Published in Florida Politics and The Hill. This week, the House of Representatives will consider an important financial reform package, known as the Financial CHOICE Act, which provides desperately needed relief to community financial institutions from the harmful, complex and excessive regulatory environment created by the Dodd-Frank Act. The Dodd-Frank Act, signed into law by President Obama in July 2010, was more than 2,000 pages long and directed federal regulators to implement more than 40...
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Published in Sunshine State News and Florida Politics. Beyond any measure, the Affordable Care Act, better known as “Obamacare,” has failed in its promises to the American people. As it stands, Obamacare is in a death spiral and collapsing under its own weight of broken assurances, imperiling tens of thousands of Floridians with ever-increasing premiums and fewer and fewer choices for their medical needs. Here are the undisputed facts about Obamacare: It was sold to the American people based on ...
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Published in Sunshine State News, The Hill, Florida Politics, Saint Peters Blog, The Ledger and the Washington Examiner. Since I was first elected to Congress, I have fought to hold government agencies and Washington bureaucrats more accountable to Floridians and all Americans. Unfortunately, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) continues to operate in a manner unaccountable to Congress, the President and American taxpayers. You don’t have to take my word on this. On October 11, 2016,...
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Published in the Tampa Bay Times, Sunshine State News, Florida Politics, The Hill, and the Washington Examiner. This month marks seven long and daunting years since Obamacare was signed into the law. Seven years of broken promises. Seven years of skyrocketing premiums and fewer options. Seven years of tax increases, mandates and penalties. Seven years of families and hardworking Americans having to make the choice between putting food on the table, buying cost-prohibitive health insurance under ...
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Published in Florida Politics, Saint Peters Blog, Sunshine State News, The Hill and Washington Examiner. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently published a report stating that federally issued Direct Student Loans placed in Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plans will cost the government $74 billion, which is higher than previously estimated. According to the GAO, as of June of this year, 5.3 million student loan borrowers are repaying their loans in I...
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Published in Tampa Bay Times, Washington Examiner, The Hill, Florida Politics and Saint Peters Blog. Throughout this election, throughout all of the senseless infighting and finger-pointing, throughout the deepening polarization of our country, one thing has become abundantly clear: we have to heal our wounds and reunite as a nation. How are we supposed to lead a free world, protect Americans, and promote strength and growth when we cannot seem to work together in achieving these goals? How are ...
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Published in The Ledger, Sunshine State News and Florida Politics. Last week, the Senate again blocked $1.1 billion in desperately needed funding to help research, prevent, and fight the spread of the Zika virus — all for political reasons. The last time I checked, members of Congress are sent to Washington with the duty to protect the American people, not play political games with their lives. Unfortunately, when it comes to passing Zika funding legislation, the lives of those my colleagues and...
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Published in Sunshine State News, The Hill, The Ledger and WGCU. Our state of Florida is no stranger to catastrophic storms and devastating hurricanes. With 98 percent of Florida communities participating in the federal National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), homeowners and business owners know firsthand the importance of purchasing flood insurance to protect their families and businesses from disaster. In 2014 alone, and to no surprise, Florida surpassed all other states in total number of ins...
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Published in the Washington Examiner and Sunshine State News. With new leadership in the House of Representatives, an important return to regular order and a more inclusive process, the first Republican-controlled Congress in nine years ended 2015 by passing a number of substantial legislative achievements and conservative reforms that will benefit the American economy and the American people. More importantly, these legislative achievements were signed into law by a president who threatened to ...
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Published in Sunshine State News, the Tampa Tribune, The Hill and the Washington Examiner. Referring to ISIS, President Obama made the following claims mere hours before the horrific terrorist attacks took place in Paris, France: "I don't think they're gaining strength. What is true is that from the start, our goal has been first to contain and we have contained them. They have not gained ground in Iraq, and in Syria they'll come in, they'll leave, but you don't see this systemic march by ISIL a...
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