title:  Florida Governor Rick Scott Tax Cut His Way Into Massive HIV/AIDS Comeback
text: Rick Scott has been governor of Florida for just over one term but already the state is feeling the effects of his conservative fanaticism. While the rest of the country continues to combat the spread of HIV and the number of people dying from AIDS drops, Florida is seeing the reverse.In a comprehensive review of how Scott s war against government led to his deep slashes in public health funding, the Miami Herald discovered two disturbing facts: Florida now leads the nation in HIV cases, and its biggest county, Miami-Dade, is ground zero.New cases last year totaled 6,240, the highest since 2002. Miami-Dade and Broward together account for 38 percent of that total.Although Florida is among the nation s fastest-growing states, Scott has pushed every year to trim the state work force, and nearly one quarter of those reductions have been in the Department of Health.The 67 county health departments, largely funded by the state health agency, have declined to 10,519 positions compared to 12,759 in the year Scott took office. It s indicative of the neglect of this administration across the board in social services,  said Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens.  We have a rise in AIDS and we have a reduction in public health spending. We re now cutting just to be cutting. Indeed, Scott is often cited as one of the conservative movement s standard bearers. He s a tax-cutting superstar in the same vein as Kansas Governor Sam Brownback (who imploded his state s economy) and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (whose neglect poisoned an entire city).However, he differs from his fellow conservative tax-slashers in that he doesn t even seem remorseful for the negative impact he s had. At least Brownback had the decency to break down in tears after destroying his state s job growth. In a disturbing reminder of the Reagan era, when conservative politicians intentionally ignored the AIDS epidemic contributing to the deaths of thousands by their apathy, Scott appears to be unconcerned about this surge in HIV cases. Or perhaps he s just grown used to it. After his first year in office, the number of HIV cases has grown hand-over-fist.Making matters worse, Scott has routinely fought against working with Obamacare in his state. For years. All the while, HIV cases piled up as his budget cuts took hold. This spells disasters for the victims of HIV because the best and only way to prevent it from turning into the much deadlier AIDS illness is careful health management. You can t get that if your governor has refused to expand access to health insurance to spite the President.As we ve seen around the country, Republicans who have grown used to screaming about the  tyranny  of big government are met with disaster when they attempt to get rid of it. Far from the freedom of living a life of liberty and self-determination, states that try to cut government spending only cause misery for the citizens they are trying to  liberate.  It s easy to say as a concept that  government is bad,  but harder to accept that you can no longer get healthcare or build safe roads without it.Florida is learning the hard way that government spending isn t always  wasteful.  Oftentimes it is being used to keep the real threats like illness and poverty at bay.Feature image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr