“This report is just the latest indication that whether in the White House or the Florida governor’s mansion, the Obama-Crist economic plan of wasteful stimulus spending, higher taxes, more debt, cap-and-trade energy taxes and bailouts has failed our nation and our state,” said Alex Burgos, Rubio for Senate spokesman. “Washington doesn’t need more rubber stamps for the policies that are taking our country in the wrong direction. Marco Rubio is the only candidate who will go to Washington as a check-and-balance and is putting forth a clear pro-jobs alternative.”

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“Tampa Has Fifth-Highest Unemployment Rate Among Biggest Metros”
By Jeff Harrington
St. Petersburg Times
July 28, 2010

Despite a slight drop in its jobless rate to 12 percent, the Tampa Bay area had the fifth-highest unemployment rate among the biggest metro areas in the country in June, according to Labor Department data released Wednesday.

Among 49 metro areas with populations over one million, Las Vegas had the highest jobless rate for June at 14.5 percent and Washington, D.C., and surrounding suburbs had the lowest at 6.4 percent.

In addition to Vegas, Tampa trailed only Riverside-San Bernardino (14.4 percent), Detroit (14.3 percent) and Sacramento (12.4 percent).

Miami came in No. 6 at 11.7 percent. In fact, four of the 11 highest rates were Florida metros.

But it could be worse. A dozen of the 372 metro areas tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics suffered unemployment rates of at least 15 percent. The worst: El Centro, Calif., at a whopping 27.6 percent, down from 28.1 percent the month before.

“Floridians would like to be able to trust Charlie Crist on taxes, but his flip-flop-flip on the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts only serves as a reminder of his record of raising taxes on Floridians and supporting ObamaCare and cap-and-trade tax increases. Besides, the last time spokespeople gave Crist’s position on any issue they were unequivocally promising that he would remain a Republican. Marco Rubio is the only candidate in Florida who has outlined a pro-jobs agenda as a check and balance to the Obama-Reid-Pelosi policies that are harming our economy,” said Alex Burgos, Rubio for Senate spokesman.

This website purging is just the latest in an extensive list of flip-flops since Crist left the Republican Party. Crist has removed statements of support for offshore drilling, repealing ObamaCare and pro-life measures, among others. He has changed positions on remaining a Republican, returning campaign contributions, supporting the confirmations of Sotomayor and Kagan, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, gay adoption and Cuba. While the changes are a transparent attempt to curry favor with the Obama-Reid-Pelosi establishment, they also make it nearly impossible for anyone to know where Crist stands on a number of issues important to millions of Floridians.

With over $13 trillion in national debt and the recent projection that it will top 100% of GDP in 2012, we are entering uncharted fiscal waters which threaten our economy.  Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University has found that economic growth is 2.6 percentage points higher for countries with debt below 30 percent of GDP than for countries with debt above 90 percent of GDP.  If Washington continues to do nothing, America is headed for a Greece-like debt catastrophe.

Fortunately, there are many strong candidates from outside of Washington running this year that recognize this dire fiscal situation and agree that addressing our nation’s debt problem is a top priority.  They believe – as do I – that we cannot address the debt with tax increases. It can only be overcome with rapid economic growth and cutting spending.

One of those candidates willing to put forth fiscally-sound ideas that are not necessarily popular is Marco Rubio, who is running for Florida’s U.S. Senate seat.  On Monday, he announced his 12 ideas to cut deficit spending in Washington.  Rubio’s plan, a mix of budget reductions and enforcement mechanisms, would save hundreds of billions in taxpayer dollars and get us get back on the right track toward a balanced budget.  Among Rubio’s specific spending reductions:  Cancel almost $300 billion from the unspent stimulus funds, repeal and reform Obamacare, cut the budgets for the White House and Congress by 10 percent, and impose a hiring freeze on the Federal civilian workforce.  Rubio has courageously called for strengthening and reforming our federal entitlement programs, which are headed towards insolvency if left unchecked.

Another one of Rubio’s ideas:  Create a debt check-off box, which would empower citizens to direct up to 10 percent of their annual tax payments to reduce the national debt.  Congress would then have to match the total amount contributed by taxpayers with an equivalent amount of spending cuts; if they don’t, across-the-board spending cuts would be automatically triggered. To be sure, this proposal would not “retire” the debt, but it would certainly produce less annual deficit spending than would otherwise be the case.

As strong as each idea is individually, together they represent a strong prescription to begin to solve our nation’s fiscal woes. More importantly, Rubio is combining his push to cut spending with an equally strong set of ideas to grow the economy and create a pro-jobs business environment.  Marco Rubio’s 35 ideas to create jobs, grow the economy, help the Gulf Coast and cut government spending represent a realization that while Washington bickers, real solutions are to be had and are possible.

This website purging is just the latest in an extensive list of flip-flops since Crist left the Republican Party. Crist has removed statements of support for offshore drilling, repealing ObamaCare and pro-life measures, among others. While the changes are a transparent attempt to curry favor with the Obama-Reid-Pelosi establishment, they also make it nearly impossible for anyone to know where Crist stands on a number of issues important to millions of Floridians.

“If Charlie Crist no longer supports making the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent, he should tell Floridians immediately,” said Rubio for Senate spokesman Alex Burgos. “Crist’s daily flip-flops are putting Floridians in the difficult position of trying to discern what his campaign is actually about. However, one thing in this race is clear, Marco Rubio is the only candidate who will act as a check-and-balance against the anti-jobs policies coming out of Washington and provide a clear, conservative alternative.”

See an excerpt of Crist’s old “Taxes” website page below:

“Charlie Crist supports making the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent. If given the opportunity, Charlie Crist will vote to make permanent tax cuts within individual income brackets, a permanent tax cut on capital gains, a permanent end to the unfair death tax and the end of the unfair marriage tax penalty. Congress must act in an expeditious manner to make these tax cuts permanent. Failing to do so will result in millions of Americans with higher income taxes, increased tax on their investment and increased taxes on their business.”

“Today’s news is a sad reminder that Charlie Crist’s prescription of wasteful stimulus spending, higher taxes, more state debt, cap-and-trade energy taxes and bailouts has failed our state as unemployment is up and our economy is weaker,” said Alex Burgos, Rubio for Senate spokesman. “Washington doesn’t need another say and do anything politician like Charlie Crist that will be a ‘yes’ vote for the Obama-Reid-Pelosi anti-growth, anti-jobs agenda that is hurting job creation in America. Marco Rubio is the only candidate who will go to Washington as a check-and-balance to the policies taking our nation in the wrong direction and is offering a clear pro-growth, pro-jobs alternative.”

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“Survey: Florida Among Weakest U.S. Economy”
By G. Scott Thomas
South Florida Business Journal
July 27, 2010

Florida, Nevada, and California have the nation’s weakest economies, according to a midyear review of state employment trends by Portfolio.com and bizjournals.

That’s a stunning reversal from half a decade ago. Florida and Nevada finished first and second, respectively, in 2005’s midyear review. California was a respectable 11th.

But this year’s study puts Nevada in 51st place, dead-last among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. California (50th) and Florida (49th) are barely a step ahead.

Several factors have turned the three leaders into laggards during the past five years, notably the deflation of their hyper-expanded real estate bubbles and a sharp downturn in tourism.

Florida, Nevada, California have collectively lost 1.69 million jobs since 2005. All are currently saddled with double-digit unemployment rates, with Nevada the worst at 14.0 percent. Florida’s unemployment rate fell slightly to 11.4 percent from 11.7 percent in June. The numbers show that there are 1,056,000 jobless in the state out of a labor force of 9,237,000.

Surprises can also be found at the top of the new midyear standings. Tiny North Dakota enjoys the nation’s strongest economy at the moment, and Alaska holds second place, according to the Portfolio.com/bizjournals rankings.

Both frontrunners registered impressive gains during the past half-decade, at a time when most other states were suffering sizable declines. North Dakota expanded its employment base by 7.8 percent from 2005 to 2010, adding 21,300 jobs. Alaska’s corresponding gain was 4.4 percent or 10,100 jobs.

Portfolio.com and bizjournals developed a nine-part formula to analyze state-by-state employment trends. The formula uses U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for the latest five-year period (May 2005 through May 2010), focusing on raw and percentage changes in private-sector employment, as well as unemployment rates.

The recent half-decade was not kind to most parts of the country. Forty states had fewer jobs in May 2010 than five years earlier. The nation lost a total of 4.51 million private-sector positions between mid-2005 and mid-2010.

But the severity of the economic recession has been tempered in states with affordable housing, especially those in the heartland that stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border.

Six of the top 10 states are located within that broad belt, including North Dakota (first place), Texas (third), South Dakota (fourth), Nebraska (sixth), Louisiana (seventh) and Utah (10th).

The other leaders, besides Alaska, come from the Northeast, which has weathered the recession with greater ease than the Sunbelt. The Northeastern members of the upper echelon are the District of Columbia (fifth), New York (eighth) and New Hampshire (ninth).

Seven of the 10 strongest states managed to add private-sector positions between 2005 and 2010. The top 10, as a group, gained a total of 485,600 jobs. Their collective unemployment rate was 7.9 percent as of May, with North Dakota posting the nation’s best rate, a microscopic 3.6 percent.

The 10 states at the bottom of the standings, on the other hand, were burdened with an overall unemployment rate of 11.8 percent in May. All 10 have suffered private-sector job losses since 2005, resulting in a collective drop of 3.12 million jobs.

Several of the nation’s biggest states join California and Florida on this unhappy list, include Michigan (48th place), Georgia (46th), Ohio (45th) and Arizona (44th). Their declines have been triggered by varying combinations of real-estate woes, slowdowns in the construction and tourism sectors, and slippage in manufacturing output, especially within the auto industry.

The employment bases of these bottom states have eroded at an alarming pace. California’s loss of 950,300 private-sector jobs since 2005 is the equivalent of losing 520 jobs every day for five years. Florida’s rate of decline is 350 jobs per day, and Michigan’s is 280 per day.