The Drowning Pool

My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

Grover Norquist

Wayne Garcia writes about how Republicans will rather let education, health care and job training go to hell than raise taxes.

So instead of leaving all options on the table, Republicans leaders such as the ethically challenged House Speaker Ray Sansom want, instead, to continue slicing services and raising trust funds to make up the $2.1 billion shortfall.

For K-12 and higher education, already reeling from a devastating round of cuts last year, it likely means another 2 percent cut. A sign of how bad things are could be seen in a news story that recently trumpeted how education officials were simply glad they weren't looking at the 4 percent cut that most other state services face. Even workforce education programs, which should be key to our economic development, would lose $8.4 million in Gov. Charlie Crist's proposed cuts. We've got hundreds of thousands of newly out-of-work residents and less money to get them back into productive, taxpaying jobs.

In health care, we're failing as well. The state Department of Health recently issued a report that warns of a mounting doctor shortage. A national study gave the state a C- for access to emergency care, and we're third in the nation for mass layoffs in the health care industry.

Florida Senate President Jeff Atwater told his colleagues the state is experiencing record home foreclosures, food stamp recipients and unemployment.

"The gravity of the current fiscal situation is clear," Atwater, a North Palm Beach Republican, told the Senate. "We are simply spending money we do not have."

Messege: Floridians are hurting and don't expect the legislature a helping hand. From a merely political standpoint, this is suicide for the Republican Party of Florida. I knew Republicans were out of touch when they applauded Ray Sanson and described him as "statesmanlike." Sansom is not Nixon coming back from his historic visit to China.

When times are bad people look for the goverment to help. People without health care don't care about the economic philosophies of Milton Friedman. People go to a restaurant and expect good service. Not for the management to tell them to cook their own food. You pay to see a movie. You don't want the manager to give you a lecture about how he is living in his means by not fixing the projector. Florida Republicans are cutting services and expect to keep their jobs. Not fucking likely.