Raise to Minimum Wage an Urgent Need for U.S.

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Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz

A raise of the federal minimum wage is one of those common-sense proposals that is both good for the economy and good for the country. Considering there has not been an increase since July 2009, workers who depend on these wages have been losing income to inflation for over four years. A raise is long overdue.

This isn’t just a proposal supported by Democrats; economists and nearly three-quarters of Americans support giving hard working folks a raise. And research shows that it could lift approximately five million people out of poverty, ensuring a more secure future and increasing economic activity in their communities.

But incredibly, Republicans oppose this raise. They say that it would lead to job losses, a claim that ignores the economic studies that clearly indicate a minimum wage hike would strengthen the economy. Keep in mind this is the same Republican Party that caused a $24 billion hit to our economy when they shut down the government in the name of denying people health care.

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Broward Democratic Party Chair Mitch Ceasar’s Weekly Column

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After 10 months, Gov. Rick Scott has picked a Lieutenant Governor in Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Carlos Lopez- Cantera. Many believe the choice was an election year calculation. I believe that is true, but there is a special reason. The governor made an assumption that the Hispanic community is simplistic and will “fall in love” because of a temporary appointment. This would disregard Scott’s horrible record toward Hispanics, including cutting educational dollars, fake voter purges and no meaningful Republican immigration reform. The other reasons for the choice of Lopez-Cantera were total loyalty and finally finding someone to say yes.

Broward Democratic Party Chair Mitch Ceasar’s Weekly Column

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To be unemployed or employed, that’s the question. It is not noble to suffer slings and arrows while being unemployed. Congress will be discussing whether to extend unemploymentunemployment insurance for a modest 90 days. Bi-partisanship peeked out of the Senate when six Republicans joined with Democrats to begin the process. We have emerged from a tough recession, which created an underclass called the “long term jobless.” This is the 50th anniversary of President Johnson calling for us to launch a war on poverty. These are people looking for work. Help them. It is their self esteem and our future.

Rubio Demands States’ Right to Ignore the Poor

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New York Times, David Firestone

For a senator who likes to hold himself out as the future of the Republican brand, Marco Rubio has come up with a remarkably retrograde contribution to the party’s chorus of phony empathy for the poor: Let the states do it.

All anti-poverty funds should be combined into one “flex fund,” he said in a speech on Wednesday, and then given to the states to spend as they see fit. He actually believes that states will “design and fund creative initiatives” to address inequality.

“Washington continues to rule over the world of anti-poverty policy-making, with beltway bureaucrats picking and choosing rigid nationwide programs and forcing America’s elected state legislatures to watch from the sidelines,” he said. “As someone who served nine years in the state house, two of them as Speaker, I know how frustrating this is.”

Do-nothing legislators in states like Mr. Rubio’s Florida feel frustrated precisely because most federal safety-net programs are designed to limit the ability of states to refuse to help their less fortunate residents. As Lyndon Johnson knew from personal experience in 1964, when he began the War on Poverty, states could not be trusted to properly address the poverty in their midst. Or, to put it another way, certain states could be trusted to yell and scream and fight to the end for their right to do as little as possible.

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GOVERNOR SCOTT’S GOAL IN 2014 IS TO SHRINK THE MINORITY VOTE

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South Florida Times by Roger Caldwell

There will be a gubernatorial election in 2014 in Florida and the strategy is to win the position by spending the most money.  In 2010, Gov. Rick Scott spent more than $70 million of his own money to win the election and this time around, he will spend $120 million from the Republican Party and his coffers.

Former Gov. Charlie Crist will probably be the Democratic candidate and Floridians trust him more than they trust Scott. Crist will be supported by the minority vote and Scott knows that he must shrink that segment of the electorate to win the election.

Scott is supported by the tea party movement and large corporations in the state but Crist is supported by grassroots Floridians. In order for Crist to win, he must expand the base by registering more new voters who are African Americans and Latinos. Crist knows that he will not be able to raise more money than Scott but Florida has more registered Democrats on the voter rolls.

In 2012, more than 8.4 million Floridians voted in the federal election and President Barack Obama, a Democrat won. Floridians went to the polls and waited up to five hours to make their voices heard. Republicans in 2014 want to control and limit the number of voters who turnout. The Republicans do not like early voting and they will work to decrease the number of early voting sites.

Scott has already started a new voter purge whose objective is to take Latino Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Caribbean Americans and ex-felons off the voter rolls. Since Scott has been in office, Florida’s Clemency Board, of which he is the chairman, has been applying the most restrictive criteria in the nation when it comes to those who have served their sentences.

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The GOP’s impoverished anti-poverty platform

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Context Florida, Daniel Tilson

Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of The United States, must be spinning in his grave and cursing up a storm this week.

You see, to mark the 50th anniversary of LBJ’s landmark ‘War On Poverty’, congressional conservatives like Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio are taking turns trying to discredit it.

First came a video released by Sen. Rubio posing the question:

“Isn’t it time to declare Big Government’s War on Poverty a failure?”

It’s not exactly a new script.

The GOP has been selling a storyline for a while now that because there’s still rampant poverty in America, the social safety net programs that have helped so many for so long are a failure.

Uh-huh, tell that to your grandparents on Medicare.

Tell that to your old friends who fell on hard times and got a little help with their preschoolers from Head Start.

In point of fact, the array of programs LBJ unveiled in 1964 lowered the percentage of Americans living in poverty by more than 40 percent in their first six years of existence.

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Happy New Year From Broward Democrats’ Chair Mitch Ceasar

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The stories we have experienced in 2013 include NSA leaks, a great year for the stock market, mostly Congressional gridlock, health care and a fascination with the peculiar. Those stories include Paula Dean, Duck Dynasty, and the local Plantation Christmas lights war. Although the names may change to protect the ridiculous, most issues in life remain the same. As a nation, we must always remain optimistic about the future. That unique trait makes us Americans. It also makes us the envy of the world. Happy holidays.

Editorial: Failure at the top on Medicaid

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Tampa Bay Times Editorial
Friday, December 13, 2013 4:54pm

Florida is stuck with a tea party governor who won’t talk and a tea party House speaker who won’t listen. Gov. Rick Scott refuses to repeat his earlier support for Medicaid expansion, and House Speaker Will Weatherford refuses to hear the economic and moral arguments for accepting billions of federal dollars to cover the poor. Congress is finally rejecting such ideological rigidness in embracing a budget compromise, and the Legislature should do the same on health care.

At least twice last week, Scott declined to publicly reaffirm his support for accepting billions from Washington to expand Medicaid. The Republican governor’s embrace always sounded unenthusiastic, and it came hours after the Obama administration approved his request in February to convert the state’s entire Medicaid program into a managed care system. Scott did not push the House to adopt a Senate plan to take the federal money, and he dropped the subject after the Legislature adjourned in May. Now he chokes on his own words of support as he gears up his re-election campaign.

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Broward Democratic Party Chair Mitch Ceasar on Pope Francis

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Last week: Pope Francis has been chosen “Person of the Year” by Time magazine. His humility and words have grabbed the attention of the world. He has reminded us all to be citizens of the world. This Papacy, in its call to justice, tells us all to confront today’s real needs. He reminds us of our own spirituality and the need for “good works.” You do not need to be Catholic to be a fan of this Pope.

-DEC Chair Mitch Ceasar

Costing us all

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Gainesville Sun Editorial
December 11, 2013

Not only is Florida denying health care to at least 800,000 uninsured residents, the state will be sending $5 billion from the pockets of its taxpayers to subsidize coverage elsewhere.

The figure comes from an analysis released last week by the Commonwealth Fund. Among the 20 states choosing not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, Texas is the only state that will lose more in federal funds than Florida by 2022, the study found.

Blame goes to Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford and other Republicans in Tallahassee opposed not only to expanding Medicaid, but any compromise that uses federal funding to cover the uninsured.

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