Karen Greb - Florida House District 34 Race
 

 
Karen is the Democratic candidate running for Florida House District 34 and you will vote for her in November.  She will face off against the Republican candidate for the seat – either Robbie Brackett or Karen Hiltz – which will be decided in the primary. 

Please like Karen’s Facebook Page at: https://www.facebook.com/GrebForFlorida



 

Danelle Dodge, Candidate for Congress
 
Danelle Dodge is having a meet and greet at the Kilted Mermaid on August 18^th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. She would like to invite you for this informal gathering to chat with her. 

 

DEMOCRATS OF INDIAN RIVER



Democratic Women’s Club
 
The Book Club will meet at the Indian River County Main Library on the first floor Meeting Room on August 26th from 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
 
“Beloved” by author Toni Morrison will be discussed.
 
Any questions about the book group can be addressed to Maryann and Rita at [email protected]
 


Democratic Club of Indian River
 
The next Club meeting will be on August 18^th at 6 p.m. at the Heritage Center, 2140 14^th Ave., in Downtown Vero Beach.  The Guest Speaker will be J.R. Gaillot, Candidate for State Agriculture Commission.
 


Young Democrats of the Treasure Coast
 
We have several great candidates in the three counties that we operate in who need as much help as possible texting, phone banking, getting out mailers and knocking on doors to get people out to vote in the August primary. Anyone who can volunteer for any of our candidates is strongly encouraged to get involved with a campaign or their local DECs and volunteer to help these candidates win.
 

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
 

This week we highlight two letters written by individuals who are promoting misinformation and anti-Democratic gobbledygook.  Remember, if we stay quiet and don’t speak out, we become complacent.  PLEASE write a letter to the editor and speak up.  If you would like to write a letter to the editor, you can submit your letter here:
https://static.tcpalm.com/forms/?wid=q1jkscld1v7h87e



Parents and Community Members Have Acted to Protect Our Children
 
The past few years have been unnecessarily hard for parents, grandparents, teachers, community members and administration in the Indian River County School District. Our students were forced to endure rogue COVID-19 protocols; sexually explicit library books (still on the shelves); and the LGBTQ Administration Guide (just permanently removed by our parents, grandparents and community members).
 
Most opinion media have been defending the "woke" school board and administration for years by giving opinions and not facts. On most of the 4-1 votes in the past few years Jacqueline Rosario was the constant voice of reason.
 
The left-wing liberals are doing a fantastic job of trying to destroy our country through our children and we cannot allow this any more. We are seeing behind the education curtain and while we seek to partner with school districts, we do not co-parent with the government.
 
Our group fixed IRCSD’s unlawful COVID-19 protocols at the state level. No more mandatory masking and quarantining of asymptomatic, healthy children. We will be challenging about 200 library books for sexually explicit content once the new state laws are implemented. We have the best curriculum currently for our children thanks to our parents, grandparents and community members and will continue this year with the adoption of a new curriculum for Science/Social Studies.
 
My best advice as a mom, taxpayer and someone who has held the district accountable the past few years  … keep your children out of the public school libraries for now. Beware of blanket permission slips that take away your rights to direct the care of your own child or children and review everything before you sign.
 
Jennifer Pippin, Sebastian, is chair of the Indian River County chapter of Moms for Liberty.
 
 
 
Voting By Mail is More Vulnerable to Fraud: Vote In Person
 
Too many public service announcements and media reports tout vote-by-mail ballots for the upcoming elections. Not physically voting in person is not good citizenship. Voting by mail divides the nation’s populace, insulates citizens from their government, and provides evil actors the ability to abuse the voting process.
 
When Googling mail-vote problems we need to dive deep because most media outlets don’t want to open the can of worms that is vulnerability to fraud in our elections. When digging we see the usual “baseless claims” sources, but the contrarians are there. For instance, Pew Research says that big percentages of mail ballots have historically been rejected due to carelessness. In 2016, 1.2% of ballots were rejected for missed deadline, no signature, non-matching signature, not registered, or dead. In 2018 the percentage increased to 2.1% of all mail-ins. “Already voted” percentages increased by almost 50%.
 
So, in 2020, was it due to increased education in completing mail ballots, or to lax scrutiny, that rejected mail ballots decreased to 0.8%? Inexplicably, rejections plummeted when more than twice the votes, 70 million, arrived by mail. “Contrarians” might have other explanations.
 
In 2016 and 2018 about 30 million mail ballots were returned, many from states that have been mailing ballots to registered voters automatically, California, Washington, Oregon; or “no explanation absentee” ballots, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island.
 
The common thread among many of these states is they are blue, Democrat-run states. That’s the party affiliation of many, if not most, inner-city poll workers across the country. Too many opportunities remain to “help” confused absentee voters more efficiently complete their ballot.
 
Otherwise the Board of Elections must return the envelope, have the voter fix it, then try again. Smart people should draw conclusions. Vote better. Vote in person.
 
P. Norman Grant, Vero Beach
 


 

FEDERAL

 

Senate Passes Climate, Health, and Tax Bill
 
The Inflation Reduction Act passed the Senate this week and some are calling it a win for Biden, but it really is a win for our climate, economy and Americans. 
 
The New York Times has a great breakdown of the health care portion of the bill:
 
The bill sets out to reduce Americans’ medical costs in two main ways. First, it uses federal subsidies to reduce the cost of both health insurance and prescription drugs. Second, the bill gives Medicare officials the power to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, which will likely reduce the price that the companies charge for those drugs.
 
For these reasons, the bill is effectively an effort to use the health care system to reduce economic inequality, much as Obamacare was. The bill’s benefits will flow overwhelmingly to poor, working-class and middle-class families. Its costs will be borne by increases in corporate taxes (which ultimately fall on shareholders, who skew wealthy) and reductions in the profits of pharmaceutical companies.
 
Some critics of the bill have argued that these profit reductions will lead pharmaceutical companies to spend less money developing future drugs and, in turn, to fewer promising treatments. And that’s a plausible concern. Economic incentives matter.
 
But most experts believe that the pharmaceutical industry will remain plenty profitable after the changes. The Congressional Budget Office — a nonpartisan body — estimates that the law will reduce the number of new drugs introduced over the next 30 years by about 1 percent. “It doesn’t seem that big a deal,” Juliette Cubanski of the Kaiser Family Foundation told me.
 
Here are the bill’s main provisions:
 

• It allows Medicare officials to negotiate over drug costs, giving companies less freedom to set high prices. That measure will mostly reduce Medicare’s spending, rather than families’ out-of-pocket costs — and, by extension, will reduce the federal budget deficit. But there will probably be spillover into out-of-pocket costs, especially for people in Medicare.

 

• The bill sets a $2,000 annual cap on the amount of money that any senior pays for drugs. After somebody hits that cap, a combination of the federal government, private insurers and drug companies will pay the remaining bills. Today, drugs for cancer, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and some other diseases can cost people much more than $2,000 a year. The new provision will take effect in 2025 and will save a small percentage of older Americans thousands of dollars a year.

 

• The bill caps out-of-pocket insulin expenses at $35 a month for people in Medicare; many now pay more than $50 a month. The bill also makes adult vaccines free for both seniors and people in Medicaid, starting next year. The shingles vaccine, to take one example, now often costs more than $50.

 

• For middle- and lower-income people who buy private health-insurance plans through the Obamacare exchanges, federal subsidies will increase for three years. This change will help about 13 million people. A typical person in this situation now pays about $80 a month in premiums, thanks to temporary funding from Biden’s Covid relief bill. The price was set nearly to double next year but now will remain roughly the same, according to Krutika Amin of Kaiser.

 
 
 

STATE


Governor DeSantis Removes an Elected State Attorney from Office
 
Ousted Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren is out of a job because of something he said, not something he did.  Read more here:
 
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/will-gov-desantis-e2-80-99-removal-of-tampa-e2-80-99s-state-attorney-andrew-warren-stick/ar-AA10ly3z
 
 

LOCAL


 
School is back in session!  Watch out for those kiddos getting on and off the bus.  Here’s a handy guide to follow:
 

 

CALENDAR


Tuesday, August 16, 2022
 
 
9:00 a.m. – Vero Beach City Council, City Council Chambers, City Hall, 1053 20th Place, Vero Beach, 32960
 
For agenda and meeting information go to https://covb.org/AgendaCenter
 
You can watch here: https://www.covb.org/341/CTYVB-13---City-of-Vero-Beach-Official-T
 
 

9:00 a.m. – Indian River County Commission, County Administration Offices – Council Chambers, 1801 27th Street, Building A, Vero Beach 32960-3388
 
For agenda and meeting information go to
https://ircgov.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx
 

 
Thursday, August 18, 2022
 
5:00 p.m. – DEC Monthly Meeting, Heritage Center, 2140 14^th Ave., Downtown Vero Beach
 

6:00 p.m. – Democratic Club of Indian River Monthly Meeting.  Heritage Center, 2140 14^th Ave., Downtown Vero Beach
 

7:00 p.m. - Fellsmere City Council, 22 S. Orange Street, Fellsmere, FL 32948
 
For agenda and meeting information go to www.cityoffellsmere.org/citycouncil