Gov. Scott Wants To Meet With Obama, While Blacks Cancel Meeting With Governor

BY BUDDY NEVINS

 

This one is self-explanatory and interesting.

After all, Gov. Rick Scott has done nothing but vilify President Obama for four years.

Now he wants Obama’s help?

Here is the news release from the governor’s office:

 

 

For Immediate Release
January 15, 2014

 

Gov. Scott Requests Meeting with President Obama to Fix NFIP Rate Hike

 

TALLAHASSEE – Today, Governor Rick Scott called for a meeting with President Obama to discuss unfair insurance rate hikes placed on Florida families resulting from the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act. To view the letter click HERE.

 

FULL LETTER BELOW 

 

January 15, 2014

 

 

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

 

Dear Mr. President:

 

Last week, I wrote to inform you of the devastating consequences of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act, which you signed into law on July 6, 2012. I have yet to receive your response.

You already used your executive authority to delay the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and undo health insurance laws that were costing Floridians the health care plans they liked and wanted to keep.  Why is keeping Floridians in their homes less important?

Floridians are suffering.  I would like to meet with you as soon as possible to discuss how we can resolve this unfair insurance rate hike on Florida families.

We need you to take immediate action to undo the harmful effects of this law before it cripples Florida’s real-estate market and threatens our state’s economic momentum.  I am making myself available to meet with you on this critical issue at your earliest convenience. Our state cannot wait. I look forward to sitting down with you soon to fix this problem.

 

 Sincerely,

 

Rick Scott

 

 

XXXXX

Meanwhile, the Florida Legislative Black Caucus today cancelled a meeting with Scott. Here is their letter, signed by State Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee, to the governor:

January 15, 2014
The Honorable Rick Scott
Governor, State of Florida
The Capitol, PL-01
300 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Dear Governor Scott,

I write on behalf of the members of the Florida Legislative Black Caucus to inform you that, despite great respect for the public office you hold, we have agreed to cancel our scheduled meeting with you today.

Based on your lack of action on matters of importance to this caucus that we have brought to your attention at prior meetings, we believe another meeting at this time would be fruitless.

Today, as we recognize the anniversary of the birth of The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., we are particularly mindful that the dreams of Floridians remains unfulfilled. Therefore, we take this occasion to respectfully remind you that there are significant needs facing Floridians that demand attention and action.

All Floridians, including the thousands of residents of the communities we serve, deserve to have access to affordable health care that can be provided under an expansion of coverage using available federal dollars.

We believe you can and should do more to ensure that your administration – as well as the various staffing and judicial appointments you make — reflects the racial and ethnic diversity of Florida.

The restoration of rights for individuals who have paid their debts to society is an important caucus priority. So, too, is the proper enforcement of voting rights and the end to the unnecessary purging of legitimate voters from voting rolls for apparent partisan gain.

While we respect your role in protecting the state budget, we remind you that your veto actions last year cut funding for programs and services that are critical to communities we serve.

There should be proportional representation of state spending on economic development investments, including advertising programs under the purview of your office. And the members of this caucus remain committed to adequate funding for all institutions of higher education, including Florida’s historically black colleges and universities.

We have previously presented these and other matters to you and your staff in person. We intend to continue championing these issues with our colleagues in the Florida Legislature, and we encourage your engagement and leadership on these matters.

Sincerely,

Alan Williams, Chairman
Florida Legislative Black Caucus

 

In response, the governor’s office released this statement:

“Governor Scott was disappointed to learn today from Representative Alan Williams that the Legislative Black Caucus took a vote to cancel their scheduled meeting.  Governor Scott believes the best way to serve Floridians is for the Legislature and the Governor’s office to work together to find solutions.  Governor Scott will be in his office today from 12- 1 pm to meet with any member of the Legislative Black Caucus who would like to discuss ways to make Florida even better for families,” – Jackie Schutz, Press Secretary, Governor Rick Scott.



8 Responses to “Gov. Scott Wants To Meet With Obama, While Blacks Cancel Meeting With Governor”

  1. Dean Ledbetter says:

    Should the President of all the people in all the states make a decision about his priorities based on how he is treated by partisan politicians who happen to be governors of those states? (Based on your question above it would appear that may be your opinion.)Or is doing the right thing by the citizens his duty? What would the world have thought of George W. Bush if he had withheld federal assistance from Louisiana after Katrina simply because he was treated similarly by the democrat leaders of that state? Don’t bother to answer. That is a rhetorical question. We already know the answer.

  2. Floridan says:

    What a jerk. And to think this state once had governors like Leroy Collins, Reuben Askew and Bob Graham.

    FROM BUDDY:

    We also had Sidney Johnston Catts, who “publicly theorized that the monks of St. Leo Abbey near Tampa (many of whom were either German-Americans or German immigrants) were planning to arm Florida’s African American community for a popular revolt in favor of Kaiser Wilhelm II, after which Pope Benedict XV (a well documented pacifist, who was Italian, not German) would take over Florida and move the Holy See to nearby San Antonio and close all of the Protestant churches. This actually caused a fair number of German settlers to move to friendlier parts of the country,” according to Wikipedia.

  3. Garl says:

    …and President Obama has done nothing but vilify all Republicans since early spring, 2009.

  4. Chaz Stevens, Festivus says:

    Sidney Johnston Catts daughter Jean Robb is now mayor of Deerfield Beach.

  5. Floridan says:

    Your point is well taken, Buddy. Florida has had its share of disastrous governors. Hopefully, like Catts, Scott will be a one-term governor.

    FROM BUDDY: We’ve had good ones, too, including the three you mentioned.

  6. excompassionateconservative says:

    Buddy, can you explain this bill to us? From what I understood of this, many people were tired of the US gumint paying out flood insurance claims over and over fo people who decide to build in dangerous and flood prone areas. Say, building multimillion dollar properties on the ocean or gulf . This also applied to inland areas where people were building on known flood plains and river banks which wold overflow like clockwork. Each calamity brought out a spray paint can and the words “We will rebuild” on the damaged property. Of course they rebuilt , with very low gumint subsidized flood insurance and we would go through this over and over. I saw this many a time when the stilt houses in the outerbanks or in Texas would get blasted by winds and waves.

    Other parts of the bill I believe involve how a structure is to be rebuilt in anticipation of further severe flood risk models.

    If I understand the Governor correctly, insuring the poor, the unemployed, the disabled etc with a bare minimum of health insurance has less of a priority than having my tax dollars pay for the costs of rebuilding an ocean side estate which took away public beach access for residents.

    What would Jesus , the saviour, not the pool guy/landscaper think of this?

    As far as Blacks cancelling a meeting with Gov Scott. They should reschedule it at an early local voting site line in the height of the scorching heat in a big election.

    If Obama does go to the capital to meet Scott. Perhaps someone like Pat Buchannan can can tell Black residents that “Your boy” Obama is here to see the Governor.

    Yes, I did hear with my own ears Pat say that on national TV and being a middle aged white guy, I knew what he meant.

  7. Duke says:

    I saw the Governor on television last night at an event in Dade County with his new right hand man. He looks scared. He’s in trouble and he knows it. The fact that he had so much trouble finding someone to play second fiddle is fairly indicative of things to come.

    The guy did everything in his power to try and ruin Florida and hand it to Romney. Now, he’s backtracking and trying to undo the damage. This is one voter who is wise to him. I’m voting for Charlie in 2014. My gut tells me he wins.

  8. Ana Gomez-Mallada says:

    Surely you don’t mean to imply that President Obama would use his political position to damage someone who didn’t support him? That would be wrong… A whole investigation with subpoenae and all could result…