Donna Deegan, Jacksonville Doctor Slammed Trump for Failing Florida Women on Health Care, Coronavirus Response
“We are not getting what we need for our children and for ourselves because of the failures of this administration.” — Dr. Jennifer Cowart
“Frankly, the entire attack on the ACA is an attack on women” — Donna Deegan
Today, as the “Women for Trump” bus tour made a stop in Jacksonville, Florida, Donna Deegan, candidate for FL-4 and Dr. Jennifer Cowart discussed how Donald Trump’s disastrous coronavirus response have made women’s lives harder and how his mission to repeal the Affordable Care Act puts women’s health care in jeopardy.
Notably, the “Women for Trump” event was headlined by former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who signed onto the Republican lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act. Among other critical protections, the ACA prevents women from being charged more for health insurance because of their gender or a pre-existing condition.
Highlights from the Cal
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Donna Deegan, candidate for FL-4
“This is incredibly personal for me as a three time breast cancer survivor. I am in walking pre-existing condition. I founded an organization, a foundation, for underserved women with breast cancer who also face incredible challenges, as they’re trying to get affordable health care — and that has simply been exacerbated by the failed coronavirus response.
“Frankly, the entire attack on the ACA is an attack on women, especially. [It’s] an attack on everybody, but especially an attack on women.”
[…] You know, he talks a big game about how he’s going to come up with a health care plan that will replace the ACA that will cover people for pre existing conditions. And the truth is, that’s just not true. Everything he has ever proposed — the replacement he proposed for the ACA — would in name-only say you could receive coverage for pre existing conditions.”
[…] “So, when you say that you’re going to cover people for pre-existing conditions, but it’s in name-only, that’s no coverage at all.”
[…] “Those are the types of things that women are already facing, and if we get rid of the Affordable Care Act and we don’t continue forward to try to protect people with pre-existing conditions —and all the other things that the Affordable Care Act has begun to afford us and we need to improve on— we’re going to be in a lot of trouble in this country.”
[…] ”There is nothing about this administration’s plan for health care that makes sense for women, and to insinuate otherwise is simply to tell a story that is fiction.”
Dr. Jennifer Cowart, Jacksonville doctor
“We could have had a plan months ago for how to send our kids back to school safely, how to keep our teachers and staff safe at school, and instead every school district is basically having to make this up on their own because of a lack of leadership under Donald Trump.
“Then to find out last week that he knew all along just how awful this was going to be, and he chose to lie repeatedly. He knew COVID was airborne. He knew it was worse than the flu — he said it out loud, it’s recorded. [Yet] he told the public, over and over again that this is just a flu, it’s no big deal, it will go away on its own.
“This is highlighted again with the Woman for Trump rally today…They believed him when he said this isn’t that bad…”
[…] “So what we have right now is on top of a failure in leadership on repealing the Affordable Care Act, we’ve now added rampaging COVID-19 throughout our country — nearly 200,000 dead… We have women, like myself, who rely on childcare to be able to work — and yet, daycare centers are now in crisis; we have schools in crisis. We have women who are not going to be able to work or going to be having to choose unsafe childcare arrangements.
“This is all directly related to failures and lies on behalf of Donald Trump. That failure of leadership, it comes from the top down. We’ve never had a plan for how to safely open our economy, because in order to safely open the economy we needed a strategy to fight and combat COVID-19.
“And so it’s impacting everyone, but I would say that as a suburban mom, as somebody who has a minivan in my driveway right now, people like me who rely on childcare, who need my kids to be having a high quality education in school. We are not getting what we need for our children and for ourselves because of the failures of this administration.”
Congresswoman Shalala Responds to DeSantis and Trump’s Unemployment Assistance Fiasco
Governor Ron DeSantis is backing out of Donald Trump’s weak plan to boost unemployment assistance after just four weeks while hundreds of thousands of Floridians remain out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Republican state legislature refused to hold a special session to address the unemployment and health crises in Florida. Despite the U.S. House of Representatives passing an additional coronavirus relief package long before federal unemployment assistance expired, Trump and Republicans took months to even begin negotiations and are blocking real relief for American workers.
In response, Congresswoman Donna Shalala, FL- released the following statement:
“Trump and DeSantis keep spinning their wheels while jobless Floridians suffer,” said Congresswoman Shalala. “For months, Democrats at the state and federal level have been pursuing meaningful, long term solutions for jobless Floridans, but DeSantis and Trump have refused to roll up their sleeves, come to the table, and figure it out. It didn’t have to be this bad, but they’re too ineffective to manage a crisis.”
MORE: Trump’s Mismanagement of Coronavirus to Damage Florida’s Economy for Years to Come
Donald Trump’s chaotic and ineffective response to the coronavirus pandemic has had crushing consequences in Florida, as the state experienced more coronavirus cases than most countries, the tourism industry ground to a halt as the outbreak spiraled out of control in early March, causing the Legislature’s chief economist, Amy Baker, to predict that it will take threeyears for Florida’s tourism industry to rebound.
Florida’s massive tourism industry provides millions of jobs and billions of dollars in tax revenue to the state, yet that industry has been decimated by the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike Trump’s fabricated claim that we’re seeing a “V-shaped recovery,” steep layoffs continue, with thousands of people getting laid off or placed on furlough during the month of August alone.
Headlines from across the state highlight the depth of Florida’s economic crisis:
SOUTH FLORIDA
- CBS Miami: ‘Hotel Industry In Miami-Dade Is In Cataclysmic State’: Tourism Analyst On Troubling Travel Trends [8.21.20]
- Bloomberg: Miami Unemployment Hits Record Even as Some Cities Recover [8.21.20]
- Miami Herald: Here is the plan to recover from the worst tourism crisis in Miami history[8.29.20]
- Fox 29: Tourism revenue down $20 million in Palm Beach County [5.15.20]
- Florida Keys Weekly: CORONAVIRUS CRUSHES FLORIDA KEYS HOTEL OCCUPANCY [9.12.20]
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA
- Naples Daily News: Southwest Florida hoteliers cut more jobs, extend furloughs as coronavirus pandemic rages on [9.11.20]
- The News-Press: Tourist tax collections plummet in Southwest Florida amid coronavirus pandemic [8.20.20]
- The News Press: Tourism, hospitality jobs drop by 18-25% in Collier, Lee counties as unemployment rises [8.21.20]
CENTRAL FLORIDA
- WFLA: Polk County’s unemployment rate slow to bounce back due to pandemic’s impact on tourism [9.1.20]
- Orlando Sentinel: 5 more Universal Orlando hotels announce layoffs; 1,291 workers affected [9.1.20]
- Spectrum News: Slow Recovery: Florida, Orlando-Area Unemployment Stays High [8.21.20]
- Spectrum News: Space Coast Tourism Takes A Hit, Hoping For Big Comeback [8.29.20]
NORTH FLORIDA
- First Coast News: Jacksonville predicted to have more than 12% decline in city revenue due to COVID-19 recession [8.20.20]
- Panama City News Herald:COVID-19 devastated Panama City Beach bed tax collections [8.4.20]
- WEAR TV: Northwest Florida’s tourism industry continues to feel impact of COVID-19 [8.7.20]
ICYMI: WUSF: Florida Democrats Aim To Contest Every Seat This November
A new report from WUSF highlighted the work that the Florida Democratic Party is doing to win races up and down the ballot this November, a key strategy of the party’s plan to flip the state blue this fall.
The article summarizes the FDP’s commitment to turning out the Democratic vote this November and ushering in a new wave of strong, local Democratic leaders, like FL-12 Congressional candidate Kimberly Walker, throughout the entire state.
WUSF: Florida Democrats Aim To Contest Every Seat This NovemberBy Steve Newborn | September 14, 2020
KEY EXCERPTS:
- “The [Florida Democratic] party is taking a different tack: contesting every single race in Florida this November.”
- “‘I’m LGBT, we are still fighting just for our right to be treated as a human, equally. I’m African-American, we’re still fighting against racial inequality,’ [Kimberly] Walker said. ‘So there’s a whole list of reasons why I should run for Congress.’”
- “The idea being that if you don’t compete, you can’t win,’ said Rosy Gonzalez Speers, the state party’s senior advisor for Down-Ballot Elections. ‘And so really giving Democrats the opportunity to vote for someone in their area, even if it’s seen as a long-shot race.’”
- “Gonzalez Speers says it’s not just about competing. Democrats – who make up the majority of registered voters but rarely win statewide office – are playing to win.”
- “‘I think that in a wave year like this, where there is so much change happening and where people are so dialed in to what’s happening politically, they are more involved in the voting process,” she [Rosy Gonzalez Speers] said. “And I think that when more people vote, Democrats win.’”
- “Gonzalez Speers said Democratic turnout increased during the primary because nearly 80 percent of voters chose to vote by mail. And she believes that is going to give a boost to candidates like Walker in November.”
