'No' is no solution

The nation faces its most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression, and Florida has been hit particularly hard. The state's unemployment rate, at more than 8 percent and rising, is higher than the nation's. We trail only California in the rate of home foreclosures. And Florida's state budget shortfall is more than $5 billion. Yet Tampa Bay's Republican U.S. House members have not come to the rescue.

U.S. Reps. Gus Bilirakis of Palm Harbor, Ginny Brown-Waite of Brooksville, Adam Putnam of Bartow and C.W. Bill Young of Indian Shores are good at voting no. They voted against the $787 billion stimulus package President Obama signed into law Tuesday — a package that will send billions to Florida and create thousands of jobs in their districts. They voted against helping automakers and against releasing the second half of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Only Putnam, at the time a member of the Republican leadership working with a Republican president, voted for the original TARP bill and for saving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant mortgage lenders. (Democrat Kathy Castor of Tampa voted for all of the relief packages except for the original TARP bill).

Where are the Republicans' proposals? Can they offer anything beyond more tax cuts? Will Tampa Bay Republicans in Congress be part of the solution in Washington and help Floridians struggling to hold on to their homes and jobs, or will they just keep saying no?

Source: U.S. House of Representatives; N/V = not voting