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High Court Sides With Scott In Turning Down Rail Billions
March 4, 2011
The Florida Supreme Court has rejected a petition from two state senators seeking to force the state to accept $2.4 billion in high speed rail money. With the court siding with Gov. Rick Scott, the state has again turned down the federal money as of Friday morning.
Sens. Thad Altman and Arthenia Joyner took their case to the state’s highest court as individual lawmakers, claiming that Scott had no authority to scrub a Tampa to Orlando bullet train.
Scott’s General Counsel Charles Trippe said nothing in state law could force the governor to spend the federal money offered as a carrot to states to develop alternative transportation networks.
“The governor is not demanded by the federal government to do anything,” Trippe said. “He only has to spend what has been appropriated. None of that federal grant money has been appropriated so he has no duty to spend it.”
Comments
26 Responses to “High Court Sides With Scott In Turning Down Rail Billions”
David, I agree pretty much with you on this one, except-the Grenada thing.
I would think it a responsibility of our government to rescue its citizens, who are legitimately in another country, from harms way; not unlike rescuing citizens from any other situation. Key word: rescue.
Our troops rescued the students, brought them home and did not go back to nation build…at least as far as I know.
REGARDING:
“If you want to save money, stop this country from fighting all these illegal wars. Not one war that this country has fought since 1945 has been legal or actually accomplished anything.”
Accomplished many things, many bad.
It WOULD save lives and money and would quite possibly be a good thing to stop, but they aren’t actually illegal if authorized by Congress. Korea was us defending our people who were there at the time when the country was invaded. Surely you don’t fault people for shooting back? (We were in Korea following our defeat of the Japanese and administering it prior to handing it over to its civilian government which we needed to set up so we could get out.)
Bay of Pigs WAS illegal but Kennedy dropped out before Americans were killed.
Vietnam was authorized by the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, reauthorized with each funding request.
As best I can recall Reagan’s invasion of Granada WAS illegal and I’m pretty sure our invasion of Panama was, but those weren’t extremely expensive in lives or money.
Our involvement in Somalia wasn’t intended to be making war, rather to feed the starving until President Clinton decided to change it into a nation building action at which point the war lords attacked and we turned tail and ran.
Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan were authorized by the United States Senate. Some other actions were in keeping with treaty commitments. Again, those were approved by the Senate and, thus, legal.
Not doing all these things would be nice but the actions were usually legal.
By the way, if Congress ever feels the President has begun a war illegally, they can–and should–impeach him. When they don’t, that also gives him approval.
David considering conflicts
(lol) If your brand of capitalism is what we have seen from Wall Street for the last decade then, yep, I guess I’m a Socialist.
And I see you are still singing the praises of a man whose company was fined 1.7 Billion dollars for defrauding Medicare of our tax dollars. If that’s your idea of capitalism, then, yep, I’m a Socialist.
I happen to like Sarah Palin. She is from my home state, Alaska. And she’s the best stand up comic since Johnny Carson retired.
I know a Socialist when I hear one.
But then, I was educated before there was a Department of Education.
The bottom line is that this canard of spending billions of our tax dollars for a “high speed rail” is rejected by our Govenor.
That’s a great decision.
It sure irks Liberals though.
Just like Sarah Palin does. lol
BTW – the only thing “high speed” about this project is the wasting of our tax money on something both unproductive and a guaranteed money loser. Not to mention all the money that would be siphoned off by the wretched bottom feeders, I mean “lawyers”.
Err….Judy, you are confused. FOX is not a news channel. It’s a direct competitor of Comedy Central. Except Jon Stewart has never produced a story half as funny as what FOX shows. (chuckle) Yep….still laughing.
actually, you can count on FOX NEW CHANNEL to provide objective, uptodate info on topics and stories that the other news channels will not immediately (if ever) cover (example:ACORN)…..and, that is why more Americans watch FOX more than any of the other news channels on the air…….and, the many liberal commentators that they have on FOX do an excellent job of bringing out the opposing liberal viewpoints for the American viewer to judge…
Nice try, Kathy.Truth is though that 90 % of the people on this forum think TYPING IN CAPITAL LETTERS IS EXPRESSING THEMSELVES . If Rush Limbaugh didn’t tell them to say it or Glenn Beck didn’t tell them to think it they are at a loss. If FOX news went off the air today most of them would starve to death intellectually inside of a week.
More’s the pity. Some of these folks are good people they just believe and repeat the lies they hear. I see people posting who holler “love your brother” on Sunday morning saying to heck with ‘em the rest of the week.
Rick Scott’s company was fined 1.7 Billion dollars for defrauding the government yet Florida elected him. These folks think by denying or ignoring that fact it never happened.the people who cry about spending apparently think it is fine to defraud the taxpayers as long as it “benefits business”.
I must say that it would be an interesting experiment to have people pay for their own parent’s illnesses or nursing home stays. Let’s bring granny and Pawpaw home to live and see how many Little Johnnies and Little Susies want to cut Medicaid then.
Let’s pull out of these oil wars and that will save us a bundle. It wouldn’t solve our budget shortfall but it would put us on the way. Gas for 5 dollars a gallon? We will never confront the issue until it is at least that high.
If you want to save money, stop this country from fighting all these illegal wars. Not one war that this country has fought since 1945 has been legal or actually accomplished anything. No country on earth can spend 4 or 5 billion dollars a week like the U.S did in Iraq and have money for it’s other needs. If your wondering what put this country in a hole it was the war in Iraq and cutting taxes, we are just now beginning to pay for it. I told a lot of people in 2004 that by starting a war and cutting taxes that in 10 years or so we would be paying dearly for it. If your going to fight a war, you need to have the money to do it, and the only way the government gets money is taxes. Not one war since 1945 has been fought under a congressional declaration of war, that makes it illegal and unconstitutional, my answer to how to how to prevent an illegal war, put anyone responsible for starting one in prison. If this country needs to fight a war, congress will declare war, just like in 1941.
You people wouldn’t know a sociialist if they stood eye to eye with you. You just repeat the crap you hear on Fox. Christian premise for your thoughts is also a
misnoner. Guns and God don’t go together, they are not of the same premise. I know several guys getting thousands a month over their pensions and social secuirty benefits becasue they were in Viet Nam. Cut some of the socialist sucking unneeded money from the VA. Cut Medicare and watch the elderly die. Cut meidcaid you will have grandma and mom at your home living becasue it will cut nursing homes. You don’t seem to understand the reprecussions of what you say or think. Keep watching Fox the unnews station and you will become even less informed.
You are absolutely correct, Roy. And that’s why we are going to have to take a bone saw to Medicare, Medicaid,and unfortunately, to military spending as well. We should absolutely not hram VA benefits for those who have served but we are going to have to bring our troops home and let someone else pay for Bush’s mistakes.
Medicare has to be cut WAY back if not eliminated. This alone would lower health cars costs when the huge pool of government money has dried up. Same with Medicaid and the hugs money we spend on the military
We could cut everything else but the three programs would still have us over a barrel along with the interest for the national debt.
Hard choices? Yes but they must be made if we are to survive. Families are going to have to return to helping their elderly or sick loved ones and stop waiting for the government to do it.
Medicare and Medicaid are nothing but Socialism at work.
I’ll say it again, “it makes no difference whether the money is coming out of my left pocket or my right pocket; taxation is taxation be it federal or state.” The thing that irks me is that the federal government wants to give the “borrowed” money to another state if Florida doesn’t want it instead of just plain not borrowing or spending it. Washington DC is definitely out of control, it’s time that the pendulum swung back toward fiscal responsibility.
Now if we can cut or eliminate the drug benefit for Medicare we will be on our way to a balanced budget. That benefit was an unfunded mandate from the beginning and has ballooned the deficit as well as increasing the price of drugs across the board
We need to rid ourselves of all these Socialist programs and put this country back on a pay as you go basis. There is no doubt that some cuts are going to hurt but we have got to bite the bullet
I’m sorry to tell the liberals out there but Medicare has got to be cut if not eliminated. That alone would drive down health care costs..
I’m thinking Gov. Scott should seriously consider a run for the White House.
THANK YOU, Gov. Scott! Please stand your ground on other spending projects that just cost us more in the long run. Please kill the septic tank law next.
We need all Governers to do similar things and stop this crazy spending!endofamerica.com
it almost brings tears to my eyes to read all of the voices of COMMON SENSE speaking out….ive said it before and ill say it again…”evil triumphs when good men do nothing”…..OUT OF CONTROL SPEEEEEENDING IS EVIL!
We already have high speed transportation between Tampa and Orlando – it’s called Interstate 4.
Good start.
Good decision.
Stop the liberal spending of our (and our children’s, and grandchildren’s) hard earned money now.
Sure hope the other states follow suit and avoid the temptation to steal and waste Other People’s Money.
Governor Scott………..Can you get rid of our maritime park project please?…….hehe
We love ya governor Scott…………….thanks………I didnt want to have to pay for that thing
I only wish the entire country were filled with governors who were as principled.
We can not afford this as a nation, or as a state… thank you Gov. Scott for being
a man of principal…
…Glad the courts agree.
This is only the start to cutting all the wasted money coming out of the corrupt white house. Instead of a high speed train the goes from Tampa to Orlando, how about we feed the homeless and the poor in our state and lets DONT forget the VETERANS who served our country. Just like Wisconsin did to the unions in their state………STOP SPENDING MONEY WE DONT HAVE!!! Wake up democrats and stop finding excuses for people who dont want a better life or dont want to contribute to society. We are not helping people by giving them handouts all their life, we are hurting them. Their kids see how easy it is to live off the hard work of other people so what makes you think they will be any different? A generation of slackers and losers is fast approaching us and they will be the ones who decide our nations outcome !! SCARY HUH ?? I will support my family, my country and my Pittsburgh Steelers. If this post offends you then you are probably one of the slackers I was talking about. GOD help us!! I can still say that right? At least for now that is !!!
2.4 billion could be used to lower the GAS price for everyone, instead of benefiting a few.
The message from the people is clear:
* We don’t want socialism
* We dont want more government
* We don’t want more taxes (as in septic tank inspections)
* We don’t want out-of-control spending
* We don’t want illegal aliens getting a free ride
* We don’t want more gun control
* We don’t want to depart from the Christian principals that our country was founded upon
For those who didn’t get the message – – – we will vote you out of office!!!
I’m with you, Judy!
a prudent “spender” of taxpayers money…i like that!