U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, has signed on as a cosponsor of a bill that says pay checks for members of Congress should be assigned the absolute lowest priority if the federal government runs out of borrowing capacity next week and the Treasury Department has to prioritize which obligations to honor first.
The bill’s sponsor is Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn.
Says Rooney: “I remain hopeful that we can reach an agreement that will prevent a default, cut spending significantly and implement serious reforms to ensure that we don’t face a debt crisis like this in the future. Congress needs to do its job, but if August 3 rolls around and there’s still no deal, then we absolutely should not get paid.”
All the votes to table the measure came from Democrats, including Sen. Bill Nelson. All the votes against blocking the bill came from Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio.
President Obama said he’d veto the legislation if it came to his desk.
When the Florida Panhandle was staggered by the effects of last summer’s BP oil spill, hotels, restaurants and other employers along the coast laid-off workers and braced for economic calamity.
But state analysts looking to put a price on how much financial damage Florida absorbed remained puzzled Thursday by a recurring number. The state’s employment office, the Agency for Workforce Innovation, reports that only 735 unemployment claims have been directly linked to the oil spill.
Tom Clendenning, AWI’s chief-of-staff, told the state’s revenue estimating conference that 7,778 workers also were let go last year by the same employers who laid-off the 778. A survey is now being conducted to learn whether the 778 lost jobs should be increased — with the bill going to BP.
Clendenning said that $2.3 million in unemployment benefits have been paid out related to the oil spill. Estimators are trying to determine how much in taxes and fees Florida taxpayers lost last year, in addition to benefit payouts.
One item estimators took off the table Thursday was lost revenue in traffic tickets, due to lost traffic. Estimators seemed to think that was too tough to quantify.
BP last week asked the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, which oversees claims, to reduce damage payments because the British oil giant said the region’s tourist economy has recovered and fisheries are back to work.
Florida U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, and Republican Marco Rubio are among officials disputing BP’s stance, saying there is too much uncertainty to claim the spill poses no future financial risk for coastal communities.
BP said it has paid Florida cities and counties about $10.6 million for revenue losses, in addition to millions more for cleanup, expenses and tourist promotion.
After President Obama mentioned a tax break for corporate jets six times (count ‘em in the official White House transcript) in a Wednesday press conference, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio took to the floor of the Senate Thursday to blast the president’s framing of the deficit-reduction debate.
“It’s class warfare, and it’s the kind of language that you would expect from the leader of a third world country, not the President of the United States,” said Rubio.
Rubio was more colorful in a National Review interview, saying Obama’s words were “more appropriate for some left-wing strong man than for the president of the United States.”
The Washington Post’s Fact Checker blog suggests the much-referenced break for corporate jets is fairly insignificant compared to the nation’s deficit and debt woes.
President Obama‘s approval rating is back above water in a Quinnipiac University poll released this morning. Floridians approve of Obama by a 51-to-43 percent margin, up from a 44-to-52 percent score last month.
It’s Quinnipiac’s first Florida survey since Obama ordered the May 1 raid in Pakistan that killed Islamist terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.
“Whether these numbers represent a ‘bin Laden bounce,’ President Barack Obama’s popularity is up in Florida, which will be a crucial state for him in the 2012 campaign,” said Quinnipiac’s Peter Brown. “The good news for the president is that by 50 – 44 percent Florida voters say Obama deserves a second term in the Oval Office, compared to April when they said 51 – 42 percent that he did not.”
Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, meanwhile, holds leads of at least 20 percent in hypothetical match-ups against each of the three Republicans vying to challenge him in 2012: Mike Haridopolos, George LeMieux or Adam Hasner.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, are scheduled to visit CIA headquarters today to view photos of Osama bin Laden‘s body taken after the May 1 Navy SEAL raid of the Islamist terrorist’s in-plain-sight Pakistani hideout.
Sen. Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, turned down invitations to view the bin Laden death photos.
Republican Senate rivals George LeMieux and Adam Hasner have both released new web videos this week that have a general-election, pre-Abbottabad feel to them.
Neither video alludes to other GOP primary candidates (state Senate Prez Mike Haridopolos is also seeking the Republican nomination).
Both the LeMieux and Hasner videos take aim at Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and feature pictures of Nelson appearing chummy with President Obama. That might not be such a bad thing for Nelson if the general election were today. Obama’s approval ratings have climbed since the SEAL Team 6 rubout of Osama bin Laden, but the president remains a popular foil for Republican primary candidates.
A LeMieux video released today blasts “career politician” Nelson on health care, immigration and earmarks. It features a still shot of Obama and a smiling Nelson in a semi-hug reminiscent of the Obama-Charlie Crist stimulus embrace that helped Marco Rubio drive Crist out of the GOP.
Hasner released a video attacking the national debt with unflattering images of Senate Democrats Harry Reid, Charles Schumer and Dick Durbin, a shot of Chairman Mao (because China holds much of the U.S. debt) and a photo of Obama and Nelson yukking it up together.
“Justice has been done,” President Obama said late Sunday night from the White House in announcing that a U.S.-led operation had killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan.
Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson and U.S. Reps. Tom Rooney and Allen West were quick to issue statements. U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch and Gov. Rick Scott have also weighed in.
Donald Trump, the billionaire White House waters-tester who’ll headline Saturday’s South Florida Tea Party rally in Boca Raton, isn’t your typical tea partyer.
Trump is allied with the tea party movement in favoring repeal of the health care law and opposing tax hikes. But while exploring a 2000 Reform Party presidential bid, part-time Palm Beacher Trump supported universal health care and a one-time 14.25 percent “wealth tax” on individuals and estates with a net worth of more than $10 million.
But that was more than a decade ago.
More recently, Trump has given campaign contributions to some high-profile tea party foes.
Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio has sent a letter to Senate leaders that calls for authorizing the use of force in Libya — not just for the limited humanitarian mission described by President Obama on Monday night, but to remove Moammar Gadhafi from power.
Freshman Republican Sen. Marco Rubio ended his self-imposed exile from the national media spotlight with Tuesday night appearances on ABC’s Nightline and Fox News’ Hannity and an interview this morning on ABC’s Good Morning America.
He also has an opinion piece in this morning’s Wall Street Journal in which he says he’ll vote against raising the federal government’s borrowing limit unless certain conditions are met.
“I will vote to defeat an increase in the debt limit unless it is the last one we ever authorize and is accompanied by a plan for fundamental tax reform, an overhaul of our regulatory structure, a cut to discretionary spending, a balanced-budget amendment, and reforms to save Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,” Rubio says.
The good news for rookie Republican Gov. Rick Scott: After three months of budget cutting, high-speed-rail rejecting, pension revamping and other decisions and proposals that were bound to upset some Floridians, his approval rating remains at its post-election, pre-inauguration levels.
The bad news: that approval rating was, and is, in the low 30s, according to the Democrat-oriented Public Policy Polling firm.
A new PPP survey finds only 32 percent of Floridians approve of the job Scott is doing as governor, while 55 percent disapprove. He’d lose a hypothetical do-over election to Democrat Alex Sink by a 56-37 percent margin.
Rubio
In December, PPP found only 33 percent of Floridians had a positive view of their governor-elect after his narrow win over Sink. PPP’s Tom Jensen calls Scott “incredibly unpopular.”
Rookie Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, on the other hand, has an approval/disapproval score of 43/31. That’s better than two-term Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson‘s 38/34 score as he heads into a 2012 reelection bid.
Freshman Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who has kept a deliberately low national profile since his November election and January swearing-in, reemerges on the national stage tonight with the airing of an ABC News interview and an appearance with Sean Hannity on Fox News.
Rubio’s also slated to appear on ABC’s Good Morning America on Wednesday.
Sure, Adam Hasner was a Tallahassee insider who rose to the rank of House Majority Leader and raised $1 million in his last reelection campaign.
But since being term-limited out of the House last year, the Boca Raton resident has been making Garmin-aided treks around the state to talk to tea party groups and other grassroots conservatives about a possible 2012 U.S. Senate bid.
Hasner says the tea party crowd remains unhappy with Washington and is poised to send another wave of conservative anti-establishmentarians to Capitol Hill in 2012.
Yes, he did.
It sounds a little like former House Speaker Marco Rubio’s early-2009 underdog Senate quest. Rubio was discovered by the national conservative movement before many establishment Florida Republicans took him seriously, getting a coveted National Review cover story in August 2009.
Hasner hasn’t landed on the conservative mag’s cover, but he did get favorable mention from the publication last week.
Rookie Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s self-imposed freeze on national media appearances ended today when he granted an interview to conservative syndicated radio talker Laura Ingraham to blast President Obama and congressional Democrats for their handling of the federal budget.
Ingraham was an early Rubio supporter back when former Gov. Charlie Crist appeared to have a lock on the 2010 GOP nomination for the Senate seat.
Since taking office with sky-high expectations and 2012 presidential ticket talk, Rubio has declined national media interview requests while making himself available to Florida outlets.
Rubio still hasn’t made a national TV appearance since being sworn in.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, appear ready to vote against another temporary spending measure to keep the federal government running for a few weeks, saying Congress should instead pass a bill to cover the remainder of the current budget year.
Both West and Rubio voted for a Republican plan — passed by the House but rejected by the Senate — that would cut $61 billion in federal spending through Sept. 30, when fiscal 2011 ends.
“I will no longer support short-term budget plans. While attempts at new spending reductions are commendable, we simply can no longer afford to nickel-and-dime our way out of the dangerous debt America has amassed. It is time our leaders in Washington wake up and realize that we are headed for a debt disaster.”
Says West: “I make myself clear. I will not support anything less than HR 1 (the House bill with $61 billion in cuts) as it was sent forward to the Senate. Nor will I support another two week Continuing Resolution. Alexander the Great once stated, ‘Fortune favors the bold.’ The American people are looking for principled and bold leadership. I understand ‘political maneuvering’ but the time has come to engage in the battle for the fiscal responsible future of America. I shall take my position on the frontlines.”
Freshman GOP Sen. Marco Rubio and seven of his Republican colleagues are vowing to block consideration of any new legislation on the Senate floor “until the Senate begins in earnest a long overdue and urgently needed debate on America’s debt crisis.”
The group includes conservative Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and tea party freshmen Rand Paul, R-Ky. and Mike Lee, R-Utah.
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the eight write: “While there are certainly many issues that warrant the Senate’s consideration, we feel that the Senate must not debate and consider bills at this time that do not affirmatively cut spending, directly address structural budget reforms, reduce government’s role in the economy so businesses can create jobs, or directly address this current financial crisis.”
WEST PALM BEACH — Former House Speaker and potential 2012 presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, arriving at tonight’s Palm Beach County GOP Lincoln Day dinner, says several Floridians could end up on the Republican presidential ballot next year.
“Florida has two and maybe three potential vice presidential candidates right now, maybe four if you count Jeb Bush,” Gingrich said. He mentioned Sen. Marco Rubio, U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation and Gov. Rick Scott.
Gingrich says he’ll announce his presidential plans within a few weeks.
Asked about Florida’s 2012 primary date, Gingrich said Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina should be the first states to hold 2012 presidential primaries or caucuses. After that, he said, “it’s up to Florida. At that point Florida has to negotiate with the RNC.”
The Republican National Committee wants Florida to move its primary from January to March.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio delivered an “eat-your-peas” speech Wednesday to fellow Republicans from the dais of the state House where he served as speaker a few years back.
The West Miami Republican, sent to Washington last fall with heavy tea party backing, said Medicare and Social Security spending is unsustainable. And the federal government’s $1.5 trillion deficit must be harnessed, Rubio told state lawmakers gathered in the House chambers.
But Rubio also conceded, “we have a political process in Washington that is frozen.”
Rubio, speaker from 2007-08, drew a lot of love from the Republicans, who later lined up for photos with him. He also returned the schmooze, saying he didn’t envy their task of trying to balance a state budget rocked by at least a $3.6 billion shortfall.
“State governments don’t have the luxury of printing money,” Rubio acknowledged, later adding, “The day of reckoning comes a lot quicker at the state level.”
Rookie Sen. Marco Rubio is interviewed in Spanish by a Telemundo crew outside his temporary basement office last week. He has so far turned down major national TV appearances.
Rookie U.S. Rep. Allen West prepares for a Fox News interview in the Cannon House Office Building rotunda, one of four Fox appearances in a five-day span.
WASHINGTON — Sen. Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Allen West are both conservative Republicans who won last year with strong tea party backing and large national followings.
Since arriving on Capitol Hill, however, they’ve pursued different media strategies during their first weeks in office.
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