Brian Moore Slams Rick Scott’s Economic Plan

Stumping for independent aspirant Farid Khavari in Florida’s gubernatorial campaign, Brian P. Moore, a former Democratic candidate for governor, spared few adjectives in criticizing Republican Rick Scott’s plan to create a meager 700,000 jobs in the Sunshine State over the next seven years. 

Describing Scott’s jobs program as “unachievable, insufficient and wrong-headed,” the 67-year-old Moore said that Scott’s much-touted “7-7-7 Plan” would do little to ease recession-ravaged Florida’s jobless crisis and even less to alleviate the state’s looming fiscal crisis.

Florida faces a $3 billion budget shortfall next year. 

In a best-case scenario, said Moore, Scott’s job-creation proposal would still leave more than a million Floridians out of work. “When you include the underemployed, those forced to accept part-time positions, and those who have completely given up hope of finding full-time employment, Florida’s real jobless number is a staggering 19.5 percent, or roughly 1.7 million people,” said the Spring Hill resident in a statement issued late yesterday. 

Those numbers are reflected in the current U-6 rates provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said Moore, who has campaigned tirelessly for Khavari, an Iranian-born economist, since losing the Democratic primary to Alex Sink in August.

“A state-owned bank could be the foundation for Florida’s path to a speedy economic recovery,” said Moore, a former Socialist Party candidate for President.  Dr. Khavari has made the creation of a state bank, modeled after the longstanding Bank of North Dakota — the only state-owned bank in the nation — the centerpiece of his seemingly quixotic quest for Florida’s highest office.

Moore was also critical of the Republican’s plan to lay off thousands of state workers.  “Firing thousands of state employees will only exacerbate the severity of the state’s dual unemployment and foreclosure crises,” charged Moore.   

In his election-eve statement, Moore also sharply criticized Scott’s proposal to clamp down on welfare recipients by requiring mandatory drug testing, calling it “a draconian and mean-spirited idea emanating from the murky swamp of the feverish far right.”

It’s peculiar that a guy who was involved in the largest Medicare fraud case in U.S. history — ripping off American taxpayers to the tune of billions of dollars — now wants to treat our poorest, most disadvantaged and neglected citizens like criminals, asserted Moore.  “There’s no limit to his audacity.”    

Moore, who endorsed Gov. Charlie Crist’s independent bid for the U.S. Senate this past weekend, urged Floridians to reject the major-party nominees in both major races on today’s ballot.