The breathtaking cruelty of Florida Gov Rick Scott.

I’ve been thinking a lot and writing a little about the idea that bigotry is, in essence, cruelty and lies, and that the current conservative movement is marked by all three.

Well, if you were still looking for one, here’s your sign:

With a flick of his pen, Florida’s tea party Republican governor, Rick Scott, used a line-item veto to cut funding to the state’s rape crisis centers last week—in the middle of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

…The state legislature had approved $1.5 million to help close the gap so the centers could keep serving the approximately 700,000 women in Florida who’ve been victims of rape. But in reviewing the state’s $70 billion budget, Scott decided last Tuesday that the .002 percent slated for the crisis centers was just too much. He used his line-item power to veto the funds, alongside $141 million in other cuts targeting a wide range of projects, including an indigent psychiatric medicine program, Girls Incorporated of Sarasota County, the Alzheimer’s Family Care Center of Broward County, and a state settlement for child welfare case managers who were owed overtime. The entire list of vetoed programs is available here (PDF).

To recap:

The governor of Florida has just taken money from: Rape victims; the poor; the mentally ill; children; and adults who protect children. And the dying.

Is he culling the weak? Is he launching a Florida Office for Social Engineering? Is the next step to throw these agencies into a fancy arena and make them slaughter each other for grants?

But don’t worry, Floridians! The law Gov Scott introduced forcing welfare applicants to undergo drug testing is still in place, even though the vast majority of tests (96%) come back squeaky clean, and the testing procedure costs Florida more than it saves.

Cruelty, and lies.

Crossposted at Emily L. Hauser In My Head.