BREAKING NEWS: Senate votes against Trump ’emergency;’ Rubio, Scott split

02-27-19 The_Capitol_at_Dawn

March 14, 2019 by David Silverberg

Updated 4:28 pm with Trump reaction, 9:46 pm with vote correction

By a vote of 59 to 41, the United States Senate voted today to approve House Joint Resolution 46, overturning President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration on the border.

Twelve Republicans joined Democrats in voting to terminate the emergency declaration.

Florida’s two Republican senators split, with Marco Rubio voting against Trump to terminate the emergency and Rick Scott voting with him to continue it.

Other Republicans who voted to terminate the state of emergency were Mitt Romney and Mike Lee of Utah, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Rob Portman of Ohio, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Roger Wicker of Mississippi.

After the vote President Trump issued a tweet with the single word “VETO!” He then elaborated in a second tweet a few minutes later (capitalization his): “I look forward to VETOING the just passed Democrat inspired Resolution which would OPEN BORDERS while increasing Crime, Drugs, and Trafficking in our Country. I thank all of the Strong Republicans who voted to support Border Security and our desperately needed WALL!”

The House and Senate are expected to attempt an override of any veto, which will require a two-thirds vote in each chamber.

In the House, on Feb. 26 Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) joined 11 other Republicans who voted to terminate the emergency while Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.) voted with the president.

Liberty lives in light

© 2019 by David Silverberg

Rooney breaks with Trump again, joins Rubio, Scott and Mast in decrying Everglades underfunding in new budget

Florida Republican senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott denounce Trump’s new budget for its lack of Everglades restoration funding. (Photo: Orlando Sentinel)

March 14, 2019 by David Silverberg

In yet another break with President Donald Trump, Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) has joined Florida’s Republican senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott and Rep. Brian Mast (R-18-Fla.) in criticizing anemic funding for Everglades restoration in the president’s proposed budget.

The full text of their joint statement (their capitalization):

“For the third year in a row, the administration’s budget request underfunds critical projects in South Florida. It is incredibly short-sighted to continue to underfund a series of projects that are absolutely necessary to ensure the environmental sustainability and economic vitality important to the State of Florida and enjoys broad bipartisan support in Congress. Failing to meet the basic federal funding commitments to restore the Everglades is contrary to the administration’s goal of improving project partnerships and cost-sharing with states. Successive Florida Governors have remained committed to this goal, pushing state funding of this 50/50 federal-state partnership to historic highs. Congress and the Army Corps of Engineers envisioned a $200 million per year federal commitment when the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan was first authorized nearly 20 years ago, and it is time for the administration to meet that commitment.”

Neither Rooney nor his office issued a separate statement regarding his position.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.), whose district includes parts of Lee and Collier counties and a substantial portion of the Everglades, did not join the other lawmakers. A request for comment has been made to his office.

(This report will be updated as new developments warrant.)

Liberty lives in light

© 2019 by David Silverberg

Analysis: SWFL, the Democrats and the next President of the United States

Former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe exhorts Collier County Democrats to get out the vote during a visit to Naples on Oct. 25, 2018. (Photo by the author)

March 14, 2019 by David Silverberg

It seems like a stampede, an avalanche, a tsunami; Trevor Noah calls it “World War D”—it’s the constantly growing number of Democratic candidates who believe they can beat Donald Trump and become the next president of the United States.

As of this writing, 16 Democrats have formally announced their candidacy but as many as 30 or more may enter the race or are potential candidates.

This Sunday, March 17, will mark one year until Florida’s Democratic primary, when Southwest Florida Democrats will be able to make their preferred candidate known.

Of the vast array of candidates—and under normal circumstances this number qualifies as “vast”—one declared candidate and two potential candidates have some connection, however tenuous, to Southwest Florida.

Familiarity can be an important thing, especially if the candidate wins. Just knowing that the Paradise Coast is here and that it has special needs, particularly of an environmental nature, can be an important asset to a region, whether during the campaign or when the party platform is formulated. And if a candidate with that familiarity becomes president, the rewards can be substantial.

Possible candidate Joe Biden

Former Vice President Joe Biden is not an announced candidate—yet. He keeps teasing at a run and he rates high in the polls at the moment.

Biden’s connection to Southwest Florida is through his brother, James Biden Jr., who bought a vacation home on Keewaydin Island for $2.5 million in 2013. He then sold it for $1.35 million in February 2018.

Joe Biden spent Christmas 2013 on Keewaydin with the family. But that’s as far as his connection goes. He never mingled with the locals or got involved in state or local politics. Indeed, when he was down here he seems never to have left the island for the mainland. But at least he knows there’s a Southwest Florida and that it has nice beaches.

Possible candidate Terry McAuliffe

03-14-19 Terry McAuliffe FB cropped — Terry McAuliffe

A former governor of Virginia and chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe, visited Naples on Oct. 25 of last year to boost Democratic candidates and make connections to the Collier County Democratic Party.

McAuliffe is a longtime Democratic activist. He was co-chair of President Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign in 1996 and subsequently chaired Clinton’s inauguration. He chaired the Democratic National Committee from 2001 to 2005 and then chaired Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.

He was defeated in his first run for Virginia governor in 2009 but tried again in 2013 and won election. He served as governor from 2014 to 2018 where he attempted healthcare reform and Medicaid expansion (blocked by a Republican legislature), restored voting rights to felons, boosted the economy and ended veteran homelessness. He was elected chair of the National Governors Association in 2016.

As of this writing, McAuliffe has not yet announced his intentions for 2020 but his candidacy remains a possibility. However, he has gotten little to no media attention and despite his record he remains relatively unknown to the public and Democratic voters.

Candidate Elizabeth Warren

03-14-19 Elizabeth Warren FB — Elizabeth Warren

Firebrand Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) announced her candidacy on Feb. 9 of this year, but she was laying the groundwork much earlier. During the 2018 congressional campaign Warren oversaw an energetic outreach effort to local campaigns.

In Southwest Florida, Warren endorsed Democratic congressional candidate David Holden in his run for the 19th Congressional District stretching along the coast from Cape Coral to Marco Island.

While exciting to Holden’s campaign workers, Warren’s endorsement was made only days before her Oct. 15 announcement that DNA testing showed her with Native American ancestry. The announcement backfired. She was mocked by Trump and widely condemned, including by the Cherokee Nation. Fearing that the Warren endorsement would prove more of a liability than an asset, the Holden campaign did not extensively publicize it.

Nonetheless, Warren’s involvement in the local congressional campaign provided her with at least a passing familiarity with Southwest Florida and a few contacts.

How Southwest Florida is likely to vote

Will Southwest Florida Democrats favor these candidates or others when the primary arrives next year?

Ironically, a good indicator of local sentiment can be seen in the results of the Democratic gubernatorial primary last year.

While Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum was the surprise winner of the Democratic nod for governor statewide, he didn’t play well in Lee and Collier counties.

In Lee County it was former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine who led the pack with 39 percent of the Democratic vote, followed by former Representative Gwen Graham with 25 percent. Gillum came in third, with only 21 percent.

Collier County posted nearly identical results, with Levine leading (35 percent), followed by Graham (30 percent) and only then Gillum (19 percent).

Even allowing for differences in personality and race, the results indicate that Southwest Florida Democrats tend to be temperamentally conservative. That is likely to prove the case when the presidential primary comes around. So expect the most conservative Democratic candidates to get Southwest Florida voters’ ballots in 2020.

Some good campaigning might change that equation but the presidential candidates have barely made a dent so far in Florida, according to the Politico article, “For Democrats, 2020 race for Florida cash and talent is ‘wide open,’” by Matt Dixon and Gary Fineout. They write that only Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) have active finance operations in Florida.

Yet all of this may not be terribly significant given the lateness of Florida’s primary on the electoral calendar.

Late to the game

For a populous state that can hold the key to a presidential election, Florida is a latecomer to the presidential primary game.

The first Democratic caucus will take place on Feb. 3, in Iowa. The first primary will be in New Hampshire on Feb. 11. After that will come a caucus in Nevada on Feb. 22 and a primary in South Carolina on Feb. 29.

The first Super Tuesday arrives on March 3 when Alabama, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia hold primaries.

At this point the number of potential nominees should be considerably narrowed down—but even then Florida doesn’t get a say.

No, the Florida primary comes after Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio also hold their primaries.

On March 17, Florida will finally weigh in on the same day as Arizona and Illinois. (Colorado has yet to determine its primary date.)

Is it possible that a contest could be so close by the time of the Florida primary that the Sunshine State could play kingmaker—and that the Paradise Coast could cast the deciding ballot? Yes, but it’s doubtful.

So if any Democrat in Southwest Florida is confused or alarmed by the huge number of Democrats who have declared their candidacies right now, have no fear: by the time you vote you may have only one or two choices and the nominee may already be known.

Let’s hope it’s someone who knows that there’s a Southwest Florida.

Changing the calendar

Iowa and New Hampshire lead the Democratic caucus and primary and calendar and get a disproportionate say in the selection process. Critics have pointed out that these two rural, white states hardly reflect the nation as a whole or the Democratic Party in particular. Indeed, Florida, a must-win state in the general election, will have barely any input in the nomination process given its place in the calendar.

In a fascinating article, “We Re-Ordered The Entire Democratic Primary Calendar To Better Represent The Party’s Voters” on the website FiveThirtyEight.com, author Geoffrey Skelley examines what the order of primaries would be if they were based on the makeup of the Democratic Party.

Spoiler alert: By Skelley’s reckoning, Florida would move up drastically to fourth place. Illinois, New Jersey and New York would hold their primaries first.

That would give Floridians a much bigger say in the final nomination.

Changing the order of primaries is not on the horizon for 2020. But we can dream.

Liberty lives in light

© 2019 by David Silverberg

Trump budget proposal takes aim at SWFL seniors, Social Security recipients

March 12, 2019 by David Silverberg

Southwest Floridians receiving Medicare benefits, Social Security payments and other social safety net assistance stand to suffer significant blows to their government-provided benefits under President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, released yesterday, March 11.

The budget slashes $845 billion over 10 years from the Medicare program. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as of 2017 (the most recent date for which statistics are available), Lee County had 175,648 Part A and B Medicare recipients, while Collier County had 90,800.

Social Security would suffer $25 billion in cuts over 10 years as well. As of December 2017 (the most recent figures available) there were 12,863 Social Security recipients in Lee County and 4,169 recipients in Collier County, according to the Social Security Administration.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly referred to as food stamps, would receive a $220 billion cut over 10 years and recipients would face mandatory work requirements. The program currently serves around 45 million people nationwide and 99,208 people in Lee County and 26,617 in Collier County, as of December 2018.

Environmental blows

The budget cuts all non-defense agencies by 9 percent and takes aim at environmental and science-driven agencies.

The Environmental Protection Agency would suffer a 31 percent cut, with the agency’s overall funding dropping to $6.1 billion, down from the $8 billion Congress enacted in 2017.

The Department of the Interior’s budget is cut by 14 percent. The Trump proposal, however, increases funding for Interior Department programs that “support safe and responsible development of energy on public lands and offshore waters”—which for Southwest Florida means potential oil exploration and exploitation off the Gulf coast and in federal lands like Everglades National Park.

When it comes to the Everglades, the budget requests a total of $118 million for Everglades restoration of which $74.3 million would be for projects under the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) and $44 million would be for non-CERP work, of which $43 million would come through the Department of the Interior.

Controversy and reaction

Nationally, the budget’s most controversial provision calls for $8.6 billion for a wall along the US southwestern border and boosts military spending 5 percent to $750 billion.

The budget proposal was met with a blast of condemnation from congressional Democrats, who denounced it as “irresponsible” and a “cynical vision for our country,” (Rep. John Yarmuth (D-3-Ky.) chairman of the House Budget Committee), “even more untethered from reality than his past two [budget requests],” (Rep. Nita Lowey (D-17-NY), chair of the House Appropriations Committee) and “breathtaking in its degree of cruelty,” (Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)).

Liberty lives in light

US House approves major reform bill; Rooney, Diaz-Balart oppose change

March 8, 2019 by David Silverberg

The US House of Representatives today, March 8, passed the For the People Act (House Resolution 1), by a vote of 234 to 193, largely along party lines.

The bill, introduced in January by Rep. John Sarbanes (D-3-Md.) and heavily amended, aims to “expand Americans’ access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, and strengthen ethics rules for public servants,” according to its text.

“HR 1 restores the people’s faith that government works in the public’s interest, the people’s interest, not the special interests,” stated House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-12-Calif.) at a press conference prior to passage of the bill. “It ends the dominance of big, dark, special interest money in politics and it empowers small donors and the grassroots. It ensures clean, fair elections and fights voter suppression. It cleans up corruption, returning integrity to Washington, DC.”

Southern Florida representatives Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.) both voted against the measure.

In a statement, Rooney argued that the bill “would take taxpayer money to fund political campaigns, expand the federal bureaucracy, and create opportunities for voter fraud.” Diaz-Balart similarly argued the bill “aims to use the electoral system to achieve a pre-determined result.”

The bill incorporates numerous Democratic and progressive reform proposals, many of which were part of numerous 2018 congressional campaigns. Among its provisions the bill expands early voting, reforms redistricting, makes Election Day a federal holiday, enables automatic voter registration and imposes stricter disclosure rules for a variety of political activities.

The bill also targets President Donald Trump by requiring that presidential and vice presidential candidates publicly disclose 10 years of tax returns.

The bill now goes to the Senate, where Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has announced that he will not allow it to come to a vote “because I get to decide what we vote on.” Trump has also vowed to veto it if it gets to his desk.

Liberty lives in light

A busy week in Congress: ending the national emergency, gun violence and education policy

01-13-19 us capitol cropped

March 1, 2019 by David Silverberg

While the nation was transfixed by the open House Oversight Committee hearing of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer (who also testified at two closed hearings), work done elsewhere more directly affected Southwest Florida.

Ending the state of emergency

As reported earlier this week, on Tuesday, Feb. 26, the House of Representatives voted 245 to 182 to terminate Trump’s state of emergency on the southern border. The legislation is now in the Senate.

In a startling break with his Republican colleagues and the president, Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) for the first time in this session, voted with the Democratic majority and against the president’s wishes.

He joined 12 other Republicans in rejecting the state of emergency declaration, made on Feb. 15. Prior to that vote, Rooney had voted 100 percent with the president’s agenda in the 116th Congress.

To see more coverage of the state of emergency vote, see: US House votes to terminate state of emergency; Rooney breaks with party to oppose Trump.

Opposing gun restrictions

This week was a particularly active week in addressing gun violence in the House as it considered two sweeping measures. The Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019 (House Resolution 8), would require background checks on all firearms sales. The Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2019 (HR 1112) would lengthen the waiting period for a gun purchase from three days to ten.

Rooney voted against both measures, which nonetheless passed the chamber with votes of 240 to 190 and 228 to 198 respectively.

In past appearances, Rooney has staunchly maintained that gun restrictions were unconstitutional, although in a May 30, 2018 appearance at The Alamo gun range and store in Naples, he said that while he could go so far as to support a limit on the size of gun magazines, “I just think we have to think real careful it doesn‘t become a slippery slope. You know, maybe you say if you use a magazine over a certain size you got to do it at a place like The Alamo or some kind of secure environment,” he said at the time.

However, he added, “…the thing that scares me is that a weapons ban, the last weapons ban, empowered the anti-Second Amendment people so much that they are using it against us now.”

In voting against HR 8 Rooney stated: “While we must continue to take action to end gun violence, what we do must actually be effective. Last year, Congress passed and President Trump signed into law, the Fix NICS Act, which penalizes federal and state authorities that fail to report relevant information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).”

In voting against HR 1112, Rooney argued that it did not address issues raised by the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding gun safety.

Supporting Betsy DeVos

This week Education Secretary Betsy DeVos introduced a new initiative to promote private schools. The initiative would provide a tax credit for donations made to private school scholarships, called Education Freedom Scholarships (EFS).

In Congress, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the Senate and Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-1-Ala.) in the House introduced Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act (not yet numbered at the time of this writing) to promote the program. Rooney signed on as a co-sponsor.

According to the Department of Education statement accompanying its unveiling, the “EFS will be funded through taxpayers’ voluntary contributions to state‐identified Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs). Those taxpayers will then receive a non‐refundable, dollar‐for‐dollar federal tax credit. EFS will not create a new federal education program but instead will allow states to decide whether to participate and how to select eligible students, education providers, and allowable education expenses.”

DeVos hastened to assure the public that the program would not hurt public education. “The policy would not rely on any funds currently allocated to public education, nor would it create a new federal education program. Participation would be voluntary for students, schools, and states,” she announced in a statement.

Despite these assurances, Democrats were quick to blast the proposal as another Trump administration effort to undermine public education.

“House Democrats will not waste time on proposals that undermine public education. We’re focused on reversing our chronic underfunding of public schools so that all students – regardless of their background – can learn in schools that are healthy, safe, and provide a quality education,” stated Rep. Bobby Scott (D-3-Va.), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee.

Surprisingly, criticism also came from conservative institutions like The Heritage Foundation. Lindsey Burke, director of the Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, and Adam Michel, a senior policy analyst in the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, warned that the proposal could reverse the nation’s school choice gains and recent tax policy reforms.

“It’s wonderful that the Administration wants to advance school choice but a nationwide federal tax-credit scholarship program is the wrong way to do it,” they wrote in a Heritage Foundation statement. “This could open the door for further education regulations down the road that neutralize the advantages of private education as well as impede future tax reform efforts.”

Rooney, whose education was entirely private, parochial and religious, has long been critical of public education for “driving an agenda of secularism, materialism and willingness to sacrifice principles for material possessions,” as he put it in his Alamo appearance.

Rooney has accompanied DeVos on several trips to Southwest Florida to tour schools here.

The initiative and its accompanying legislation chiefly benefits wealthy donors who can afford to make large financial contributions to private schools, providing them with another tax break. The scholarships benefit private and for-profit schools that chiefly cater to wealthy children.

(It is worth noting the warning made in the book Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House by Omarosa Manigault Newman, who served in the early Trump administration as liaison to the African-American community, about Betsy DeVos: “Her plan, in a nutshell, is to replace public education with for-profit schools”—all of them, the entire system, not just a few. “In each cabinet meeting, I was seated in the row near her. I can tell you, after a year of sitting in those meetings and observing her, that she’s woefully inadequate and not equipped for her job. She is just as horrible as you suspect she is. … She does not care about your children. Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.”)

Coal lobbyist confirmed as EPA administrator

In the Senate, Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, was confirmed as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The vote on Thursday, Feb. 28, was 52 to 47 with both of Florida’s Republican senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, voting in favor of Wheeler’s confirmation.

Liberty lives in light

US House votes to terminate state of emergency; Rooney breaks with party to oppose Trump

02-27-19 The_Capitol_at_Dawn

The US Capitol at dawn. (Photo: Architect of the US Capitol)

Feb. 27, 2019 by David Silverberg

Updated 11:40 am with Rooney statement and link to bill

Last night, Feb. 26, The US House of Representatives voted 245 to 182 to terminate President Donald Trump’s state of emergency on the southern border.

In a startling break with his Republican colleagues and the president, Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) voted with the Democratic majority to pass the bill. Until now Rooney has voted 100 percent with the president’s agenda in the 116th Congress. He joined 12 other Republicans in rejecting the state of emergency declaration, made on Feb. 15.

In a statement, Rooney declared: “I voted for the resolution because I believe in the rule of law and strict adherence to our Constitution. We are, as John Adams said, ‘A nation of laws, not men.’ The ends cannot justify the means; that is exactly what the socialists want.

“We need to secure our border and control who enters the United States but this emergency declaration is not the answer – fixing our broken immigration system is: adopting skill-based immigration, not family-based; policing visa overstays; ending the diversity lottery; making E-verify required of all employers; and stopping asylum abuse by requiring that asylum claims can only be made at a legal point of entry to the United States.”

The bill, House Joint Resolution 46, introduced on Feb. 22 by Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-20-Texas), now goes to the Senate.

Should the bill be passed in the Senate, President Trump is widely expected to veto it.

Trump’s emergency declaration came after Congress passed a federal spending bill that did not include Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion for a border wall. At the press conference announcing his state of emergency declaration, Trump stated that he did not have to declare a state of emergency but that it would facilitate his getting the money more quickly. In addition to the congressional vote, the declaration is being challenged in court.

In addition to Democratic arguments that there was no national emergency at the border, that the declaration was an unconstitutional end-run to get money Congress had not appropriated and that success on this issue would lead Trump to declare further emergencies every time he wanted something, conservatives were also critical of the declaration. For example, the conservative, Koch-brothers funded Cato Institute, an ideological think tank, also argued against it in an essay, “There Is No National Emergency on the Border, Mr. President.”

Ironically, the vote against the declaration of emergency came on the eve of the 86th anniversary of the Reichstag fire in Germany. On Feb. 27, 1933 a fire broke out in the Reichstag building housing Germany’s parliament. A Dutch communist was held responsible and Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party used the incident to declare an emergency in Germany and pass laws that consolidated an unchecked Nazi dictatorship.

Liberty lives in light

Rooney reaches 1-year mark in avoiding constituents, town halls

Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) at a May 31, 2017 town hall in Bonita Springs. (Photo by author)

The Rooney roundup

365 days since Rep. Rooney has met constituents in an open, public forum

Feb. 22, 2019 by David Silverberg

Today, Feb. 22, marks one year since Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) has faced constituents in person in an open, public forum to hear their concerns and answer their questions.

It was on Feb. 22, 2018 that Rooney held his last two town hall meetings, one on Marco Island, the other in Fort Myers.

Since then he has refused to make any appearance where members of the public could attend to ask him questions about his policies and positions.

He also refused to debate his Democratic opponent, David Holden, during the run up to the midterm congressional election. The Collier County League of Women Voters invited both candidates to a debate, scheduled for Sept. 17. Rooney responded in a letter to the League that he had “no availability” on that date and “no future availability.”

He subsequently announced that he had no need to debate or make public appearances because “everyone knows my positions.”

In the year since his last town hall meetings Rooney has only spoken to small, invited groups in very controlled circumstances. On May 30, 2018 he spoke to an invitation-only audience at The Alamo gun range and store in Naples. That appearance was organized by the Florida Citizens Alliance, an advocacy organization critical of secular public education.

Rooney also joined President Donald Trump on stage at a rally in Hertz Arena in Estero on Halloween, Oct. 31, 2018, which was not an occasion for listening to constituent concerns. Trump praised Rooney for his “brutal” defense of the president and his policies. (In December 2017 Rooney called for a purge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to eliminate any anti-Trump elements in the leadership.)

Rooney was with then-Gov. Rick Scott (R) on his bus during his campaign for the US Senate when Scott turned and fled from red tide protesters in Venice and canceled a Naples campaign stop.

Rooney’s last town halls were contentious and combative. They were held only eight days after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. On Marco Island, when asked if he would support a semi-automatic weapons ban, Rooney replied: “How willing are we to throw the Constitution out the window?” The answer elicited angry shouts and catcalls.

In Fort Myers Rooney was confronted by six surviving students of the shooting. Though stating that “irresponsible people” shouldn’t have guns, his opposition to a ban or any other strong gun control measure led to jeers and angry shouts from the audience.

“Children are…dying at my school!” yelled Michael Weissman, who had graduated from the school the year before. “You are heartless!”

“I am for making sure that people who are dangerous don’t get guns in their hands,” Rooney said, to a chorus of boos. “I’m not voting to abdicate the Second Amendment.” Students from Naples and Palmetto Ridge high schools chanted: “Tell us Rooney how you dare, to put us all in the cross hairs” and “Close down the NRA; we don’t want it anyway.”

At the town hall meetings Rooney also refused to acknowledge constituent concerns about climate change. At a town hall on May 31, 2017 and then again at Marco Island on Feb. 22, 2018 he stated: “I think that there is very complex issues surrounding global warming. Sea levels have been rising since the ice age.”

Since his election in November 2016, all of Rooney’s town halls have been contentious as he has characterized the Affordable Care Act as “socialism,” deflected constituent concerns about Trump’s collusion with Russia and said the Environmental Protection Agency needed to be “reined in.”

Nonetheless, after a particularly intense meeting in Cape Coral on March 3, 2017, Rooney praised the importance of meeting constituents in town hall forums.

As he told the News-Press: “[Town hall meetings] are critically important because this is democracy at work. This is what our country is built on.”

Rooney acknowledges climate change for first time, breaks with Trump

For the first time since being elected to office, Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.), has publicly and officially acknowledged the reality of climate change.

The acknowledgment was buried at the bottom of a press release accompanying release of the The Southwest Florida Climate Metrics Survey by the Conservancy of Southwest Florida on Wednesday, Feb. 20.

“If there is any state whose people should be embracing the impacts of our changing climate, it’s Florida. We are the state most at risk for sea level rise than any,” Rooney stated in the release. “This survey proves climate change is an issue important to our voters and there is more we should do to protect ourselves from future impacts.” [Emphasis ours.]

This is the first time Rooney has used the term “climate change” in public and acknowledged its reality.

In the past Rooney has always dodged acknowledging climate change or using the term, stating, as he did in multiple town halls, that sea levels have been rising since the ice age.

If in fact Rooney is acknowledging the reality of climate change he is breaking with President Donald Trump who as recently as Jan. 20 mocked the idea of global warming, tweeting amidst the plunge in temperatures caused by the polar vortex: “Wouldn’t be bad to have a little of that good old fashioned Global Warming right now!”

Commentary

If Rooney is truly acknowledging climate change and a concern for the environment, there are ways to display the outward sign of his inward grace:

He can publicly embrace America’s re-entry into the Paris Climate Agreement;
He can endorse the Green New Deal to hold back carbon emissions and;
He can hold an open, public town hall, explain his new position to his constituents and listen to their climatic concerns, which are amply documented in the Conservancy survey.

We shall see—but don’t hold your breath.

Liberty lives in light

Analysis: Conservancy climate change survey represents a sea change in SWFL attitudes, politics

Sunset Delnore Wiggins after TS Colin 2 6-6-16

Sunset on Delnore-Wiggins beach in Naples after Tropical Storm Colin, June 6, 2016. (Photo by author)

Feb. 21, 2019 by David Silverberg

A new public opinion survey released by Southwest Florida environmental groups may have finally broken the local political taboo against talking about climate change.

The Southwest Florida Climate Metrics Survey was released yesterday, Feb. 20, by the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, an environmental advocacy organization. It surveyed 800 adults over 18 years of age of which 401 were in the Fort Myers area, with proportions in Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee counties. The survey was conducted online from September 25 to October 2, 2018 and had a margin of error of 4.9 percent.

Its most outstanding finding was that people are aware of and believe there is climate change—something not previously apparent in Southwest Florida:

76 percent have noticed more severe weather and changing seasonal weather patterns over the last several years;
75 percent believe that climate change is happening;
71 percent are concerned about climate change;
59 percent believe that the effects of climate change have already begun to happen.

The turning point was Hurricane Irma in 2016. As Rob Moher, president and CEO of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida stated, “Hurricane Irma was a wake-up call for Southwest Florida.”

The survey confirms this, stating that the hurricane “has made most [Southwest Florida residents (SWFR)] more concerned about climate change, motivated them to prepare for climate impacts, and inspired them to do more to stop pollution. A vast majority of SWFR agree that all levels of government should do more to protect mangroves and wetlands. High majorities view extreme weather and rising sea levels as a threat to their community. Most SWFR say red tide and algae outbreaks are being made worse by climate change.”

In addition to simply confirming that Southwest Floridians are aware and concerned about climate change, the survey discovered public support for government action to deal with the effects of climate change in Southwest Florida:

93 percent agreed that local, state, and federal governments should do more to protect mangroves and wetlands;
67 percent say the government needs to protect all people from the impacts of extreme weather;
62 percent say if the U.S. took steps to prevent future climate change, it would improve our health;
54 percent say if the U.S. took steps… it would improve the economy;
53 percent say if the U.S. took steps… it would increase jobs.

There is much more to the survey that can be accessed on the Conservancy’s website.

Analysis: A sea change

The importance of this survey to Southwest Florida’s politics and culture cannot be overstated. It is a sea change—literally.

Even after Hurricane Irma, it was taboo to discuss climate change in public life in Southwest Florida. Gov. Rick Scott (R) banned the term “climate change” from official state usage. President Donald Trump, during his campaign and after his inauguration, dismissed it as a Chinese hoax—and he continues to dismiss it to this day.

The conventional wisdom in Southwest Florida was that the area’s deep conservatism and Republicanism made mention of climate change political poison. It was never mentioned in the news and even TV weather forecasters did not use the term or attribute extreme weather events to it for fear of offending viewers, as privately told to this author.

The expectation was that any mention of climate change would bring an immediate and intense backlash. Southwest Florida officials, appointed and elected, never mentioned it or attributed local climatic changes to it. Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) stated that “I think that there is very complex issues surrounding global warming. Sea levels have been rising since the ice age,” during a town hall meeting in February 2018.

Even Hurricane Irma did not break the stranglehold. Despite this extreme weather event, climate change was never referenced by local meteorologists to explain the storm’s formation or intensity. Subsequent wildfires, droughts and intensely hot summers brought no attribution or reference to climate change either. (To see this author’s Dec. 8, 2017 letter to the editor of the Naples Daily News acknowledging climate change, see “Climate change is here.”)

Last year the stranglehold began to break. The advent of red tide in the Gulf of Mexico and blue-green algae blooms in the Caloosahatchee River made clear that larger climatic forces were at work and people were suffering as a result. It was a crisis that no one could deny or cover up and it was clearly exacerbated by official government environmental neglect and indifference.

During the 2018 congressional election campaign, Democratic candidate David Holden made environmental protection the keystone of his campaign and raised the issue of climate change, by name, for the first time in a Southwest Florida political campaign. He campaigned to make Southwest Florida the most climate change-resilient place in the nation. However, Holden lost the general election 37 percent to 63 percent. (Full disclosure: This author served as his communications director.)

For all this ferment, there was no hard data on Southwest Florida attitudes on climate change and the subject continued to largely be taboo in public discourse.

The Conservancy survey now reveals that Southwest Floridians recognize the role of climate change, are ready to publicly acknowledge it and take appropriate action both personally and officially. What is more, the survey revealed this in a rigorous, scientific way, so it will be very difficult if not impossible for climate change deniers to dismiss or refute it.

Climate change is now in the public forum and the Southwest Florida public is ready to have a real discussion based on facts and science. In this regard the Conservancy of Southwest Florida and the affiliated organizations that funded the survey—the Community Foundation of Collier County and the Southwest Florida Community Foundation—have done a signal service.

It is like the world acknowledging Galileo’s confirmation that the earth revolves around the sun despite the dogma of the past. For the first time, Southwest Floridians can plan, prepare and discuss the issues of climate change in the light of facts and scientific reality without fear or foreboding.

Liberty lives in light

Understanding the Green New Deal and its impact on Southwest Florida

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez addresses demonstrators sitting in at Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s office on Nov. 13.

Feb. 19, 2019 by David Silverberg

In this article:

What constitutes the Green New Deal
Its origins and history
How it affects Southwest Florida
What happens next and why it’s important
What’s at stake

The Green New Deal now proposed in Congress stands to substantially benefit Southwest Florida—if the proposal can make it past the lies, hysteria and vilification being thrown at it by opponents.

What it is

The Green New Deal is a comprehensive program of environmental and social reform that aims to:

achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions;
establish millions of high-wage jobs and ensure economic security for all;
invest in infrastructure and industry;
secure clean air and water, climate and community resiliency, healthful food, access to nature, and a sustainable environment for all; and
promote justice and equality.

It intends to do this through a 10-year national mobilization effort that will:

build smart power grids (i.e., power grids that enable customers to reduce their power use during peak demand periods);
upgrade all existing buildings and construct new buildings to achieve maximum energy and water efficiency;
remove pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation and agricultural sectors;
clean up existing hazardous waste and abandoned sites;
ensure businesspersons are free from unfair competition; and
provide higher education, high-quality health care, and affordable, safe, and adequate housing to all.

Origins

The idea of a Green New Deal and the term to describe it first appeared in 2007 in the writing of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. He was describing an effort to end fossil fuel subsidies, tax carbon dioxide emissions, and create lasting incentives for wind and solar energy.

The idea and its title made it into official usage, becoming part of then-Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign platform and serving as the title of a United Nations report on renewable energy. Its essence was embodied in legislation in the 2010 American Clean Energy and Security Act (better known as cap-and-trade bill), which died that year in the US Senate.

Though the idea waxed and waned in popularity, it appeared in the campaigns of some Democrats running in last year’s midterm elections. Once Democrats won the House of Representatives, environmental activists decided to make a major push for its passage, with the goal of ending all carbon emissions in ten years. The leading Green New Deal organization was the Sunrise Movement of mainly young, grassroots activists.

On Nov. 13, those activists demonstrated in Washington, DC and about 150 sat in at the offices of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-12-Calif.), soon to be Speaker of the House, demanding the Deal’s immediate implementation.

Enter Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-14-NY) has become the face of the Green New Deal. She’s an insurgent Democrat who defeated 10-term Democratic congressman Joe Crowley in her district’s 2018 primary and then won the general election.

Passionate, articulate, telegenic and at 29 the youngest member ever elected to Congress, Ocasio-Cortez was a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and like him, calls herself a Democratic Socialist.

Ocasio-Cortez addressed the demonstrators at Pelosi’s office. She demanded creation of a Green New Deal select committee in the House. Pelosi didn’t support that demand, instead creating a new Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, headed by Rep. Kathy Castor (D-14-Fla.), a longtime environmental activist representing the Tampa area.

Though thwarted in her initial aim, Ocasio-Cortez proceeded to pull all the ideas swirling around the Green New Deal and put them into coherent, legislative form. On Feb. 7 she introduced House Resolution (HR) 109, “Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal.” (The Senate version of the bill was introduced by Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) as Senate Resolution 59.)

The introduction of HR 109 takes the Green New Deal from possibility to proposal. It now has specific provisions and actions and delineates a specific path to implementation.

The Green New Deal and Southwest Florida

HR 109 does not mention Florida by name and there are no provisions specific to the state or to its southwest region. Nonetheless, it has broad implications given Southwest Florida’s environmental sensitivity and past disasters.

The Everglades

Although the Everglades are never mentioned, Everglades restoration could receive a major boost from the Green New Deal program.

The bill calls for “mitigating and managing the long-term adverse health, economic, and other effects of pollution and climate change, including by providing funding for community-defined projects and strategies” and among these are “restoring and protecting threatened, endangered, and fragile ecosystems through locally appropriate and science-based projects that enhance biodiversity and support climate resiliency.”

This precisely describes current Everglades restoration projects including the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and the “wetlaculture” concept put forward by Prof. Bill Mitsch of Florida Gulf Coast University. These ideas stand to get a major boost if the bill passes and the Florida congressional delegation aggressively pursues the resulting benefits.

Resilience

The bill calls for “building resiliency against climate change-related disasters, such as extreme weather, including by leveraging funding and providing investments for community-defined projects and strategies” and “reducing the risks posed by climate impacts.”

This could very directly benefit Southwest Florida in its efforts to fortify itself against hurricanes, wildfires and sea level rise. The region would be in line to receive extensive federal support for infrastructure and protection improvements. If Everglades restoration can be presented as a climate change mitigating initiative, Florida would have a significant claim on federal support. Federal funding might even benefit individual homeowners in the form of tax credits and incentives to strengthen their houses.

Renewable energy

The bill aims to meet 100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources, including renewable energy and new capacity.

For Florida that means a big boost for solar power. The Sunshine State is already taking the initiative to increase solar capacity but passage of the Green New Deal would result in significant federal support for these efforts.

Agriculture

The bill calls for the federal government to work collaboratively with farmers and ranchers to remove pollution and greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible. Given Southwest Florida’s extensive agricultural sector, farmers could see grants and incentives to make their operations more energy efficient.

Beyond these very specific local benefits the bill’s support for the renewable energy industry, housing, health and employment would affect every American. And, of course, protecting the environment, keeping it livable and preventing catastrophic climate change affects all life on the planet.

Analysis: What happens next

Controversy and unanswered questions are swirling around the Green New Deal and the bill that embodies it.

The biggest of these is how it will be funded. Ocasio-Cortez has dodged the question, saying that the United States found a way to fund the original New Deal, World War II and the space program and will find a way to do it this time. It’s a blithe but unsatisfying answer—there were extensive debates about paying for those initiatives at the time.

The proposal’s scope and ambition is breathtaking. As written it would really mean a reordering of society and a complete re-fit of the nation’s built environment, energy and transportation. Its practicality within a ten-year time frame is questionable, to say the least. Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has avoided endorsing it, as demonstrated by her refusal to appoint a select committee on that specific topic.

Predictably, the conservative and Republican reaction has varied from hysteria and paranoia to scorn and dismissal, starting with President Donald Trump.

“I think it is very important for the Democrats to press forward with their Green New Deal. It would be great for the so-called ‘Carbon Footprint’ to permanently eliminate all Planes, Cars, Cows, Oil, Gas & the Military – even if no other country would do the same. Brilliant!” he tweeted on Feb. 9.

Locally, on Feb. 12, the Naples Daily News reprinted whole an essay from the Cato Institute, the arch-conservative, Koch brothers-funded think tank, as its editorial on the newspaper’s position. Titled, “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal Is a Radical Front for Nationalizing Our Economy,” by the Cato Institute, the Naples Daily News gave it a partisan twist with the headline “Green New Deal is a front for the Democrats.”

From a purely legislative standpoint HR 109 has a long way to go. It started out strong, with 68 cosponsors, which means there’s hefty support for it in the House. However, it has been referred to 11 different committees and making its way through all those committees will take time. While any one committee could derail it, the numerous referrals also mean it will get broad consideration throughout the House. Still, it seems unlikely to reach the floor during the two-year span of the 116th Congress.

If events take their normal course, the proposal will be steadily whittled down and delayed during the legislative process. If it even makes it to a vote by the full House and passes, it is highly unlikely to pass in the Senate. If by some miracle it passed both houses and landed on the president’s desk, it seems extremely improbable—one never wants to use the word “impossible” but this is close—that Trump would sign it into law.

But despite its radical solutions, unanswered questions and the improbability of its enactment, the Green New Deal should not be dismissed.

The political importance of the Green New Deal

Protesters seen holding placards during the Sunrise Movement

Some of the demonstrators protesting in front of Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s office on Nov. 13.

The Green New Deal is important as an aspiration, a rallying cry and a set of principles that can inspire Democrats, progressives and environmentalists. It gives coherence to progressive principles and cements those principles in a foundation of environmentalism. It far outshines the weak and anemic proposals on any subject made to date by the current Democratic leadership.

Further, the Green New Deal is likely to stand as a goal and aspiration that may last for decades, rather like the abolition of slavery or pursuit of women’s suffrage. It is not merely a proposal, it is now a movement and movements have their own dynamics.

The Green New Deal could provide common principles to Democratic candidates and the party as it begins pulling together its platform for the 2020 presidential race.

Equal and opposite reaction

The Green New Deal also has to be understood as an equal and opposite reaction to Donald Trump’s brute anti-environmentalism.

The Paris Climate Agreement represents the moderate course in climate change response. It was a phased, consensus approach to combating climate change where everyone shared the pain of restraint but gained the benefit of a livable planet and pledged to take reasonable steps to pursue reasonable goals. It was painstakingly negotiated and at the time of its signing included all the nations of the world but two—Nicaragua (which felt it didn’t go far enough) and Syria (which was in the midst of a civil war).

Donald Trump didn’t just withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement and leave the US isolated and alone in the world. By his scorn and vitriol and sheer resistance to science and dismissal of environmentalism, he seems not to care about the fate of the planet or humanity—indeed, every day he proves that he truly does not care about anyone but himself. Given the powers invested in him, he truly could destroy the world.

This kind of attitude fuels the urgency of the Green New Deal’s advocates, especially the young ones. There’s a religious sense of imminent apocalypse, hence the Green New Deal’s short timelines and broad sweep.

Further fueling their urgency was the Fourth National Climate Assessment by the US Global Change Research Program, which warned of disastrous consequences if the causes of climate change weren’t addressed.

The battle to come

While the argument over the Green New Deal is intense now, it’s going to become exponentially more intense as the nation moves toward the 2020 presidential election. Already, Trump and his supporters are lumping the Green New Deal under a socialist label and starting to paint their campaign as a crusade against socialism.

On the other side, though, more extreme Green New Deal supporters see their cause as the only alternative to destruction of the planet.

Here in Southwest Florida the effects of climate change can be felt all around. Its presence should be undeniable, although the entire conservative, Republican establishment, following Trump’s line, continues to deny it—and will no doubt continue to deny it as the storms blow ashore and the water laps up to their chins.

The problem of climate change should be obvious to all. In the Green New Deal a solution has been proposed. Although imperfect it is now the only proposal on the table. Since Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Accord, no other alternative has been offered.

Of course, there is always the option of doing nothing. In this case, that option could prove fatal.