October 9, 2011. “He just needs a little more time to clean up the mess.”

Miami Herald, October 8

By Myriam Marquez

Link to original article: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/08/v-print/2444970/no-lie-floridas-governor-is-just.html#ixzz1aFuVCSaH

Let me set the record straight.

Gov. Rick Scott is no Tricky Dick. The poor man is misunderstood. People, particularly the media (yes, we’re people too) are out to get him. Only Fox understands his zeal for freedom.

Freedom. What does it mean to Scott?

Let’s start with regulations. Bad for freedom. This is why Scott felt compelled to gut the Department of Community Affairs, the state agency charged with helping Florida residents maintain their quality of life by ensuring cities and counties steer new subdivisions or businesses to areas that will not jam already-packed roads, water and sewer services and schools.

Let local officials and the lobbyists who court them with campaign cash figure it out. Not our problem, the governor and Legislature agreed after the lobbyists drafted the new law.

And if you are a resident who wants to appeal such a development because it will make your already crammed area roads worse or strain your community’s water supply? Your options are limited, unless you are prepared to bankroll the developer’s lawyers if you lose.

How about the water we drink and the health of the River of Grass and Lake Okeechobee, which collect and store our lifeblood?

Scott and the GOP-led Legislature figured the state’s water management districts were overtaxing Florida ’s cash-strapped, recession weary residents. So even crucial dollars to study what projects are working to improve water quality and restore the natural ecosystem (before farming and sugar-growing practices and stormwater pollution from nearby developments caused havoc) were cut from this year’s budget. The savings for a typical homeowner is peanuts, but, by golly, Scott promised us freedom and he is delivering.

He just needs a little more time to clean up the mess.

So he ventured to Obamaland (Washington) and begged Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for six more years to meet a federal court mandate to clean up the dirty water flowing into the Everglades.

The current deadline is 2016 and state officials have been dragging their feet as if this were a trail of tears instead of the river’s Road to Recovery.

U.S. District Judge Alan Gold, already ticked off with years of the state’s stonewalling, would have to give the nod. And if he doesn’t we’ll likely be told the judge is an enemy of freedom. And a jobs killer, to boot.

You see, this all started when a thin guy with a shaved head popped in between our favorite TV shows, showed his pearly whites and introduced himself. “I’m Rick Scott. Let’s get to work!”

He promised to ignite the economy and attract 700,000 jobs to Florida in seven years. At the time economists pointed out the state would likely have one million more jobs in seven years’ time without doing much of anything.

But Scott campaigned on corporate tax cuts to spur job growth, and again he delivered for freedom’s sake. Now there seems to be a misunderstanding about his math skills or his memory. At least twice cameras captured him saying the 700,000 were on top of one million. Then he told the Herald/Times bureau in Tallahassee that the one million wasn’t part of the deal.

Not a flip-flop, of course. He couldn’t even remember who made the claim about 1.7 million jobs, he told the Associated Press. Then his memory seemed to kick in (even as his transition emails have disappeared ) and by Friday he was setting the record straight, for freedom’s sake:

“Instead of focusing on hypotheticals, I’m focused on what I know will be accomplished through my 7-7-7 plan — the creation of 700,000 jobs over seven years regardless of what the economy might otherwise gain or lose,” Scott said. “Floridians will judge me not on what an economist in Tallahassee predicts, but on actual job growth each month.”

Here’s what we know so far: The state’s unemployment rate has dipped, though that began happening without any new laws or tax cuts. Since Scott took office in January, Florida has 71,000 more jobs. So we’re on our way, if slowly, to somewhere, with corporate interests in the driver’s seat.

Let freedom ring!