Where is the Focus on Jobs We Were Promised?

Governor Scott and the majority of 2010 candidates vowed to make 2011 about jobs for struggling Floridians and getting our state's economy back on track. However, the state government has spent a lot more time dismantling environmental regulations, attacking unions and education, and assaulting women's rights – three perennial ideological arenas that are not high on the list of most Floridians' concerns in such trying economic times – than anything that can really be tied to improving the economy.

If you think that Florida should be converted to a giant toilet in which businesses are free to dump, spill and leave behind whatever they deem too costly to clean up, than the state government is on your side. If you think that developers should be able to build whatever they want, wherever they want without respect to the wishes of the community or environmental consequences, then there are important people staying up at night to see that it's so.

If you think that the women's suffrage movement was a step in the wrong direction and that rich, old men are better suited to make decisions about their bodies than they are themselves, you ought to be tickled pink right now. And if you're a big corporation hoping to tuck away an extra five and a half percent even after wide-spread deregulation, well hang in there, they're working on that too. It seems that the 2011 legislative session has something for everyone – except the beleaguered working class Floridians that are looking for real solutions to the real problems, which is to say... nearly all of us.

Unless a special session is called, the Florida Legislature has only one 60 day-session each year. This makes for a tight schedule that requires them to prioritize issues, as some will surely get missed. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Idle hands may be the devil's play things, but if they're connected to a politician they're surely something worse. I'm usually glad to see a legislative session end, if only to stop the bleeding, even if some important issues never made it to the floor.

So, in a year where the priorities should be 1. Jobs, 2. Jobs and 3. jobs... I'm disappointed to see so much time wasted on ideology. In fact, it seems that the only mention of jobs is when the concept is thinly attached to every effort to enforce the ideology. Cutting corporate taxes is sold as a way to create jobs rather than boost stock share. Deregulating industry is sold as a way to make it cheaper to do business, therefore bringing jobs, and exacerbating the inventory problem in the housing market by encouraging more irresponsible development we're told will also, of course, create jobs.

I haven't yet heard how restricting women's reproductive rights will create employment opportunities. Perhaps they're still working on the tie-in. I'll admit, that's a tough one. Oh and let's not forget how much time has been spent making it harder for people to vote or resisting the taxpayers' desire to have fairly drawn districts when they do. In doing so, the legislature has demonstrated just how much contempt they actually have for their bosses (us taxpayers, in case anyone's forgotten) and I'm surprised their hasn't been more outrage.

The only one I can let off the hook is the governor. He sold this exact snake oil concoction of dumb ideas and nonsensical cause/effect correlations up and down the campaign trail, all last year. It's no wonder that the latest polls show that nearly 44 percent of Floridians think Scott is being "true to campaign promises," while only 35 percent do not. However, as many as 55 percent disapprove of the job he's doing. I fail to see the disconnect. If you're not one of the aforementioned special interests or ideologues that are benefiting from the current platform and you voted for Rick Scott, well I don't know what to tell you – except that you got what you (or I guess he) paid for.