The campaign trail brought Governor Rick Scott back to JAXPORT on Wednesday with a promise to spend a billion dollars on Florida’s deep water ports.It’s all about putting more Floridians to work, Scott said.
“A billion dollars for our ports, it’s a lot of jobs. In the last three years, because of our strategic investments in our ports, we’ve added 120,000 trade jobs. We’re going to continue to add jobs because families need jobs,” he said.
Scott said this year’s state budget includes $138 million for ports.
He will reiterate his billion dollar port investment campaign promise in Tampa on Thursday and Port Canaveral on Friday.
Scott also remarked on the recent VA hospital scandal, as President Barack Obama met Wednesday with Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki at the White House.
There have been mounting calls for Shinseki to step down amid allegations of cover-ups, treatment delays and preventable deaths at VA hospitals.
Scott, a U.S. Navy veteran and an outspoken critic of the VA under Shinseki, called on the Obama administration to take action.
“We’ve got to have a change at the top," he said. "Secretary Shinseki needs to go, but that’s not the only thing that needs to happen. We need to have accountability. It can’t be just the president being outraged, he’s got to take some action.”
Last month, Scott sent state health inspectors to check out the VA hospitals in Florida, but hey were turned away when they asked to view hospital records.
You can follow Cyd Hoskinson on Twitter @cydwjctnews.
