by Javier Manjarres

“I Helped Draft The American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009.” – Senator Bill Nelson (www.billnelson.senate.gov)

With the government narrowly avoiding a shutdown by passing a spending cut that is little more than an economic band aid over a gushing wound, the next showdown will be the marquee matchup-  the D’s vs. the R’s on the 2012 budget and Paul Ryan’s “Roadmap” Budget Plan.  President Obama’s irresponsible $3.71 trillion dollar budget proposal, which increases government spending by an unfathomable $46 trillion over the next ten years and brings our national debt to $26.3 trillion by 2021, seems to have support from most Democrats who are are digging in for a protracted misinformation campaign against the Ryan plan.

One of the members of Congress who is defending the President’s budget- even after the a national debt has increased by $3.5 trillion under Obama’s watch and called his budget a  ,“step in the right direction in trying to get this country turned around, to really do something about lowering the deficit and cutting all of this wasteful spending” is none other than Florida’s resident space cadet, Senator Bill Nelson (D).

Senator Nelson’s support of the President’s budget should not come to a surprise to anyone, since Nelson throughout his career has opportunistically supported earmarks along with higher taxes and debt while doing a fairly good job staying under the radar with his votes.

Aside from voting to adopt President Obama’s 2010 $3.5 Trillion fiscal budget resolution-a resolution that would create the equal amount of debt combined between every President from Washington to Bush ‘43’, Nelson voted for the 2010 Omnibus Bill that included $446.8 Billion in discretionary spending- the same omnibus bill that also prohibits the transport of enemy combatants from GITMO in Cuba except for prosecutorial purposes- in other words, it allows these jailed enemy combatants the opportunity to be brought to the United States to be tried for their crimes.

Senator Nelson is also notorious for ‘hog-tying’ pork barrel earmarks to appropriations bills whenever the opportunity presents itself.  Two such bills are 2009 and 2010 Omnibus appropriations bills that were stuffed with Nelson’s earmarks.

The crown jewel of  Senator Nelson’s earmarking history tax increases is the now infamous 2009 so-called ‘Stimulus’ Plan that has turned out to be an utter failure in creating private sector  jobs and reducing our unemployment rate.  But not only did Nelson vote for the bill, he actually helped put it together.

“I Helped Draft The American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009.” – Senator Bill Nelson (www.billnelson.senate.gov)

While President Obama was confident in saying that the Stimulus Act would create millions of jobs nationwide and some 200,000 in Florida, Senator Nelson took pause in being so optimistic as his boss Obama by stating , ‘There’s not a soul on Earth that knows (if it will work) … but we better hope that it does. To do nothing is not an option.”

In an interview with CNN’s Elliott ‘The John’ Spitzer, Senator Nelson was asked to discuss his ideas for cutting the runaway spending, and all he could do was propose a revenue collective measure against oil companies.

“May I give you one for example? It would be tens of billions of dollars. How about the royalty payments that aren’t being paid by the oil companies for the privilege of extracting oil out of federal lands? That’s a good starter and you can go on from there on a number of tax expenditures.”- In the Arena, CNN

The ugly truth about Nelson’s failed Stimulus Act is that Florida’s unemployment has risen from 9% in February 2009, to 11.5 % in February 2011- Florida Has Lost 151,134 Jobs Since The Stimulus Passed In February 2009.

So now that Senator Nelson has announced that he would seek another term in office, Senator Nelson must run on his track record of failure, but no doubt he’ll be trying to hide his earmarking and reckless spending, which is why his seat is viewed as a prime Republican pickup opportunity in 2012.