Moody and Donalds wrong for Florida
To the editor:
Gov. DeSantis appointed short-term U.S. Senator/former Florida attorney general opposed to healthcare reform and medical marijuana, Ashley Moody, and former finance, insurance, and banking executive/10-year career politician Byron Donalds have demonstrated they don’t care about everyday working and retired Floridians. Neither of them have proposed or voted for any bill to help make our lives better or more affordable. In fact, they’ve done the opposite.
In the GOP’s “Big Beautiful Bill” alone they voted for raising healthcare costs for Florida seniors, taking food from lower-income children and families, veterans, children aging out of foster care, and the homeless, reducing healthcare coverage for disabled Floridians, jeopardizing women’s health and women’s ability to have say over their own bodies, not fixing our broken healthcare system, increasing student loan costs, cutting funding for affordable housing, upgraded roads and bridges, high-speed internet, and life-saving medical research, gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, diverting public school money to wealthy families, increasing the amount of tax-free income for the wealthy, and increasing the national debt by $3.4 trillion dollars (on top of the $7.8 trillion the Republicans added to the national debt in Trump’s first term).
And that’s just one horrible, damaging bill they voted for. They have done nothing to/nor do they propose any tangible plans (just positive-sounding empty catch phrases on their TV commercials) to raise your pay, to lower fuel costs (gas at $4.46/gallon and diesel at a record $6.44/gallon today!), grocery prices, rent, inflation, utility costs, auto, homeowners, and hurricane insurance rates, property tax rates, to combat rising sea levels, to increase (not gut) environmental protections, to assist Florida farmers, or to oppose Trump’s short-sighted war with Iran which has and will continue to raise all those costs thus making life harder for Florida’s working people and retirees. Since 1979, American workers’ productivity has risen 93.2% while wages have risen only 33.7%. Meanwhile, nearly $80 trillion in wealth has been redistributed from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. And keeping that 1% happy are their priority. People like Miami hedge fund manager Ken Griffin who gave Donalds’s campaign $10 million and Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass who gave him $7.5 million. You know those two and their fellow wealthy oligarch friends/Moody and Donalds’ campaign donors expect policies in return that help the wealthy, not everyday working and retired Floridians.
In addition, not only have they voted against helping you nor proposed anything to make your lives better, they’ve defended those votes and even gone on TV to gleefully promote them. They and their fellow Republicans have also stood by mute or even defended President Trump’s focus instead on building a ballroom and arches opposed by a majority of Americans and turning the District of Columbia into a gaudy, Liberace-like 1970s Las Vegas disgrace.
No wonder neither Moody or Donalds is mentioning or campaigning with President Trump, whose approval rating in Florida is down to 40% (a 12-point downturn in a year and a half).
And Donalds, in particular is also banking on you not noticing his supposed transformation from the right-wing TV networks go-to GOP attack dog (done to increase his name recognition) into an alleged kinder and gentler “I’ll fix every problem I caused, voted for, did nothing to stop, or nothing to remedy” savior who will magically, instantly make our lives better. Floridians aren’t stupid. No wonder despite their massive war chests, both the Florida U.S. Senate and gubernatorial and races are now tied as voters see hopeful alternatives in Angie Nixon and David Jolly.
Floridians are sick and tired of being taken for granted and for having their lives made worse, not better. And no, that’s not socialism or communism as Moody and Daniels like to carelessly toss out in hopes you don’t know those terms’ definitions and to get more Latino votes, it’s what hard-working and retired Americans expect from their government: to work hard, to earn their retirement, and, in return, to get a fair shake and to have their working lives and retirements made better and more affordable. And it’s why Floridians, like a majority of Americans, are deciding in record numbers this year to use their vote to be heard, to vote against those wanting to maintain the status quo and protect only the wealthy, and to throw out this smallest-number-of-bills-passed Moody and Donalds Congress of tone-deaf, do-nothing-but-work-to-stay-in-office career politicians who have no interest in improving the lives of average working and retired citizens.
You have choices to make and steps to take. The deadline to register to vote (or to change your Florida voter registration to your current address) is Monday, Oct. 5.
The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is Thursday, Oct. 22. Early voting in Lee County runs from Oct. 19 through Oct. 31.
The General Election is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Make your voice heard. Register to vote. Then vote! Your future, and the future of your family, friends, co-workers, and businesses depends on it.
Christopher Tolzmann
Cape Coral