So while I have enjoy the videos of a fired up REP. MATT GAETZ, R-Fla., representing Team Trump in the whole impeachment fraud, and for the most part he’s done a fantastic job in fighting the democRATS during the impeachment scam against Trump one must say that while it’s the right move for him, and others who have decided to self-quarantine this week after coming in contact with an individual who tested positive for a novel coronavirus, which causes the disease Covid-19, at the Conservative Political Action Conference late last month. What’s not right is for someone like Gaetz’s to take time away from his job at Congress with paid leave considering that he did vote against us here in Florida from doing the same. While he can do it whiout the fear of losing pay or being fired? While this is a right few Americans share the fact that Gaetz voted to prohibit Florida residents from sharing that right, and than using it himiself is well a tad on the hypocritical side. I Call them how I see them folks, and I can like someones or what have done, and still find fault with other things they do.
Now look I know he’s pro Trump, and while he also voted against Trump on restrictions against IRAN after we got Qasem Soleimani. While I think Matt means well sometimes he makes boneheaded moves, and decides things which well leaves even the most supporter of his scratching their heads. He’s on a tight rope as it is, and should really consider taking his pay, and giving it back, and not taking a “paid sick leave” as showing unity with his own policy for Florida. Oh while I think paid sick leave is something all places should approve he voted against it, and now looks like a hypocrite for not following by his own vote. With that said
Gaetz’s office did not respond to a request for comment. The lawmaker has since tested negative for the SARS-CoV-2 virus but is continuing to self-quarantine “in an abundance of caution.” Members of Congress get paid a salary of $174,000 or more no matter what. They do not have to vote or be present in D.C., and Gaetz has missed votes all week.
Members of Congress can take unlimited paid sick leave, missing votes and social distancing, while collecting a $174k salary. They do so while carrying water for business lobbyists and voting down even minimum paid sick leave rights for Americans https://t.co/7bqvrSEnUp
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) March 12, 2020
Gaetz initially sought medical treatment from the Capitol’s Office of Attending Physician, the in-house government health clinic for high-level federal officials, alongside two other lawmakers, Reps. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Doug Collins, R-Ga., who also attended CPAC. Despite the national push for Americans to practice social distancing to curb spread of the coronavirus, many workers do not have the option to take paid sick leave or work remotely, and must continue to travel to work. Workers in many industrialized countries have paid sick leave, a right that has been opposed by business interests in the U.S. for decades. Over the last 10 years, many Americans have in fact lost the right for paid sick leave as corporate interests groups have pushed to roll back the right of local governments to enact paid sick leave policies.
In 2013, then-Gov. Rick Scott signed Gaetz-backed preemption legislation that barred every city and county in Florida from enacting paid sick leave legislation. Disney World, Darden Restaurants, and the Florida Chamber of Commerce promoted the Florida preemption effort. The Florida law was part of a national drive by industry that began as a reaction to an ordinance in San Francisco. In 2006, voters in San Francisco passed a referendum that required employers to provide paid medical leave for workers, a decision that sparked a movement across the country as other cities developed similar policies. The counterassault from the business lobby came a few years later, as Republicans began making electoral gains after the 2010 midterms. In 2011, then-Gov. Scott Walker signed a preemption bill into law in Wisconsin designed to override the 2008 Milwaukee ordinance providing paid sick days to workers. Later that year, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a lobbyist-run group that develops template legislation, championed the Walker legislation as a key policy that other states should emulate.
Here is Rep. Matt Gaetz exiting the Beast and entering Air Force One in Florida today. pic.twitter.com/BSmVuV3MdZ
— Maegan Vazquez (@maeganvaz) March 9, 2020
The ALEC committee tasked with leading the charge on banning local paid sick leave was headed by a lobbyist from Yum! Brands, the company that owns Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell. In states across the country, the ALEC legislation spread, with Republican-controlled legislative chambers rapidly passing laws to preempt paid sick leave. All told, business lobbying groups have pushed 22 states to enact preemption laws to make local city and county paid sick ordinances illegal. Although some large American employers have announced plans to voluntarily extend some paid sick leave policies to workers, the crisis around the novel coronavirus has forced the issue back into the national spotlight. Earlier this week, congressional Democrats unveiled federal legislation to combat the spread of the virus. The bill includes expanded food assistance, free lab testing for the coronavirus, extended unemployment benefits, and paid sick leave. This morning, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., vigorously pushed back, highlighting paid sick leave as a key provision his caucus would oppose. The bill, McCarthy said at a press conference, “forces permanent paid sick leave for all business without exemptions and no sunsets.” The GOP stance, notably, reflects the demands of the most powerful business lobby in Washington, D.C.: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents the largest employers in America. “We believe this crisis should not be used as an opportunity to try to pass legislation that is poorly tailored to the situation and will not be signed into law,” Neil Bradley, the executive vice president of the Chamber wrote in a letter to Congress today. “This emergency bill should not create a federal, one-size-fits-all, permanent leave mandate on employers,” he added.
Ironically This afternoon, Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott announced that he is under a self-imposed quarantine after potentially making contact with a Brazilian delegate who has tested positive for the coronavirus.
| “My office was alerted today by the Brazilian Embassy that a member of President Bolsonaro’s delegation tested positive for Coronavirus. On Monday, I met with the President in Miami, and while I do not believe I interacted with the infected person, that individual was in the same room as me. The Embassy said the person had no symptoms leading up to or the day of the conference. After consulting with the Senate’s attending physician and my personal doctor, I have been told that my risk is low, and I don’t need to take a test or quarantine. However, the health and safety of the American people is my focus and I have made the decision to self-quarantine in an abundance of caution. I am feeling healthy and not experiencing any symptoms at this time. I will still be working on my plan to combat Coronavirus and protect American families, and my offices in D.C. and throughout the state will still be fully operational to help Floridians.” |  |
According to the Washington Post, the Brazilian official, who has been identified as Fabio Wajngarten, communications secretary to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, also met with Sen. Marco Rubio, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence while visiting Mar-A-Lago in Florida. The president has since said he “isn’t concerned.”
Earlier this week, a photo circulated showing Wajngarten alongside President Trump and Pence during his visit to Florida so if anything happens to the President, VP or anyone else we know who to blame. One guy could single handedly take down the entire administration had they become sick with the Coronavirus, and Wajngarten was reportedly in the United States as part of a presidential delegation to meet with U.S. officials, which apparently included Rick Scott.
The senator has since canceled a Thursday press conference, where he planned to outline plans to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. So think about that this one guy could be the man who ends up getting all of the white house, and washington sick with the “CoronaVirus.”
