On Tuesday, after opening the 113th regular session since statehood of the Florida House, Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, warned members in remarks about the perils they will be facing in challenging economic times.

“166 year ago, Florida became the 27th state to join the United States of America,” said Cannon.  Since then, our state’s Legislature has assembled to address the great issues of the day.  In some years, those issues were unique to Florida. At other times, like today, those issues were a subset of a much larger national conversation.

“The challenges we will address over the next 60 days are very similar to issues being addressed in state capitols from Hartford to Honolulu,” continued Cannon. “The nationalization of state politics has emerged as a result of the crisis that has consumed Washington D.C. It is to state the obvious to say that the federal government has failed to meet its responsibilities.

Cannon took aim at a federal government he insists has spiraled out of control and said it is a model of how not to run the state government.

“The political system in Washington D.C. is broken,” said Cannon. “It has spawned a massive, unwieldy bureaucracy that looks at states as if they are administrative subsidiaries rather than as sovereign entities within a federal system of government. 

“It has created a paralyzing web of entitlement programs that is literally beginning to collapse under the weight of promises it cannot fulfill,” added Cannon. “It has avoided dealing with these problems by spending money we don’t have and borrowing money we have no way to repay.  Washington has become addicted to foreign debt.  We are like a fiscal heroin addict and the Chinese government is their main supplier.  Throughout all of this, politicians in both parties have failed to do anything to stop it.”

Cannon said most politicians in Washington were elected with good intentions but that the Beltway changed them.

“I believe that most of them went to Congress with the same good intent that brings each of us to Tallahassee,” said Cannon.  “Each went to Washington believing that they were going to be the catalyst for change – they were going to be the person to make the difference.

“But along the way, something went wrong,” added Cannon. “They got sidetracked by a culture of corruption or intoxicated by an environment of entitlement.   Popularity – with voters, with political commentators, with special interest groups – became the goal.”

Cannon continued to hammer the Beltway culture--and offered it as example of what could happen to the Legislature.

“In their desire to not upset special interests, they learned they could avoid hard truths with creative accounting and convoluted adjustments to their balance sheet,” said Cannon on national leaders in Washington. “In their desire to pass a law to solve every problem – which is so tempting – they shrugged off the constitutional restraints on their power and traded liberty for government control and statesmanship for sound bites.

“Why is all of that is so important?“ asked Cannon. “Because if we are not vigilant, we will follow Washington down the path they have created with their good intentions and their lousy decisions.

Cannon called for the House to act responsibly and face the problems plaguing the Sunshine State and examine policy instead of playing politics.