for disabilities, many of whom have been waiting for years. The Florida House Democratic Caucus also looks forward to seeing the return of the $300 milliontaken from the states public education system, and we look forward to a real commitment to public education for Florida families.

President Obama will determine what is best regarding the looming strike at the nations East Coast ports. Governor Scott can turn his attention to Florida and begin correcting all that he has managed to dismantle.