Congressional Update from Brian Mast

Sunday brunch at Grandes Bella Cucina featured district 18 Congressman Brian Mast, fresh from a great week in DC where he attended the White House event for Wounded Warriors. Regarding President Trump he said “You can see the love in his eyes” as he gave hugs to the wounded veterans.

In his update, Brian mentioned some good things in the farm bill – specifically the work requirement for welfare, and the provision that each welfare program must be applied for separately. (Currently, one enrollment gets you approved for all of them). It will be decided on a party line vote of course.

He mentioned that the Congressional office in the VA Hospital is now open for business, ready to receive veterans who want to discuss issues.

Attending a tech conference in Miami, Brian observed journalist John Harwood raising the issue of the so-called impending “blue wave”. Brian thought this was a bad question as it only addresses party and not policy. (You may remember John Harwood as the moderator of the Republican primary debate where the candidates got so fed up with his bias that they ignored him for most of the evening and asked each other questions :-). There will be no blue wave said Brian confidently. With the tax bill and improving economy we will do quite well.

During a brief question and answer session, Brian addressed Brightline (he challenged their tax exempt bonds in a committee hearing), and problems with getting legislation through the Senate.

Regarding the fact that he is facing a primary challenge, he responded “this is not my seat, anyone can run against me if they wish.” Brian will face Dr. Mark Freeman and Dave Cummings in the August Republican Primary.

Brian Mast to Speak at April Brunch

Ken Abramowitz at March Brunch

Los Tres Amigos 2018

Los Tres Amigos, for the third year running, were the highlights of our February meeting at Grande’s Bella Cucina.

Michael Barnett, PBCGOP Chair and vice chair of RPOF, was fresh from his recent Oval Office visit for the Black History Month event, where he rubbed elbows with Herman Cain, Alveda King and others.

The county GOP is in great shape he reported, raising lots of money. Lincoln Day was sold out in December, even without announced speakers, but it will be a great lineup. Sarah Palin will be the headliner, with guests Diamond and Silk, James O’Keefe, and Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA.

Michael gave us an update on outreach activities and reported that the local Haitian community is still supporting the President, in spite of media attempts to drive a wedge over alleged comments, because he keeps his promises. The Puerto Rican evacuees – estimated at over 300,000 and settling around the I4 corridor from Osceola to Hillsborough counties, are a toss-up. About 90% are expected to settle permanently and many have registered to vote – but there are more Independent registrations than either Democrat or Republican. The African American community is harder, but Trump carried a larger percentage of that group than a typical Republican and the Economy will help in the 2018 election cycle.

Next up was attorney James D’Loughy, who (with Sid as plaintiff) is suing Palm Beach Gardens over the misleading ballot questions for the March election. James was a city council candidate in 2013, jumping into the race to speak out about dirty politics, and one of the driving forces that put term limits on the ballot in 2014. That measure passed with 80% of the vote and all 5 current council members were able to run and win because of it. Now that same council has decided that they really want more terms than permitted, and want to be able to run again when their limits are up – a measure that they have placed on the March ballot to “let the voters decide”. The city is using large amounts of taxpayer money to promote a YES vote on the four questions in a misleading way – part of the reason for the lawsuit. James suggests you vote NO on all four questions.

The third “Amigo” was former County GOP Chairman Sid Dinerstein, whose topic was “Honey, I shrunk the Dems!”

Invoking the “Gretsky Rule” (go to where the puck will be …), Sid was very upbeat about the 2018 and 2020 elections. “I’d run with a 4% GDP growth anytime.”
He believes that 80% of the 2020 votes are already “cast” – they were locked in with the Carrier Deal in December 2016, especially in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Dems have become the “no jobs” party and have shown they will not stand up for the working man in those states.

In 2018, he thinks Brian Mast will win by 20 points. The national Democrats listed CD18 as a target race, but only because it is a closely divided district (by registration) and he does not think they will pour money into it as there are other districts where the pickings are better. He then listed many of the things which have made the Democrats weak and shrinking:

• Voter Fraud – a foundation of their strategy, will be less effective because we are talking about it and the fraudsters will keep their heads down.
• Good Help – the association with Black Lives Matters, Antifa and other groups of paid, professional thugs
• MS-13 and Sanctuary Cities – Trump is leading on these issues and Obama was absent
• The NFL – stupidity on many levels
• Political correctness – New York has renamed Columbus Day, “Indigenous People’s Day” – angering Italians everywhere
• Doubling Down on the tax bill – the Dems still call a widely successful and popular program “Armageddon”
• DACA – Trump has the high ground on this and the Dems will abandon the Dreamers in favor of an “issue”

With all of these Democrat negatives, Sid thinks Trump will win in 2020 easily.

To wrap it up, Sid described the State of the Union as “Trump hearts America”, and paraphrased the best line of the speech: “Americans are Dreamers too – AGAIN”.

Los Tres Amigos – 2018

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Congressman Brian Mast at December Brunch

Representative Rick Roth visits the RCNPB

“We’re the party that fights for principle, and thankfully in public”. This is Rick Roth’s answer to why we can’t all get along in Washington and Tallahasee.

Over a fine buffet brunch at Grande’s Bella Cucina, Rick touched on a range of topics from noting the upcoming 500th anniversary of Martin Luther and the Reformation, what it’s like to be a freshman legislator (speak quietly and listen), those in the legislature that he admires (Richard Corcoran especially although Rick is supporting Adam Putnam for Governor), and the importance of never giving up.

Some ideas he is advancing are intriguing.

– Noting that many graduating high school students know much less about our history and government than those achieving new citizenship status, he proposes that passing the same test required in the naturalization process be a requirement for a diploma.

– Amendments to the Florida constitution, most of which are proposed by the legislature itself, should require a 2/3 vote to pass, a higher threshold than the current 60%. Since most voters don’t read the supporting material for ballot questions – just the question itself (if that), it would require more effort by proponents to educate the voters.

– The Sunshine laws make things difficult for county commissions and city councils to efficiently govern, since they cannot talk among themselves out of the public eye. A bill Rick is proposing would allow groups of officials to perform fact finding missions together, discussing the topics freely as long as the meetings are noticed and minutes are kept.

In closing, he explained the age-old method of influencing your government officials – visit their offices to get to know the staff, and GIVE THEM MONEY. Like it or not, people do remember those on their donor lists.

And summed up his approach to legislating as “Quiet, principled, get the job done.”

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Also at the meeting, Sid Dinerstein reminded us all that the term limits that was imposed on Palm Beach Gardens Council by 80% of the voters in 2014 is being threatened by the new Council elected since then. The Council is proposing to increase the limit from 2 terms to 3, and allow people to run again after sitting out a term. If they proceed, it would appear on the ballot in March 2018 (by itself as no candidate is up for election in the municipals next year). With the expectation of an extremely low turnout, several hundred voters could overturn the will of the 16,000 that voted yes in 2014. Most of the members in attendance seemed to agree with Sid that this was wrong.

Palm Beach Gardens Mayor Maria Marino, a member of the club and a driver of the changes, was present and wished to rebut Sid’s allegations, but the discussion had to be curtailed as it wandered into other areas. Maria has been invited back to the December meeting to explain why she thinks tearing up term limits is a good idea.

Rick Roth at October 29 Brunch

Congressman Ron DeSantis on April 30th

Los Tres Amigos Share their Insights

A repeat of one year ago, the Republican Club of NPB brought together three speakers to share their wisdom on the current political environment.

Unfortunately, County Commissioner Hal Valeche was unable to reprise his previous appearance, but Frenchman’s HOA board member and Palm Beach Gardens Council candidate Michael Paolercio was able to fill the slot.

Just as Donald Trump has called for “draining the swamp” in Washington, the Gardens term limits referendum that passed last year has had the effect of churning up the local waters. With three long term incumbents reaching the end of their allowed tenure, the three open seats have drawn a rich assortment of 9 candidates. In a little over a month, a new council will be seated where the longest serving member has been there for one year.

Michael contrasted himself with his opponent, and cited his entrepreneurial experience in building a highly successful company, and his local work in overseeing the building projects of Chabad of Palm Beach Gardens, as examples of the kind of skills that the city needs. A grasp of the big picture, he said, is as important as the details.

Next up was County GOP Chairman Michael Barnett who was recently elected as Vice Chair of the Republican Party of Florida, a position that will keep him traveling around the state.

Michael spoke of how amazing it is to be the County Party of the President, with the Winter White House right here in our neighborhood. The Lincoln Day Dinner is sold out already, in spite of the fact that no speakers have been announced. Just holding it at Mar-a-Lago evidently is enough. The county really delivered for the President, giving him over 52% in the primary and 25,000 votes more than Mitt Romney got in the 2012 general. We had an amazing 91% of absentee ballots returned.

Looking forward, the “Drive for Five” focus of 2018 – to retain the governorship and cabinet and win Bill Nelson’s seat for the GOP, is going to take a lot of work and we need to be getting ready. The county gave Rick Scott only 38% of the vote in 2014, and though a Republican will probably win the state, we need to work as hard as if we are 10 points down.

Finally, former Party Chairman Sid Dinerstein gave us his views of “What is Going On”. We have been in a war with Progressives since Woodrow Wilson took the White House in 1912, instituted an income tax and launched the federal reserve. Unfortunately, we have not always realized (that we are at war), and surprisingly, the election of Donald Trump means we are winning.

With their long-range plan of turning us into Mexico – a socialist, one-party country, we came very close to losing it all. If Hillary Clinton had been elected, it would have guaranteed 10 million new immigrant and progressive voters. So it was really “28-3 in the third quarter” and the Democrats thought they had won – after 103 years of conflict. This unexpected loss is why they can’t return to being “normal people”.

Abe Lincoln was the first President to actually “take back ground” from the Progressive agenda. Donald Trump is the second. Even Ronald Reagan failed to do this as he accepted (and gave amnesty to) 3 million illegals, “as long as we don’t take any more”. Trump, by moving to actually reduce the number of illegals and rejecting amnesty, doing energy reform, health care reform, school choice, etc. will actually set the Progressive agenda back.

Politically, Republicans have principles and an ideology that binds us together while Democrats are a coalition of sometimes competing interests. Trump has introduced large cracks in that coalition – with unions and black voters, and is about to tackle the Democrats ace in the hole – voter fraud.

In summary, Trump has been a “GOAT” – the “Greatest of All Time” President Elect and sure to have more accomplishments in a short time than many Presidents get in a term.

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