After 10 Glorious Years, Sunshine State News and I Are Passing the Baton
You probably can't imagine how much fun I've had at Sunshine State News over the last 10 years. I don't think anybody could.
November 1, 2019 - 6:00am
Politics
Columns
WASHINGTON -- Skipping through the Candy Land of the health care bill, one is tempted to hum a few bars of "Let Me Call You Sweetheart."
What a deal. For deal-makers, that is. Not so much for American taxpayers, who have been misled into thinking that the sweetheart deals have been excised.
The South Florida Water Management District faces a defining vote at its meeting this week, one that could bring the agency to the fiscal brink and force an increase in property taxes for homeowners in 16 South Florida counties.
Abraham Lincoln once asked an audience how many legs a dog has, if you called the tail a leg? When the audience said "five," Lincoln corrected them, saying that the answer was four. "The fact that you call a tail a leg does not make it a leg."
That same principle applies today. The fact that politicians call something a "stimulus" does not make it a stimulus. The fact that they call something a "jobs bill" does not mean there will be more jobs.
Greece this past weekend saw the worst rioting since the debt crisis began. After Athens had announced new tax hikes and budget cuts to reduce a deficit of 13 percent of gross domestic product, mobs drove guards from Greece's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and attacked police.
"Stop messing with Texas!" That was the message Gov. Rick Perry bellowed on election night as he celebrated his victory over Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican primary for governor. In his reference to Texas' anti-littering slogan, Perry was making a point applicable to national as well as Texas politics and addressed to Democratic politicians as well as Republicans.
Trending Now
By Nancy Smith
Anti-gun folks aren't going to like this, but facts are facts. These come from the FBI via Breibart.com and Fox Nation.
Seems more people are killed with hammers and clubs each year than with rifles. By far.
Check out the numbers from 2005 through 2011:
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Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Miami, announced he has been named, for the second consecutive Congress, to serve on the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and the Small Business Committee.Im honored to continue my service on the Foreign Relations, Intelligence, Commerce and Small Business committees for the 113th Congress," Rubio stated in the release.
By Kevin Derby
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi andFlorida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA)Secretary Liz Dudek on Thursday jointly released the annual Medicaid Fraud and Abuse Report. A few of the highlights include:
Return on Investment: For every $1 spent to prevent fraud andabuse or to recover Medicaid funds due to fraud and abuse, the state ofFlorida gains $6.80.
By Nancy Smith
Independent pollster Scott Rasmussen says voters are evenly divided in their views of the last-minute fiscal cliff deal reached by President Obama and Congress.
But he says very few expect government spending to go down as a result; and one out of two predicts taxes on the middle class will go up.
By Nancy Smith
Here's some respite for Tallahassee and Washington watchers temporarily fed up with post-election politics:
"StoneZone's Sixth Annual Ten Best and Worst Dressed Men and Women in the World for 2012"(Huffington Post). Definitely a nonpartisan undertaking.
Trust dapper Roger Stone, indeed a legendary American Republican political consultant, to suck us so engagingly into his second (or is it his first?) greatest passion, sartorial elegance.
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After meeting Wednesday with business leaders, Gov. Rick Scott will be on TV Thursday morning in Fort Myers.
Scott is scheduled to appear on WINK NEWS between 6:25 a.m. and 6:55 a.m., and on NBC-2 between 7:20 a.m. and 7:35 a.m.
He is also scheduled to meet with a Naples Daily News reporter in Fort Myers around 8 a.m.
By Nancy Smith
Two Florida pols who lost their last elections apparently have been hired to put some lipstick on another election loser -- Charlie Crist.
In trying to build his team in Democratic stronghold Broward County, Crist has called on former state Sen. Steve Geller of Cooper City and former Attorney General Bob Butterworth. The idea is to gussy up the former governor and failed U.S. Senate candidate for a 2014 gubernatorial run against Gov. Rick Scott.
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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Orlando, released a statement Wednesday on Senate Bill 8, the fiscal cliff deal.
It was something we had to do to keep the country from going over the fiscal cliff and to prevent income taxes from going up for more than 95 percent of folks. Now weve got to finish the job of fixing our countrys financial ills with more targeted spending cuts and reforming our tax code.
By Kevin Derby
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi released a statement Wednesday joining President Barack Obama inrecognizing January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking PreventionMonth.
Raising awareness about the prevalence of human trafficking is a crucialcomponent to combating this $32 billion industry that exploits women,children and men, Bondi stated in a press release. I remain dedicatedto doing everything within my power to make Florida a zero-tolerance statefor human trafficking.
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The state has created a website that lists seven opportunities for wounded veterans to hunt -- for deer, hog or turkey -- on state lands between Jan. 11 and April 18.
Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam announced Wednesday the hunting opportunities as part of the Florida Forest Services Operation Outdoor Freedom program.
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