Health care bill defeat was a loss for Rick Scott

WASHINGTON - Count Rick Scott among the losers when Republican leaders decided Friday to pull the plug on a GOP health care bill because it didn’t have the votes to pass the House.

Florida’s maverick Republican governor has spent years decrying the Affordable Care Act. And ever since his pal Donald Trump was elected president in November, Scott has paid several visits to Washington hoping to convince Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare.

But House Speaker Paul Ryan’s words Friday afternoon — “the bottom line is Obamacare right now remains the law of the land” — must have stung Scott.

“I want a repeal as quickly as (they) can get it done,” the governor said in December, after meeting with Tom Price, the Georgia congressman who would become Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services. “Day one would be nice for me.”

On Friday, the governor’s office declined to say much after the defeat.

“He believes it's a terrible law and it still needs to be repealed,” spokeswoman Jackie Schutz emailed two hours after Ryan’s announcement. She referred to comments the governor made earlier in the day, when there was still a chance the bill might pass.

“I’m hopeful we’ll get a better way of health care,” Scott told reporters in Tallahassee before the bill was pulled.

But even though Trump lobbied reluctant Republicans to support the House bill, there’s no indication Scott was aggressively trying to lobby any of the four Florida GOP holdouts — particularly conservatives Bill Posey, Daniel Webster, Ron DeSantis and Ted Yoho — last week to get on board, even though Ryan said this was probably the only shot at repealing Obamacare.

A spokesman for Posey, R-Rockledge, said he’s not aware that the governor personally reached out to his boss.

Scott still could get help from Washington with a friendly administration that will be far more likely to grant waivers to the law. Last week, Scott's administration sent HHS a letter seeking more flexibility in how the state administers Medicaid.

And there’s a potential silver lining politically if he decides to take on incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who is up for re-election next year: The law and all its flaws could be a potent campaign issue for Republicans.

Obamacare “remains totally the property of Democrats,” Trump told The Washington Post. “When people get a 200% (premium) increase next year, or a 100% or 70%, that’s their fault.”

Rubio’s 2016 lament gets new life

“Can this country afford to have a president under investigation by the FBI? Think of the trauma that would do to this country.”

A Democratic lawmaker bemoaning the revelation this week that federal investigators are probing the connections between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia?

No. Try Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio speaking at a campaign rally in November in Punta Gorda about the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Rubio’s lament last year is getting new life on social media from progressives eager to paint Rubio and other Republicans who invoked Clinton’s probe as hypocrites.

Rubio wasn’t the only Republican at the time to make political hay of the investigation into Clinton. But his role as a member of the Intelligence Committee looking into allegations of collusion with Moscow means he’ll be briefed on sensitive material and will be part of the decision on what to do about it.

Last month, Rubio tweeted he was “very confident Senate Intel Comm I serve on will conduct thorough bipartisan investigation of #Putin interference and influence.”

Bipartisan coalition opposes drilling

Want to unite Florida Republicans and Democrats? Try suggesting oil drilling off the Gulf Coast.

A bipartisan coalition of Sunshine State lawmakers sent a letter Friday to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, urging the administration to maintain the current moratorium on offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico for at least the next five years.

The 125-mile buffer has been in place to make sure military training exercises conducted by bases in the Panhandle are not disrupted. There’s also ample worry about the potential an offshore drilling disaster might have on Florida tourism in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill that left tar balls and empty hotel rooms along the upper Gulf Coast.

The letter was prompted by recent reports the Trump administration may consider a new plan to open up more areas to offshore oil drilling.

“It’s our understanding that your department may be considering a new Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2017-2022,” read the letter signed by Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and 16 House lawmakers. “If you do choose to draft a new plan, we strongly urge you to keep the eastern Gulf off limits.”

Joining Nelson on the letter were Democrats Kathy Castor, Charlie Crist, Val Demings, Ted Deutch, Lois Frankel, Alcee Hastings, Al Lawson, Stephanie Murphy, Darren Soto, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Frederica Wilson, and Republicans Vern Buchanan, Brian Mast, Francis Rooney, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Daniel Webster.

Nelson must decide soon on Gorsuch

Now that the confirmation hearings for Neil Gorsuch are over, Bill Nelson will have to decide not just whether he can support Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court but, more importantly, whether he’ll try to filibuster the Colorado judge.

The Florida Democrat has a little time to sort through both questions. A confirmation vote in the GOP-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee is not expected to take place until early April. Assuming Gorsuch gets the panel’s blessing, a floor vote won’t probably be held until late April or early May at the earliest.

But the pressure on Nelson from both the right and the left figures only to mount — especially with his re-election at stake next year.

Concerned Veterans for America, a Koch Brothers-funded organization, began sending a second wave of mailers this week to Floridians, exhorting them to contact Nelson’s office and urge him to support Gorsuch “without delay.”

On Wednesday, his fellow Florida senator, Republican Marco Rubio, told a Jacksonville radio station “there’s no reason to vote against” Gorsuch, calling him “the best possible pick you can imagine.”

Then, on Thursday, Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer urged fellow Democrats to join him by mounting a filibuster requiring a 60-vote threshold. Republicans occupy 52 seats, meaning they’ll need at least eight Democrats to join them in ending the filibuster, even if they ultimately vote against Gorsuch.

Nelson adamantly supports the 60-vote rule but hasn’t said whether he would vote to advance the judge’s nomination to a floor vote, where only 51 votes would be needed for confirmation.

“No decision yet,” Nelson spokesman Ryan Brown said Thursday.

In an interview Tuesday, Nelson sounded like he was close to a decision, although he declined to say which way he was leaning.

“I’m not ready to announce it,” he said “I spent an hour with him (earlier this month). ... I’m going to give him the respectful thing, which is to listen to his testimony in the Judiciary (Committee).”

Contact Ledyard King at lking@gannett.com; Twitter: @ledgeking