In the United States today, the political climate is very divided. As the Democrats seem more willing to come to the center and compromise, the Republicans in office take giant leaps to the right pulling their entire party and voting base with them. The Occupy Wall Street movement came along and pulled some Democrats in a more progressive direction, but were the country goes in the long run is difficult to predict. The good news for America is that as each protest continues to grow, the anger towards income inequality and standing up for the middle class is a message that has been generated throughout the country. They say that all politics are local and when you come down to a state level you see that the Governor of the state has more power then you might think. Here is a list of five of the worst Governors in the country today.
1. Rick Scott (Republican-Florida)- Ah, the sunshine state. Florida has always been known as a "swing-state" in elections, but with the Tea Party wave running its way through the country in 2010, Florida was no exception. With a strong conservative base, especially in Central Florida, Governor Rick Scott was able to defeat the Democrat, Alex Sink in a tough election. One could only wonder how Scott was even able to get into office in the first place. Rick Scott helped create and was the Chief Executive Officer of the Columbia Hospital Corporation in the late 1980s and then merged with the Hospital Corporation of American in 1989. Fast forward to 1997 and Scott was forced to resign as CEO when his company was charged with the largest Medicare fraud in US history, $2 billion, while pleading the fifth 57 times in court. In addition to his issues before being Governor, Scott has shown that as Governor he has been just as bad. While giving massive tax breaks to the wealthy, Scott is requiring over 600,000 government workers to contribute 5% more to their retirement while cutting over $2,000 a year for public teachers to offset the lack of revenue coming back into the state government. Rick Scott also turned down $2.4 billion in federal stimulus money to build a high-speed rail that would have created nearly 25,000 jobs over the next decade. The icing on the cake for Scott is he has proposed completely cutting support for historically black colleges and universities and is shutting down state agencys that help minority small businesses.
2. John Kasich (Republican-Ohio)- The idea of a labor union is very important. Unions are a united voice for workers to create a fair environment with the top owners and executives of a company. Public unions are put together to create the same situation, but instead of collectively barganing against a corporation or business, it's done with the government. In the current economic state that the country is in, it's not unfair to ask everyone to contribute in getting the economy back on track. The main issue with Governor Kasich is that he doesn't handle the situation fairly. While claiming to fix the budget for Ohio, Kasich has asked union members to take a cut in pay and contribute more to their pensions and health care, at the same time giving massive tax breaks to the most wealthy citizens in the state. Not only has Kasich ask unions to take a pay cut, he always wants to take away the ability of the unions to even bargain. If this isn't enough, Kasich is the first Governor not appoint an African-American to a state cabinet post since 1962.
3. Scott Walker (Republican-Wisconsin) - Like his Republican friend in Ohio, Scott Walker has been known for his anti-union and anti-worker stance in his policies. Walker, like the Republican ideology, stands by the rich and puts his foot on the throat of the rest of economic class. For what seemed like months, thousands of Wisconsin citizens occupied the state capital in protests over Walkers anti-American plans for getting his budget under control. The reason that these workers were protesting wasn't simply because they had to contribute more out of their paychecks, but because the wealthiest citizens of Wisconsin didn't have to contribute much of anything.
4. Rick Perry- (Republican-Texas)- Of late, Perry has been known as the candidate who can't debate, has horrible policies and when all else fails, just claims that Democrats don't love Jesus so he should be voted into office. Perry, like other governors of Texas, loves his guns and Bible and can't stand much of anything else. Rick Perry, as the Governor of Texas, currently has a $27 billion hole into his budget, and in order to fix it has proposed cutting education by $10 billion while firing over 100,000 teachers. How much has Perry asked the rich to contribute? The answer is the same as other Republicans, zero. Perry also has talked about Texas actually seceding from the United States and now wants to run the country, ironic right? Perry has a strong stance on social issues as well. He loves the death penalty and has been in office while over 200 people have been put to death. As much as he loves the death penalty, Perry loves telling women what to do with their own body. Perry has tried to force a mandate that every woman getting an abortion must get a sonogram whether she wants to or not. Rick Perry might have multiple gaffes during a debate, but his time in office should be noted as one giant gaffe on the state of Texas.
5. Jan Brewer (Republican-Arizona)- Brewer is known for her ignorant immigration law that simply targets people because they are the wrong color. Illegal immigration is a serious issue and those that are here illegally should be dealt with accordingly and on an individual basis, but Brewers law paints each undocumented worker with the same brush and that is simply not fair. In addition to her racist immigration law, Brewer passed tax cuts for the wealthy that will cost the state over $500 million over the next decade and while claiming to create jobs, Arizona has done nothing but lose jobs while she has been in office.
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