Florida Governor Rick Scott delivered his State of the State address today to the Florida Legislature where he asked for $1 billion in education and vowed to help stamp out fraud in the state’s car insurance system.
Scott’s speech was part balderdash and very short on detail. He asked for $1 billion in education funding, after cutting more than $1 billion from education last year. In order to pay for his so-called re-commitment toward public education, Scott wants cuts to Medicaid. But he never made mention of his plans to cut health care funding for low-income patients, only that he “will not budge” on his commitment to increased funding for education.
Throughout his speech Scott stumbled and stammered over his words. He attempted to tell a joke about his days as the owner of a doughnut shop that seemed to fall flat. He continued to tout that, he is the job’s governor as the state has added more than 130,000 private sector jobs within the last year, while failing to mention Florida has lost over 35,000 government jobs. Florida also has one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates at 10 percent, so Scott’s rosy outlook for Florida is seen through a Republican lens.
Scott had a certain audacity in his tone as he gushed about how much he and the Republican-led Legislature had done for the state. Floridians are in better shape now due to “re-engineering of the pension plan for Florida state workers,” he said, going on to declare that “this will save taxpayers money and align government practices with the private sector.”
Scott’s inability to connect with most private and public sector workers was on full display with that comment alone. Last year he led a plan to cut 3 percent from the salaries of all public employees, saying it was needed to help balance the state’s budget. So Mr. Scott has a history of attempting to fix the state’s economic woes on the backs of the working class.
Overall the governor’s speech was just that: A speech. He did not reveal much of anything besides his plan for education and how not to deliver a joke.
He still continues to show just how out of touch he is with the people of Florida and Scott’s remarks did nothing to combat his image as a sinking governor. The latest Quinnipiac poll shows that he has a 38 percent approval rating, due in part to his plan to cut Medicaid spending.
If Floridians are looking for real leadership, I would suggest they turn away from Rick Scott. He has shown that he has no empathy or compassion for the needs of middle and working class families, as well as the poor.
-JH
