Cash-Strapped Palm Beach Considers ‘Mar-a-Lago Tax’

Palm Beach County gave Donald Trump tax breaks when he bought Mar-a-Lago, but his weekend trips to the “Winter White House” are breaking the county’s budget. A typical Donald Trump visit costs the county more than $60,000 a day for police overtime, and the county estimated its costs for Trump’s visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping at over $250,000. That’s why County Commissioner Dave Kerner is proposing a tax on Mar-a-Lago to cover the costs. It’s that or increased taxes for local residents, whose lives are already disrupted by the president’s weekend golf jaunts.

Of course the Trump Administration could reimburse the county and add that to the $3 million in federal tax dollars each Mar-a-Lago trip costs all of us.

More:

“‘He’s baaaack!’: Trump’s visits to Mar-a-Lago are stretching Palm Beach’s budget and locals’ patience,” Abby Phillip and Lori Rozsa, Washington Post

“Palm Beach official proposes Mar-a-Lago tax to pay for Trump visits,” Brooke Seipe, The Hill

Related:

“Trump has spent one out of every five minutes of his presidency in Palm Beach,” Philip Bump, Washington Post

“GOP Senator: ‘I Do Wish’ Trump Would Host State Visits In DC, Not Mar-A-Lago,” Esme Cribb, TPM Livewire

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Mar-a-Lago Kitchens Cited for 13 Health Code Violations

In Florida this month, members of President Trump’s pricy Mar-a-Lago club got some extras in the dining room‘s kitchen: Fish parasites, unrefrigerated raw meats, and more. Mar-a-Lago was cited for a total of 13 health code violations.

But Palm Beach is no Las Vegas. The Trump steakhouse there, DJT,  was cited for 51 health code violations in 2012.

More:

“Undercooled meat. Dangerous fish. Health inspectors ding Trump’s Mar-a-Lago kitchen,” José Lambiet, Miami Herald

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Mar-A-Lago Weekends Are ‘Part Of Being President’

Spending weekends at a private Florida club is “part of being president,” according to White House spokescreature Sean Spicer. Each weekend of presidential golf and steaks with ketchup at Mar-a-Lago is said to cost U.S. taxpayers about $3 million. For what Trump’s trips have cost to date, Meals on Wheels could feed 5,967 seniors for a year.

Florida: Docs vs Glocks

In Florida, a pediatrician can ask if a patient’s family keeps a big dog, or has an swimming pool, but it’s against the law for a physician to ask if there are firearms in the house. Until last Friday. In a 10-1 decision, the full panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the law, known as the Privacy of Firearm Owners act, violates the First Amendment rights of doctors. This caps a 5 year legal battle popularly known as “Docs vs. Glocks.”

Eight children or teenagers are killed by guns every day in the U.S.; it’s as if a World Trade Center full of children collapsed every year. Clearly, household firearms pose a health risk to children.

 

Florida’s Big Business: Medicare Fraud

The U.S. Department of Justice nabbed three conspirators and accused them of defrauding taxpayers of $1 billion through nursing services and assisted-living facilities in the Miami-Dade area. “The magnitude of alleged false claims in this scheme is staggering and outrageous, even by South Florida healthcare fraud standards,” said U.S. attorney Wifredo Ferrer, alluding to the Sunshine State’s major industry, Medicare fraud. The three were charged with conspiracy, money laundering and health care fraud, and two were also charged with obstructing justice.

Thank Florida’s governor, Tea Party Republican Rick Scott, for the expansion of the medical fraud industry. The state is so dirty-business-friendly it has attracted foreign investors from Russia and Nigeria.

More:

“Justice Department Charges Three in $1 Billion Medicare Fraud Scheme in Florida,” Kate O’Keeffe, Wall Street Journal

Related:

“Medicare Fraud Is Sweetest Crime in South Florida,” Chris Parker, New Times Broward/Palm Beach

“What’s the matter with Florida? Healthcare fraud flourishes despite enforcement efforts,” Lisa Schencker, Modern Healthcare

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Orlando: American Shoots Other Americans

A heavily armed native-born American walked into an Orlando gay bar Sunday morning and killed at least 49 other Americans before he was shot by police. Actually, some people may say the perpetrator was not a real American because he was born in New York.

50 49 victims are known dead and about an equal number have been hospitalized, many in critical condition. At this time investigators have not established and reported other facts, but this has not kept commentators and politicians from recklessly flapping their gums. We await the NRA’s inevitable pronouncements that the shooter was mentally ill and that the bar patrons should have been armed.

More:

“The gun used in the Orlando shooting is becoming mass shooters’ weapon of choice,” Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post

“Ex-CIA Chief: It’s Way Past Time for an Assault Weapons Ban,” John McLaughlin, OZY

“Orlando nightclub shooting suspect bought guns within week of attack,” Mary Shanklin, Orlando Sentinel

“Assault weapons remain legal and easy to purchase in US,” Ryan J. Foley, Associated Press

“Ban on Weapon Used in Orlando More Distant Than Ever, Even If Clinton Wins,” Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine

“Florida Nightclub Attack Just the Latest US Mass Shooting,” AP via NBC News

“Orlando shooting: The key things to know about about guns and mass shootings in America,” Max Ehrenfreund, Washington Post

“Orlando Shooting, 16 Front Pages From Newspapers Around The World,” Helene Snyder, Worldcrunch

Related:

“U.S. Gun Policy: Global Comparisons,” Jonathan Masters, Council on Foreign Relations

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Senator Rubio: ‘I’m Not an Absentee, I’m an Outsider!’

First-term Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), congressional quitter and presidential candidate, has missed more votes than any other senator in the current Congress. Telling Jeb Bush that other people missed votes years ago doesn’t change that.

Besides, Mr. Rubio says, he isn’t playing hooky, he’s a rebel, an outsider.

“When pressed on CNN’s State of the Union about why he’s missed so many votes, the senator explained a lot of them ‘won’t mean anything’ and will ultimately go nowhere or get vetoed by Obama. But isn’t that a bit hypocritical, since Rubio just declared that federal workers who don’t perform their jobs should be able to be fired? ‘Voting is not the only part of the Senate job. The most important thing a senator does is constituent service,’ Rubio explained, adding that he still attends intelligence briefings. ‘I’m not missing votes because I’m on vacation,’ he said. ‘I’m running for president so that the votes they take in the Senate are actually meaningful again.'”

— “Marco Rubio Is Skipping Senate Votes Because He’s a Washington Outsider,” Margaret Hartmann, New York Magazine

Florida’s Growth Industry: Fraud

“Since the first settlers hacked their way into the mangrove tangles and drained much of the swampland, sunny South Florida has been virtually synonymous with shady deals and scams.

Over the past decade or so, the three most populous South Florida counties — Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach — have become less renowned for old-school ‘Miami Vice’-style drug shootouts than for scammers stealing hundreds of millions from the government, banks and individuals by using laptops, stolen identities and fake medical procedures.”

— “By nearly any measure, sunny South Florida is tops in fraud,” Curt Anderson, Associated Press

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Don’t Say ‘Climate Change’ in Florida

Florida officials have a strategy for fighting climate change: don’t talk about it. Employees at the state’s Department of Environmental Protection were warned not to used the terms “climate change” or “global warming” after Republican Governor Rick Scott took office in 2011. That won’t stop the warming world’s rising seas from swallowing Miami, but mum’s the word until Mr. Scott leaves office.

Florida: Play Loud Music, Get Shot Dead

If you play loud music in your car while in the parking lot of a Florida convenience store on a Friday night, expect to be shot dead. It’s not murder.

If you stop your car for a few minutes in the parking lot of a Florida convenience store on a Friday night and you judge the music emanating from another car poses a threat to your life, remove the 9 millimeter pistol from your glove compartment and blast away. It’s not murder.

If you stop your car for a few minutes in the parking lot of a Florida convenience store on a Friday night and you instigate a confrontation with a group of teenagers in another car, remove the 9 millimeter pistol from your glove compartment and blast away, even as the other car is leaving the scene with the dead body of a young man you have just shot dead lying in the backseat. It’s not murder. It’s Florida justice.