IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
“Congressman Curbelo’s first term is riddled with myriad examples of him promising South Floridians one thing while at home and then throwing them under the bus while in Washington. Take any issue: whether it’s immigration reform, Zika response funding, or equal pay for women, he consistently sides with Washington Republicans over South Florida’s priorities. ” – Jermaine House, DCCC Spokesman
Key highlights of Congressman Curbelo’s infinite doublespeak :
- “As a candidate, Curbelo compared Social Security to an unfunded “Ponzi scheme” in need of reform. As a congressman, his office celebrates national “My Social Security” week.”
- “As a candidate, he backed congressional Republicans’ lawsuit against President Obama’s executive action protecting certain unauthorized immigrants from deportation. As a congressman, he voted against a legal brief supporting a similar lawsuit.”
- “He backs immigration reform but also backs Ryan, who won’t hold any immigration votes this term.”
- “He raises money for a pro-immigration reform “Leadership PAC” he created but doles out checks to some Republicans he’s friendly with who disagree with him on immigration.”
- “He promotes equal pay for women but votes against a procedural vote for Democrats’ equal pay law.”
- “He says he backs Obama’s $1.9 billion Zika-prevention request but doesn’t go out of his way to push for it.
Miami Herald – Can Carlos Curbelo survive in Donald Trump’s GOP?
By Patricia Mazzei
When he was first elected in 2014, Carlos Curbelo seemed like the perfect face of the new, post-Mitt Romney Republican Party: a young Hispanic who supports immigration reform, believes in climate change and is well-liked by GOP leaders in Congress.
Then came the 2016 presidential election. Out went Republicans’ plans — swept away by Donald Trump’s populist force — to grow their party by embracing diversity and a soft political touch. The presumptive nominee derided some Mexican immigrants as “rapists,” opined global warming is a “hoax” and dismissed House Speaker Paul Ryan’s vacillation over whether to endorse him.
In the midst of it all, Curbelo — the 36-year-old congressman who gained national notoriety last year when he suggested Trump might be a ringer planted by Democrat Hillary Clinton — has pushed a legislative agenda aimed at notching incremental victories as a freshman and trying to appeal to constituents in a district more Democratic than the one that put him in office two years ago.
Can a moderate like Curbelo survive in Trump’s GOP?
Yes, Curbelo insists — assuming Trump’s name leading the November ballot doesn’t end his congressional career after a single term.
“Whoever wins the next election, I’d be willing to work with, and I’d be willing to hold accountable,” he said in an interview with the Miami Herald. “And the proof is that I’ve been able to work with the Obama administration, despite having many and sharp disagreements with them.”
In the year of Trump, the Republican rep from South Florida’s perennial swing district is campaigning in part on the work he’s done to help the Democratic president.
Curbelo, for example, is sponsoring White House-backed legislation to accredit non-traditional higher-education programs, such as boot camps for computer coding. He helped whip Republican votes in favor of a free-trade agreement with Asia, and rode with President Barack Obama on Air Force One to the Everglades.
Within a few weeks, Curbelo plans to file the sort of big legislation he can campaign on in a general election, even if the bill has virtually no chance of getting a vote: a new version of the DREAM Act — renamed Recognizing America’s Children Act — that would allow immigrants brought into the country illegally as children to stay.
His other large bill is a proposal to curtail automatic federal welfare benefits for Cuban immigrants, the rare example of a politician trying to limit aid to his own community. As of Thursday, Curbelo had amassed 46 co-sponsors.
So far, Curbelo has stumped on his success passing more modest proposals. He gave students learning English in public schools more time to achieve proficiency in reading and math — a longtime struggle in South Florida, as he knew from his time as a Miami-Dade County School Board member.
He tightened requirements for government agencies to hire small businesses. He expanded liability to foreign companies responsible for oil spills. He secured money for transportation projects at Florida International University and for counties like Miami-Dade to fix aging water pipes. He hopes to make federal Pell grants available to college students year-round, not just during fall and spring semesters.
Curbelo said GOP infighting forced him to readjust his legislative expectations.
Just weeks into his term, he found himself on the losing side of a divided Republican vote that blocked funds for homeland security. The loss portended the exit of then-Speaker John Boehner, a moment Curbelo called “painful.”
“That’s when I realized that a lot of the hopes that we had for this Congress, that it would go very smoothly, that we had working majorities in both chambers, that we could find some consensus with the president on different initiatives — that it was going to be a lot tougher,” he said. “That experience was not fun. And it woke me up to a lot of the divisiveness and just the negativity in our country’s politics right now.”
Though Curbelo said the work has been fulfilling — particularly when it comes to helping constituents — it’s been harder on his personal life. He sleeps on a cot in his office, having given up the $1,600-a-month, one-bedroom apartment he initially rented. He missed his 6-year-old daughter’s first soccer practice.
“It really makes you question the decision” of running for Congress, he said. “Nothing is as glamorous as it seems on paper.”
To Democrats, Curbelo’s moderate approach sounds like a calculated strategy to portray himself as more centrist than he really is — while remaining in the good graces of House GOP leaders, who have given the congressman several high-profile assignments, including delivering last year’s State of the Union response in Spanish. Curbelo’s Westchester-to-Key West district — which elected a Republican in 2010, a Democrat in 2012 and a Republican in 2014 — became more Democratic after the Florida Supreme Court ordered it redrawn.