Charlie Crist

Governor Charlie Crist wants to increase state spending while lawmakers are looking for ways to reduce government. Crist’s plan holds state workers harmless, increases school spending and pumps millions into environmental projects. As Whitney Ray tells us, lawmakers call Crist’s plan “ambitious.”

After four straight years of declining revenues, Governor Charlie Crist is calling for an increase in state spending.

“We have got to move forward on education, that we have a re commitment to our environment and I think those two things are important to Florida’s economy,” said Crist.

Crist’s budget increases education funding by half a billion dollars, pumps 100 million into the environment and offers tax breaks to businesses. Florida Tax-watch calls the proposal optimistic.

“It doesn’t really get into cutting government and getting into what normal Floridians are doing, tightening their belt, finding ways to do more with less, focusing on core services and eliminating operational expenditures,” said Rob Weissert a spokesman with Florida Tax-watch.

Crist’s spending plan relies heavily on money from increased gambling, raids on trust funds and an uptick in revenue collections.

Over the past five months the state has collected more money than predicted, that trend is expected to continue.

Money from fee increases could also pump millions into the state’s checking account, but state lawmakers aren’t sure the boost will be enough.

“It’s ambitious. It’s our job to look at his categorization of the various priorities of spending and then craft a budget in cooperation with the senate,” said State Representative Dean Cannon.

If revenues don’t increase as much as the governor predicts, and a gaming compact isn’t reached, lawmakers will have to make tough decisions that could include spending cuts and possible layoffs.

One of Crist’s ideas receiving applause from Republican legislative leaders is reworking the class size amendment. State lawmakers are scheduled to unveil a plan tomorrow that would base class size on school populations instead of individual classes.

Charlie Crist

“I am concerned that President Obama’s decision to end NASA’s Constellation program, and prematurely conclude the nation’s significant investment in moon exploration, may place the nation’s space leadership role in question. Without a bold policy and goal for the future of American space exploration, we may cede our nations’ premier space leadership to other countries.

“Despite today’s announcement, there are significant opportunities for Florida in the commercial space industry, and I will work aggressively to ensure Florida is prepared to capitalize on these possibilities.”

Bill Posey

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Bill Posey (R-Rockledge) released the following statement regarding the President’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget proposal:

“Today the President released his Fiscal Year 2011 budget which calls for more record-level spending increases and $2 trillion in higher taxes,” said Congressman Posey. “Instead of handing our children and grandchildren a fiscally sound future, this Administration is proposing that we continue living on their credit cards, passing the bill on to generations to come.

“Congress and the Administration would be wise to focus attention on a plan to create the right kind of environment for businesses of all sizes to grow, add jobs and prosper. We need to look at ways to make America more competitive in the world so businesses will choose to stay here and continue to employ Americans.  Last year, Congress passed the Administration $800 billion stimulus plan which turned out to be a dismal failure.  The engines of our economy need to be set free from excessive taxation and regulation so that they can expand and create jobs.

“We must lay the groundwork to bring government spending under control while relieving taxpayers and small business owners of the massive burden of paying for more bureaucracy and bigger government.  $2 trillion in tax increases, massive energy taxes, and costly global warming regulations, and health care taxes will hamper our recovery and push jobs overseas.

“One way to keep America competitive and maintain our technological edge is by maintaining America’s leadership in space.  Unfortunately, the President’s budget moves us in the opposite direction by retiring the Space Shuttle and canceling the Constellation program. His budget proposal runs contrary to his original promise to close the space gap and keep America first in space. Our investment in human space flight is important to preserving our edge in science and technology, national security, and an overall higher standard of living.

“This budget is more of the same philosophy that has plagued Washington for many years: it lacks accountability and asks American families and small businesses to tighten their belts and sacrifice while bureaucrats in Washington live the good life. We cannot afford to delay getting our fiscal house in order.”

Charlie Crist

Governor Charlie Crist bluntly tried to shed two big image problems — his hug of President Obama and past support of the $787 billion federal stimulus package — in a unity party-unity plea Saturday that sounded like a preview of his U.S. Senate campaign theme.

Crist told more than 200 members of the state Republican Executive Committee that “this guy in the White House” is doing more to build the GOP than they could do for themselves. But he stressed that “I do not apologize” for welcoming Obama to Fort Myers or his acceptance of Florida’s share of stimulus cash, which he said kept cops and teachers on the job.

Former House Speaker Marco Rubio, the aggressive conservative Miamian who has been building momentum in the Senate race, signaled that he won’t let the Obama-stimulus controversy subside in Republican ranks. However Crist explains it now, Rubio said, the governor “cut the legs out from under” the GOP economic alternative in Congress and happily applauded Obama on the president’s first visit to Florida last February.

“Some people criticize me for going down to Fort Myers, being nice to the president of the United States of America. I do not apologize for it and I never will,” Crist said at the state GOP meeting. The governor, who is known for being effusively polite to everyone he meets, said his parents brought him up that way.

“I don’t agree with the guy on hardly anything he does but that’s OK,” he said of Obama. “That’s also part of our great democracy. I mean, what they are doing with health care right now is unbelievable — raising your taxes for it, raising rates for it, taking half a trillion dollars out of Medicare, and the part that bothers me most is, the whole thing has become a covert operation.”

Crist appeared with Obama in Fort Myers last February and thanked him for the stimulus plan, saying it was important for Congress to pass it. When Obama visited Jacksonville late last year, after Crist’s poll numbers had fallen and Rubio’s had risen, the governor did not join the president and said he didn’t even know Obama was in the state.

WASHINGTON (16 September) - Today U.S. Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.), representing Florida’s 9th Congressional District, delivered the following remarks after sending a letter to President Obama asking him to end taxpayer funding of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). In addition, Bilirakis co-sponsored H.R. 3571, the Defund ACORN Act, which would prevent any federal funding or support for ACORN. Since 1994, ACORN has received more than $50 million in direct funding from the federal government.

The following is a statement from Congressman Alan Grayson in response to President Barack Obama’s speech tonight to a Joint Session of Congress regarding health care reform:

Alan Grayson

“Tonight, the President laid out his plan for health care reform that will bring stability and security to health care in America.  He and I both want it to deliver peace of mind for everyone.  If you change jobs, lose your job, or lose your health, you should be able to get affordable health insurance. Under the President’s plan, you will be able to.

Recently, I held four “town hall”-type meetings and a telephone town hall meeting during eight days in August alone.  Health care questions dominated these forums.  During those events, I corrected many misconceptions about health care reform.  Tonight, President Obama likewise dispelled the countless myths spread by those bent on defeating this reform at all costs.  People need to judge health care reform on the facts, not on fears stemming from something that is nowhere in the bill.

Clearly, the need for health care reform is on the minds of the people I proudly represent. According to the Marist Poll last month, only six percent of America favors doing nothing.  Doing nothing is not an option.  As we move forward, I look forward to working with all sides to ensure the best ideas become part of this essential reform.

Finally, I often get asked if I will support a bill that does not include one provision or another.  My answer is simple:  I will support any bill that saves money and saves lives.”

Jim Greer

TAMPA – Last week, Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer was creating a national sensation by criticizing President Barack Obama’s plan to speak to the nation’s schoolchildren.

Tuesday, after the speech, prominent Florida Republicans seemed reluctant to talk about the speech or Greer’s sharp criticism.

Greer seemed to back off from his contention that Obama changed the speech after Greer’s comments.

“I don’t know that to be factually when asked by CFP on Tuesday night about that contention, which he made on national television.

Among those who wouldn’t discuss the situation, or gave limited comments, were Gov. Charlie Crist, Greer’s political patron; Crist’s opponent in the U.S. Senate primary, Marco Rubio; and Attorney General Bill McCollum, who’s running for governor.

Among GOP activists who did comment, some panned Greer’s role in the controversy and some praised it.

“Pandering” was the reaction of Dee Williams, president of the Sun City Center Republican Club. She said Greer is attempting to heal the rift between Crist and conservatives in the party.

“To tell you the truth, I’m not surprised at anything that comes out of his mouth,” she said of Greer.

But Republican National Committee member Paul Senft of Haines City said he believes Greer’s stance was justified “to a certain extent.”

“Sending lesson plans has never been the function of the federal Department of Education,” Senft said, referring to lesson plans made available to schools in advance of Obama’s speech. “They left themselves open to question about why they were doing that.”

Last week, Greer sent out a news release accusing Obama of using the speech “to indoctrinate America’s children to his socialist agenda.”

Late last week, the U.S. Department of Education revised a few details in the lesson plans that appeared to focus on Obama’s image rather than the intended message.

Greer has been on a media tour since, appearing on at least 10 national news shows. Monday, he said in a CNN interview that he saw nothing wrong with the speech itself but seemed to contend that it was changed along with the lesson plans.

“It’s an upbeat speech, but is it the one the president was always going to give?” he said in the CNN interview.

“Clearly, last week there was a plan with the Department of Education … leading the students in an effort to push the president’s agenda,” he said.

Asked whether he had evidence the speech had been changed, he said, “No, I don’t, but I would anticipate, based on this president being so aggressive and so vocal, … I believe the speech he was going to give, based on the lesson plans, was different.”

Tuesday night, he sounded different.

“I don’t know that to be factually true,” he said. Asked whether he had made that claim on CNN, he responded, “I think I said we don’t know. I think there’s potential. I have no evidence of it.”

Crist, who backed Greer for chairman of the state party, appeared to defend Greer in comments to reporters Friday, according to news reports.

Tuesday, his campaign’s only response was a staff member’s e-mail saying Crist “is pleased that the speech now focuses on staying in school, studying hard and striving to achieve your dreams.”

There was no response as to whether that means Crist also believes the White House changed the speech.

Rubio, who often has accused Crist of refusing to take a stand on issues in his Senate campaign, had no comment on the speech or Greer, a campaign staff member said.

But Rubio couldn’t stop himself from tweeting about it.

“I have no problem with President giving political speech to kids……..if his name is REAGAN,” he said in one Twitter message.

McCollum, asked about the speech during a news conference Tuesday, said he saw nothing wrong with the Obama addressing schoolchildren.

Following President Obama’s speech at the American Medical Association (AMA) concerning the need for immediate Health Care reform, Dr. Thorpe has released the following statement:

Thorpe states, “It is essential to Floridians and Americans that the Health Care reform process continues in a manner that will provide maximal coverage while simultaneously lowering the rate of growth for escalating Health Care costs. The President’s speech at the AMA contained many of the right buzz words; however, I am gravely concerned that his approach is very likely to increase the growth rate of all Health Care costs.” Dr. Thorpe further states, “In his zest to plug the dam with a spike, Obama is in fact creating a bigger opening that will lead to more damage down the road. This is especially true if he gets his way with single-payor dominance emanating expressly from the Government sector.”

As the former Chief Medical Officer of the State of Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration and as a private sector Health Care CEO and CMO, Dr. Marion Thorpe understands the clinical benefits of ensuring that patients maintain sound baseline health. In the capacity of US Senate candidate, Thorpe continues to rally support for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention protocols while simultaneously pointing out the fiscally sound benefits obtained by promoting healthy living and preventive care as a means of curtailing costs on far more expensive catastrophic and emergency treatments down the road.

On the topic of Florida Health Care reform, Dr. Marion Thorpe states, “Good health care is most essential to Florida’s economy. We truly need a good mix of private sector participation and public health intervention in order to ensure that quality of care is maintained in a manner that is accessible and affordable. The protection and promotion of Floridians’ overall health status and well-being via sound health care delivery systems must be achieved because of humanitarian reasons, and also because it is of paramount importance to Florida’s economic stability and growth.

In his first major speech as the Republican front-runner for governor, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum sought to link his likely Democratic opponent, Alex Sink, with the ‘’socialism” advocated by President Barack Obama.

McCollum told about 400 people at the Miami-Dade Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Day dinner that his administration would be ”open to all ideas” but added that there were important distinctions between the two parties. The current administration is ”nationalizing” the private sector, he said, and driving up the federal deficit.

”Their candidate for governor, their leadership team in the state, will be the leadership team not just of the individual who is running, but of the national party,” McCollum said. “Do you believe we want to take a chance in electing somebody who is going to be affiliated with and associated with that kind of thought process?”

Though the 2010 general election is nearly 17 months away, the annual gathering in Florida’s biggest county is a pivotal testing ground for statewide candidates. A strong showing can kick start fundraising and buzz, while a flat performance can leave a bad first impression.

McCollum delivered a disjointed though spirited speech. He told the heavily Cuban-American crowd that President Barack Obama ”had no business” making overtures to the communist regime.

In an interview before his speech, McCollum said he would not have campaigned with Obama for his economic spending plan as Gov. Charlie Crist did in Fort Myers in February. ”I have a different view about that,” he said, but once the legislation passed, “we needed to get our fair share.”

He added, ”I would not have embraced the stimulus before the fact, but if it passed over my objections, that’s another story.”

McCollum, who served two decades in Congress before becoming attorney general in 2006, has appeared at countless party functions around the state. But this was his first time on stage as the front-runner for the highest-profile office in Florida.

”He’s been preparing his entire life for this opportunity,” former House Speaker Marco Rubio of Miami said.

(ORIGINAL SOURCE)