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Highlands Today

Laying Blame

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By Gabriel Read

Published: October 14, 2007

Upon hearing a discussion on how badly the Democrats were handling the current government, I listened to the specific details. I joined the discussion to remind the speakers that Republicans had controlled both Congress and the White House for six years, that they had made the Democrats look like pikers in spending, not to mention corruption.

I noted the lies which led to the Iraqi War and the 100s of billions of dollars ($1 trillion off budget) spent so far. The latest issue was the Children's CHIP health bill which President Bush vetoed.
I noted the lie of the Medicare Prescription Bill that was to cost $400 billion, but is now over $1 trillion, where the pharmaceutical, health and insurance corporations received over $400 million up front, and private insurance is now costing from 50 percent to 100 percent more than it did four years ago. Forty-one days of the Iraqi war could pay for children's health for one year.

It was when they said that union pensions were bankrupting corporations that I told them that Gov. Jeb Bush took $300 million each from the teachers' and firefighters' pension funds to buy Enron shares one month before it went belly up, and they said it was poor judgment that I exclaimed, "B-----!" in exasperation.

My language upset them. Just maybe it was because I caught them on their flawed logic. Remember, it was the Republicans who operated behind closed doors, who caused the current fiasco these past six years. The general public is just now learning about it.

The public had been told numerous times how careful and focused Gov. Bush was in making policy and presenting bills to the legislature. So when they said that he used poor judgment in buying Enron stock, that got to me.

For those who came to Florida in the last 30 years, allow me to relate a little history. In the 1960s, the Florida Education Association had to go to court to form its own pension fund. Until then, all funds paid by teachers went into the general fund. Pensions were allocated on an annual basis for retirees, that is, no interest was paid on those funds. In 50 years, the teachers and firefighters pension funds had grown to over $100 billion; still, $600 million is a sizable sum.No one had been held accountable for that "poor judgment," just retired teachers, etc., who paid dearly for it.

Gabriel Read

Avon Park

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