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FLORIDA POLITICS
Since 2002, daily Florida political news and commentary

 

UPDATE: Every morning we review and individually digest Florida political news articles, editorials and punditry. Our sister site, FLA Politics was selected by Campaigns & Elections as one of only ten state blogs in the nation
"every political insider should be reading right now."

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Welcome To Florida Politics

Thanks for visiting. On a semi-daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

For each story, column, article or editorial we deem significant, we post at least the headline and link to the piece; the linked headline always appears in quotes. We quote the headline for two reasons: first, to allow researchers looking for the cited piece to find it (if the link has expired) by searching for the original title/headline via a commercial research service. Second, quotation of the original headline permits readers to appreciate the spin from the original piece, as opposed to our spin.

Not that we don't provide spin; we do, and plenty of it. Our perspective appears in post headlines, the subtitles within the post (in bold), and the excerpts from the linked stories we select to quote; we also occasionally provide other links and commentary about certain stories. While our bias should be immediately apparent to any reader, we nevertheless attempt to link to every article, column or editorial about Florida politics in every major online Florida newspaper.

 

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The Blog for Wednesday, September 07, 2005

"Jeb!"'s Two Floridas

    Is this what the majority of Floridians really want for our State? Two Floridas:
    For the fifth straight year, median household income in the United States has either declined or stayed put. It's the first time on record that incomes have failed to show any gains for five years in a row. The poverty rate, too, has increased for the fourth straight year, after reaching a 20-year low in 2000. The number of people without health insurance has increased for the fourth straight year, to 45.8 million. Americans' indebtedness is at an all-time high, and savings not merely at an all-time low; last month the savings rate went into negative territory, meaning that people didn't have enough money to cover their bills with money saved up in August. They had to tap into previous months' savings.

    Florida's poverty rate actually improved slightly (it's 1 percent below the national average). But median wages are still $1.47 an hour below the national average of $13.83, which adds up to annual wages more than $3,000 poorer than the national average. Almost one in five Floridians has no health insurance, ranking the state fifth from the bottom in that national category. And taxes still disproportionately fall on the middle and lower classes.

    So while one set of strictly economic numbers shows power and health in the economy in Florida and the nation, another set of numbers -- the human element, numbers that actually show what's in people's wallets and how well they can take care of themselves -- points toward stagnation or increasing hardship. In third-world economies, that sort of disparity in the numbers is the norm. A nation's overall economic indicators might look good, because the numbers reflect the law of averages. Economic growth in China, Argentina and Venezuela, for example, has been racing at a staggering 8 to 10 percent clip. But poverty in those nations is rampant, too; so is inequality, and no one is lining up to emigrate there except for money looking for investment opportunities.
    "Two Americas".

6:31 AM

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