Like his predecessors, Republican Congressmen Bill Young and David Jolly, U.S. Rep Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg, seems to be taking a tempered approach to Capitol Hill.
Moderates willing to have rational conversations about policy are a rare thing up there these days, and he's one of 'em.
In his criticism of President Donald J. Trump's draconian budget, Crist called on his colleagues to have a thoughtful debate over the nation's priorities.
Here's a statement he issued through a spokeswoman:
Budgets are statements of our values as a people. The statement made today by the Trump Administration is that climate change isn’t real, our environment is not important, diplomacy is a waste of time, medical breakthroughs aren't beneficial, the poor are on their own, and the arts, despite their small price tag, aren’t of significance…We can make sound fiscal decisions while also having the strongest national defense in the world. The President’s budget fails to strike the appropriate balance, and it is Congress’s job to reach a more responsible conclusion. I look forward to engaging in that fight.
Trump's budget, of course, is a giant f-you to poor people, the arts, diplomacy, the environment and science. It dramatically cuts the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the National Endowment for the Arts, the U.S. State Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Academy of Sciences and other agencies that former presidents, both Republican and Democratic, have supported, even if not always at an optimum level. Much of that money will instead go toward the military and law enforcement.
It's unclear how Crist's Republican colleagues will react to the budget or to Democrats' fears that its passage would cause abrupt shifts in many people's lives — and not positive ones either, unless you're a fan of carcinogens in your air and water and prefer to go to war with other nations rather than try to deal peacefully with conflicts. Chances are, members of the GOP majority will respond by trolling commenters (like Iowa Congressman and obvious white supremacist Steve King) or ignoring them outright (like House Speaker Paul Ryan probably will), even as the constituents in the gerrymandered districts that unwittingly elected them end up getting screwed.
Leaders from communities that would be most profoundly affected by the cuts are speaking out in more drastic terms. Turner Lott, an organizer with Environment Florida, said the budget serves as a "get out of jail free card" for corporate polluters:
President Trump’s budget is dirty and dangerous and fails to protect our health or our planet. This budget virtually eliminates funding for proven programs needed to clean up the nation’s great waterways from the San Francisco Bay to the Puget Sound, and from the Suwannee River to the Hillsborough River here in Florida. This budget also fails to address the Flint water crisis or dozens of other lead in drinking water disasters. Slashing EPA’s overall budget by more than a third means the agency cannot adequately enforce our clean air and clean water safeguards…In addition, Trump’s proposed budget underfunds environmental issues that matter to millions of Americans, like climate action, clean energy, and our national parks.
Other critics, like this guy, whose tweet reached the front page of Reddit Thursday, responded in perhaps the most cathartic way possible; by fighting hypocrisy with sarcasm:
This article appears in Mar 16-23, 2017.