Nothing funny about these Florida Man meets COVID-19 stories | Letter to the editor

A new crop of Floriduh Man stories, sad but true.

A Manatee County deputy who just had to vacation in Orlando last week, catch the virus and bring it back to his fellow officers and who knows to whom else. The deputy must have slept through the virus briefings. This is the type of personally irresponsible behavior that has resulted in city, county or entire state mandatory lock-downs. Will public safety officer become an oxymoron?

Former governor, now-Sen. Rick Scott gutted the Florida unemployment system. Now he votes for a law that gives $2,400 to employed couples making $150,000 a Year. Multi-millionaire Scott is concerned that Florida’s meager unemployment payments are a disincentive for lower income citizens to find work. Target federal payments to those who need it, not to buy votes.

And, finally, our new resident, President Donald Trump has finally admitted that his last budget-busting trillion dollar tax cut for business resulted in a short term sugar high for the economy and over a trillion dollars of large company stock buy-backs rather than long term investments to benefit our country. Why borrow $1 trillion to give to businesses to boost their stock prices? Many of these same companies now don’t have reserves sufficient to sustain them through this pandemic and are again asking for more borrowed money. We have now borrowed in a short 3 years over $4 trillion in new debt to be paid by our children and their children.

David Kaiser

Bradenton

This story was originally published March 29, 2020 at 5:32 AM with the headline "Nothing funny about these Florida Man meets COVID-19 stories | Letter to the editor."