Party On, GOP... And Put It All On Credit Cards

To anyone paying even just a little bit of attention to things in Tallahassee and Washington, is it really a surprise that:

• The Florida Republican Party has run amok with its credit cards, spending hundreds of thousands of contributors' dollars on lavish perks for its party's big wigs?

• No one in the GOP who had a Party Credit Card (and boy, what a Party it must have been because no one is talking...) wants ANY of the spending records disclosed?

• Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum (whose job it is to be the top law enforcement officer in the State) sees absolutely nothing to investigate in this whole credit card thing?

• The Republicans in Congress just voted "NO" (again) to a Democratic party proposal that would require the Federal Government to Pay As It Goes, and not fund programs that aren't fully paid for (i.e., you can't "put spending on a credit card" and ignore budget deficits)?

• The Republican-controlled Florida Legislature and Republican Governor have borrowed money from the Federal Government and from State Trust Funds, to pay general operating budget items for the past two years and will do it again this year?

Since when did fiscal responsibility go from "paying as you go" to "putting it on the credit card"? When Floridians elected Republicans to control the State Budget, that's when!

The first thing to do when you find yourself in a deep hole is to stop digging. Oh, yea... and take away the shovel from the ones in charge of digging the hole.

Floridians have figured out that we can't live beyond our means and can't live off of credit cards. We have to pay as we go.

The GOP doesn't think it's relevant for us to look at their spending habits. (They say, it's a Private Matter.) Guess what, it's very relevant. In fact, it's indicative of the way they act when they are in power and it is indicative of their public governance, too. Quite frankly, the GOP leadership has run our state into the ditch.

This GOP Credit Card Scandal is relevant and material to anyone who wants to save our State.

The voters of Florida need to send a message to the Florida GOP--Go ahead and Cut up your Credit Cards, Open Up Your Books, Let the Sunshine In, and Hand Over the Keys--it's time for a new Driver--one that knows how to get a beautiful car out of the ditch without damaging it further.

And as Bill Nelson reminded us Saturday night, to make the car go forward, you put the Transmission in "D", not "R."