I will protect your pensions. Nothing about your pension is going to change when I am governor. - Chris Christie, "An Open Letter to the Teachers of NJ" October, 2009

Friday, December 31, 2010

Great Moments in Conservative Rhetoric

FL Governor-Elect Rick Scott:

Everyone's talking about the incoming Republican majority in the House of Representatives, but we shouldn't forget the 17 newly elected reformist GOP governors—from New Mexico to Ohio to Maine—who are nearly all hostile to the overweening ambitions of the federal government. Florida's Rick Scott may emerge as one of the boldest.
As far as Washington goes, he says there's been "enough spending and borrowing." And as far as relations between the nation's capital and the states are concerned, his mantra is even more blunt: "Give us our power back. Give us our money and let us run our states."
Mr. Scott, who over the past quarter-century built a $20 billion hospital empire, Columbia-HCA, has practically zero political experience. 

[...]  

"I'm going to run this state like a business," Mr. Scott promises. "When businesses think of locating in North America, I want to make sure that they think first about Florida."

[...]  

Mr. Scott is unquestionably an expert on health-care issues, but he has come under intense attack for $1.6 billion in fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid claims submitted in the mid-1990s by Columbia Hospital Corporation, the name of Mr. Scott's firm at the time. Mr. Scott persuaded voters that he wasn't personally to blame, but those complaints will doubtless surface again as he tries to uproot the current health-care financing structure in the state.
Trust me, Florida: buyer's remorse isn't pretty. You'll see.




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