Nelson Talks Issues Over Lunch

BROOKSVILLE - Between mouthfuls of shrimp and filet mignon, Sen. Bill Nelson managed to spit out responses to many diverse questions Thursday.

The Florida Democrat came to Brooksville Regional Hospital for an hourlong informal luncheon with local officials who peppered him with queries on subjects ranging from education to Iraq.

Before the questioning began, Nelson garnered applause from the 34 attendees when he said he planned to travel back to Washington, D.C., this Saturday to demand that all the votes from Florida's presidential primary be counted.

The Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee is slated to rule on how to hash out the mess created when both Florida and Michigan moved up their primaries. The DNC has so far stood firm on its vow not to count the state's delegates if Florida went through with the plan.

Here's a sampling of the other topics that came up and Nelson's take on each:

Fuel prices: Nelson acknowledged there is little that can be done to provide significant relief in the short term. The effects of fuel speculators and increased worldwide demand are beyond the control of Congress, he said.

Nelson did support a measure passed earlier this month to require the United States to temporarily stop adding to its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, though it's unclear whether that will have any effect on prices.

But it's important to plan for the long term, Nelson said. The next president will have to "marshal the political will" to rally Congress and the American people around the cause to reduce dependency on foreign oil by aggressively pursuing alternate sources such as wind and solar power.

There have been some victories, he said, noting the passage of a law that will require vehicles to get 35 miles per gallon by 2020. The latest farm bill also includes money for research and development into ethanol fuels derived from sources other than corn.

Iraq: About 15 minutes into the luncheon, Mary Ann DeWitt, a Brooksville Realtor and wife of planning and zoning Commissioner Bob DeWitt, said it was time to bring up "the elephant in the room." When, she asked, will the government come up with a solid timetable for withdrawal from Iraq?

Nelson said he was confident that the policy of the next president, Republican or Democrat, will be one of "gradual diminishing of troops" that will happen "at the rapidity that the American people are demanding."

The support for the U.S. presence continues to diminish, he said, and "you cannot continue a war unless you have the support of the American people."

He noted that there will have to be some U.S. presence in the war-torn country for years to come to train Iraqi troops, protect the U.S. embassy and other Americans working there. Meanwhile, the situation in Afghanistan "has slipped," he said. "That's what we're going to have turn our attention back to."

The economy: Nelson said he pushed for more money to be set aside in the recently passed economic stimulus package to build infrastructure, which he said would have helped create thousands of jobs to give a noticeable jolt to the economy.

That attempt failed, but Nelson said, "I held my nose and voted for" the plan that offered tax rebates. The measure will have "a limited effect" at best, he said, but called it "an important symbolic thing for people to know that the government was trying to do something."

Education: Nelson provoked applause from Hernando County Schools Superintendent Wayne Alexander when he said that the No Child Left Behind Act, aimed at holding elementary and secondary schools accountable for student progress, was "never adequately funded."

Nelson said he has been among the senators who have supported measures to funnel more money to the program to help schools improve, "but we've not gotten the votes."

Another goal for next session is to change the act so it doesn't conflict with similar laws in states, he said. The discrepancy results in Florida, for example, with a school earning an A in the A-Plus plan but not meeting the No Child Left Behind progress requirements.

"We'll do that, I hope, if we've got the votes," he said.

Health care: Nelson is one of 14 senators sponsoring a bill that he said would make health care "affordable and available" to even the poorest patients by creating large pools of members according to state populations. The system would also help provide coverage for the country's roughly 47 million underinsured citizens.

He acknowledged such a revamp "is going to step on some extremely sensitive toes" in the insurance lobby who will fight to maintain the status quo.

"It's not going to change until it gets raw enough," he said, "but it's getting close."