Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 26, 2009, at 6:46 am
I was on Rob Lorei’s Florida This Week last Friday and was asked to lead off discussion of Florida’s chances of getting high-speed rail. I was taken by surprise, because I had studied Barack Obama’s stimulus plan extensively, especially its engineering aspects, for a freelance piece I did for the UF Engineering College alumni magazine and didn’t remember any money being set aside for high-speed rail in Florida.
It turns out that even Obama himself mentioned Florida as a possible recipient in a recent speech. But I’m guessing that it’s more of a hope than a reality, and a South Florida Sun-Sentinel story lays out the problems with Florida being competitive for some of $8 billion set aside in stimulus dollars for a Miami-Orlando-Tampa high-speed train:
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
I wanted to follow up on my last piece which was on the tea party protests, so I attended Tampa’s tea party at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. I previously wrote that the debate on Obama’s spending has suffered from the failure of both sides to provide reasons for their arguments. I therefore attended the event with the hopes of understanding some of the tea-partiers’ reasons for their concerns.
By Alexandra Koutsogiannopoulos
PoHo Contributor
Alex is the program director for the United Nations Association-USA’s Tampa Bay Chapter and will be an occasional guest on the Political Whore podcast.
I thought that my first post on here should be an introduction to me: who I am, where I came from and why you should give a damn….!
I was born in Cleveland, Ohio. First generation Greek-American, both of my parents immigrated to the United States individually: my father came here after completing medical school in Greece and my mother came here when she was still in elementary school when her parents came here to start a new life.
I stayed in Ohio only for four years before my parents loaded up the Toyota and drove down to Florida where all the other relatives had moved to. Greek families tend to move in herds…like wildebeests…and when one of them finds a new spot to “graze” the rest of the herd follows. We ended up in Orlando, in a community which was all cow pasture and roads going nowhere: Hunter’s Creek. In the past 6 years or so the area has boomed into a huge Westchase-eque type area.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 23, 2009, at 3:01 pm
It sure doesn’t seem like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee knows that Bartow Congressman Adam Putnam won’t be around to take the heat in 2010.
The DCCC announced a new robocall, e-mail and text message camnpaign aimed at hurting 12 Republicans who were prominent in voting against the Obama stimulus plan.
Here’s an example of the automated calls that will be running:
Hello, I’m calling on behalf of House Democrats with an important message about the economy.
Did you know Congressman Thad McCotter voted against President Obama’s economic recovery plan, endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce? McCotter’s empty rhetoric can’t hide that he voted to raise the AMT tax on 22 million middle class Americans and against the largest tax cut in history.
Call McCotter at 734-632-0314 to ask why he voted to raise taxes on middle class families.
Check out Recovery For America to learn more.
On the list of the dirty dozen is Putnam, who has already announced he is leaving his congressional office to run for the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture.
Now, of course the DCCC knows that Putnam is going bye-bye; it is already trying to field good candidates to run for that seat. But still, running the robocalls in either an attempt to sway his votes over the next year and a half or as punishment for his future political ambitions seems to waste precious campaign dollars.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 23, 2009, at 2:41 pm
While the governors in state such as Mississippi worry about accepting stimulus money because, for one thing, they would have to expand their unemployment benefits, Florida is getting the federal money and boosting benefits – and making no bones about it.
Governor Charlie Crist (R) signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor which will allow $345 million in federal money to go directly to the state through the end of the calendar year. The effects of the agreement came to fruition on Sunday.
The AP reported that benefits in the state are based on a worker’s prior earnings. In 2008, the Florida unemployment benefits ranged from $32 to $275 per week. Under the new agreement, Florida’s weekly unemployment benefits will increase by $25.
According to the Tampa Bay Business Journal, approximately $12.2 billion of the $787 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is set to be delivered to Florida over the next three years. Additionally, some of the funding in the stimulus is already included in Governor Crist’s proposed $66.5-billion state budget for the next fiscal year. The budget is expected to either create or retain 314,590 jobs in the state, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reported.
OK, so it’s only $25 a week individually. Still, $345 million put back into Florida’s crippled economy is a good thing.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 19, 2009, at 11:43 am
Given the GOP’s hail-mary strategy on the Obama stimulus plan, you just knew this was coming. But still it makes you shake your head.
The AP reports that as many as six Republican governors may turn their noses up at stimulus money for their states. That includes, of course, Sarah Palin 2012.
According to the AP report:
A half-dozen Republican governors are considering turning down some money from the federal stimulus package, a move opponents say puts conservative ideology ahead of the needs of constituents struggling with foreclosures and unemployment.
Though none has outright rejected the money available for education, healthcare, and infrastructure, the governors of Alaska, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas have all questioned whether the $787 billion bill signed into law this week will help the economy.
“My concern is there’s going to be commitments attached to it that are a mile long,” said Governor Rick Perry of Texas. “We need the freedom to pick and choose. And we need the freedom to say ‘No thanks.’ ”
The RINOs who want the money? “Charlie Crist of Florida, Sonny Perdue of Georgia, and Bob Riley of Alabama favor the stimulus package.”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 17, 2009, at 11:46 am
As Barack Obama signs the $787 billion economic stimulus plan that could likely define this term in office (and determine whether he gets a second), the White House marketing department and its proxies are busy selling it to the Amnerican public.
The bottom line, according to the White House and its economic advisors, is that the legislation’s spending provisions will create or save 206,000 jobs in Florida, second only to California (396,000) and Texas (269,000).
These are only estimates, the White House explains:
The estimates are derived from an analysis of the overall employment impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act conducted by Christina Romer, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, and Jared Bernstein, Chief Economist for the Vice President, and detailed estimates of the working age population, employment, and industrial composition of each state.
The full state-by-state list can be downloaded here.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 13, 2009, at 7:54 am
Bipartisanship in our future? Not if the House Republican leaders have their way, as they are furiously working to ensure another party-line vote when the compromise stimulus bill shows back up for a final vote. The prospect, however, doesn’t look good, as 10-15 House Republicans seem ready to support the economic recovery act. Politico adds it up:
ZERO SUM GAME: House Republicans are trying to give Dems another goose egg in terms of GOP support on the final stimulus package. As Politico’s Patrick O’Connor reports: “There’s a lot of safety in zero. That, at least, is the message Republican leaders are taking to their wavering rank-and-file. House Republican made headlines – and won some much-need unity – when they denied President Barack Obama a single GOP vote on the House version of his economic recovery plan late last month. Few expect the same results when the House takes up the final version of a $789 billion package Friday; Republican members and aides were braced Thursday night for 10 to 15 defections.”
UPDATE: House minority leaders got their way, and not a single Republican in the lower chamber voted for the Obama Stimulus Plan.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 11, 2009, at 12:25 pm
Today’s side skirmish in the economic stimulus package debate is between the large and monied public employees’ union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and 21 targeted Republicans in the House of Representatives. AFSCME and Americans United for Change, a larger pro-labor group that it is part of, today dropped television and regional radio commercials in those lawmakers’ districts.
Here’s the TV vid:
Eric Cantor, the rising star of the far right in Congress, had his own brand of comeback, with his aide telling Politico that an old, redubbed AFSCME commercial would serve as Cantor’s official response. (View it after the jump, plus an update with AFSCME demanding an apology.)
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 10, 2009, at 11:00 am
Yes, it’s late notice my friends, but I will be in front of the TV at 12 noon to report and comment on what I hear from President Barack Obama as he tries to rescue his economic stimulus package from the clutches of tax-and-spend liberals in the House and tax-breaks-for-the-wealthy conservatives in the House and Senate. Please join me if you have nothing else going on. Post a comment below. Also let me know if you want something fact-checked.
1:08: Final question: A crazy religious kid gets to ask the last one. Julio is a community college student, at the same job Mickey D’s for 4.5 years. How can folks stuck in low-paying jobs like mine get better benefits? Obama: Your hard work should be a source of pride for you. And you’ll get the tax breaks we are talking about, the payroll tax offset. We will reform health care system so you can get health care coverage. What are you studying, Obama asks the hyper young man what he is studying. (Wants to major in communications, wants to be a broadcaster or disc jockey.)
Fox News: “All right, Julio. He’s King for the day.”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 9, 2009, at 3:50 pm
Our Gov will introduce the president, who is fighting against Crist’s own party to try to save his stimulus package. Politico reports:
Aides to the governor confirm Crist will appear with Obama at the noon town hall planned for Tuesday.
Crist was one of a handful of GOP governors who affixed his name to a letter of state chief executives in support of the stimulus package.
Florida has been ravaged by the recession, thanks in large part to the collapse of the home construction industry and spike in foreclosures. The state faces a $2.4 billion budget deficit that is growing.
Just shows you how politics works: Throw a few billion at someone in the other party and they will love the shit out of you.
I say that not because I like pork (yes, Pelosi et al. stuffed some junk into the bill that has very little to do with stimulating the economy.) Or because I think the plan has enough tax breaks for small businesses (it has some, but could use a little more.) Or because I like socking future generations with nearly a trillion dollars in debt. I don’t.
But the consensus among economists is that spending is needed to create jobs. Building infrastructure is not only a quick way to put people to work but makes a small dent in our national backlog of public investments in roads, bridges, transits, energy-efficient buildings and a new energy grid that is sorely needed and will pay dividends (and create jobs) in the long run as well.
What you saw yesterday wasn’t the end of Barack Obama’s ability to reach bipartisanship, nor was it a principled stand against Big Government by Republicans. It was two other things:
I thought that my first post on here should be an introduction to me: who I am, where I came from and why you should give a damn….!
