Senator Don Gaetz Carries Obama’s Oily Water

As chair of the Select Committee on Florida’s Economy, Senator Don Gaetz (R), Destin, has a lot of discretion. The mission of the Select Committee that he chairs is “to develop legislative proposals to strengthen Florida’s economy and then to advance those proposals through the legislative process.”  On July 2nd, Sen. Gaetz announced that this committee would meet in Pensacola on July 12th to “examine the impact of the oil spill.”   But the Shark Tank knows just what is on the agenda, thanks to this memo that Senator Gaetz sent to the members of his Select Committee.  Read the Memo from Senator Gaetz Here

Based on this memo, Gaetz appears to be your typical tone-deaf politician who is more concerned about moving up the chain-of-command in the Florida Senate rather than conducting a real investigation.  Check out the dubious assertions and borderline propaganda in this memo for yourselves.  Most of the language used in the agenda items is boilerplate rhetoric that sounds very Obama-like– it appears to be more fluff than a serious attempt to engage in fact-finding and accountability.

What also strikes me about the memo is the very broad claim that the BP Oil Disaster came just as Florida was coming out of the economic downturn, thus putting the increase in revenue projections for the next two years in serious jeopardy.  Are such economic predictions of doom and gloom really justified, and is this just setting the stage for another ‘stimulus plan’ here in Florida?  Call me crazy, but it seems like this committee is making pre-emptive excuses for a future economic downturn rather than specifically focusing on why the current cleanup efforts aren’t efficient or comprehensive- a far more important issue right now.