Florida Governor Sick Rott Rick Scott is currently enjoying the cool mountain air of Colorado, after declaring a State of Emergency due to raging wildfires in the state he is supposed to be governing.
Presumably, the change of scenery and opportunity to kiss the rings of the Koch brothers are a welcome change from the Governor’s reception in his home state, where his 29 percent approval rating has him as popular as sunburn or heat rash.
The only constituent group still in his corner are the teabaggers, and his decision to sign the state’s budget in that haven of crispy critters and STDs, The Villages, ensured him a cheering crowd, especially since the few liberals in that retirement enclave were barred from protesting at the love-fest.
I wonder if the anti-government principles of Scott’s remaining supporters will be shaken by the state’s refusal to take millions of dollars in federal money tied to that horrific abomination (cue dramatic theme music): Obamacare?
Now in fairness to our hairless leader, he’s not alone in his disregard for the people he was elected to represent; he’s got plenty of company with a Republican House and Senate.
Since this past fall, Florida has turned down, given back or refused to apply for millions in federal funds. Among those are:
Part of a $40 million federal program to promote wellness, including helping those with chronic diseases, such as diabetes, manage their health.
$8 million for construction of community-health centers.
$3.4 million for in-home visitations with at-risk families.
$2.1 million to set up a consumer-assistance office to educate Floridians about health insurance and assist them in appeals when insurers deny treatment.
$2 million for hospice care for children.
$2 million to $650,000 to help low-income seniors pay their Medicare premiums and buy prescription drugs.
A $1 million grant to help the state plan a health-care-exchange system that would let consumers compare insurance plans.
$1 million to help the state insurance agency monitor rising health-insurance rates.
Now many of these monies would have helped people not in Scott's ever-dwindling group of supporters, but will the Legislature’s actions this week be a bridge (or full set of dentures) too far, for Florida’s elderly population?
In the past week, Florida lawmakers turned down a $2.1 million federal grant that would pave the way for the state to receive $35 million in federal funding that would move elderly and disabled patients from nursing homes to their own homes during the next five years.
This decision has got to raise a few shaggy eyebrows among the elderly teabaggers, coming on the heels of Scott’s decision to fire the state’s nursing home Ombudsman, at the behest of nursing home lobbyists, and the legislature’s hatchet job on the state’s volunteer nursing home ombudsman program.
The Republicans are well on their way to making this state a low-tax haven for wealthy retirees, but a very dangerous place to grow old if you aren’t rich enough to afford private nursing care. I think the residents of the Villages may find their commitment to ideological purity tested when they’re faced with entering an over-priced, sub-standard nursing home, operating with little government oversight.