1. TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT » SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 2016 » 5A
O P I N I O N
One of the biggest issues in the
presidential election is a recurring
Republican critique of the Affordable
Care Act: the supposedly massive
health care price spikes. Donald Trump
said, “I don’t know if you have been
watching lately — people’s premiums
are going up 35, 45, 55 percent. Their
deductibles are so high nobody’s ever
going to get to use it.”
The results speak otherwise. It is
true that employer-based insurance
premiums increased 26 percent from
2009 to 2014, but prior to the passage of
the ACA, they went up 34 percent from
2004 to 2009 and 72 percent from 1999
to 2004.
Yet the literally sickening (potential-
ly to millions) refrain persists, “Repeal
and replace Obamacare.” The House
has now voted to repeal it 63 time (but
never with the replace part).
Even in Kentucky, with uninsured
down to an all-time low 7.5 percent
there, U.S. Senate Leader Mitch
McConnell takes credit for the insur-
ance expansion by his state, but refuses
to publicly acknowledge it’s because of
Obamacare.
Florida’s great former congressman
and senator, Claude Pepper, fought for
national health insurance his whole life.
Pepper, whose library and museum are
at Florida State University, said back in
1987, “What I’m talking about is a prin-
ciple of insurance applied to health
care. We insure our homes. We insure
our businesses. Why can’t we insure
something that’s even more important
to us, our lives and our health?”
In 2013, Gov. Rick Scott, who knows
health costs as a former hospital ad-
ministrator, was for Obamacare Medi-
caid expansion before he was against it.
He said, “I cannot, in good conscience,
deny Floridians the needed access to
health care.” Then he lost that “good
conscience” to politics. He reversed
after his Republican legislature re-
fused to allow it for fear of giving Oba-
ma credit for anything.
According to HHS.gov, if Florida
were to expand Medicaid, “an addition-
al 848,000 uninsured people would gain
coverage.”
Through healthcare.gov, customers
can search for plans based on their
financial and health priorities. Custom-
ers are able to switch plans, which
enables them to save money. According
to the HHS, “those who switched plans
within the same metal tier (platinum,
gold, silver, bronze) saved an average
of nearly $400 on their 2015 annualized
premiums after tax credits as com-
pared to those who stayed in their same
plans.”
According to HHS, “about 8 out of 10
returning consumers will be able to buy
a plan with premiums less than $100
dollars a month after tax credits; and
about 7 out of 10 will have a plan avail-
able for less than $75 a month.”
A smart consumer can both achieve
health care coverage, without suc-
cumbing to the naysayers who do not
want to credit the president.
Robert Weiner is a former spokes-
man for the Clinton White House. Dan-
iel Khan is senior policy analyst at Rob-
ert Weiner Associates and Solutions for
Change.
Spiking ACA
health care
costs is a myth
Robert Weiner
and Daniel Khan
MY VIEW
The historic visit of a sitting U.S.
president to Havana — which should
have come a half-century sooner —
will almost surely hasten the day
when Cubans are free from the Cas-
tro government’s suffocating repres-
sion.
President Obama’s whirlwind trip
is the culmination of his common-
sense revamping of U.S. policy to-
ward Cuba. One outdated, counter-
productive relic of the Cold War re-
mains — the economic embargo for-
bidding most business ties with the
island nation — and the Republican-
controlled Congress won’t even con-
sider repealing it. But Obama, using
his executive powers, has been able
to re-establish full diplomatic rela-
tions, practically eliminate travel
restrictions and substantially weaken
the embargo’s grip.
All of which is long overdue. The
United States first began to squeeze
the Castro government, with the hope
of forcing regime change, in 1960. It
should be a rule of thumb that if a
policy is an utter failure for more
than 50 years, it’s time to try some-
thing else.
I say this as someone with no illu-
sions about President Raúl Castro, the
spectral but still-powerful Fidel Cas-
tro or the authoritarian system they
created and wish to perpetuate.
Hours before Obama’s arrival
Sunday, police and security agents
roughly arrested and hauled away
members of the Ladies in White dis-
sident group as they conducted their
weekly protest march; this time, U.S.
network news crews happened to be
on hand to witness the ritualized
crackdown.
I wrote a book about Cuba, and
each time I went to the island for
research I gained more respect and
admiration for the Cuban people —
and more contempt for the regime
that so cynically and capriciously
smothers their dreams. Those 10 trips
convinced me, however, that the U.S.
policy of prohibiting economic and
social contact between Americans
and Cubans was, to the Castro broth-
ers, the gift that kept on giving.
I saw how the “menace” of an ag-
gressive, threatening neighbor to the
north was used as a justification for
repression. We’d love to have free-
dom of the press, freedom of associa-
tion and freedom of assembly, the
government would say, but how can
we leave our beloved nation so open,
and so vulnerable, when the greatest
superpower on earth is trying to de-
stroy our heroic revolution?
Most of the Cubans I met were not
fooled by such doublespeak. But they
did have a nationalistic love for their
country, and their nation was, indeed,
under economic siege.
There are those who argue that
Obama could have won more conces-
sions from the Castro regime in ex-
change for improved relations. But
this view ignores the fact that our
posture of unmitigated hostility to-
ward Cuba did more harm to U.S.
interests than good. Relaxing travel
restrictions for U.S. citizens can only
help flood the island with American
ideas and values. Permitting such an
influx could be the biggest risk the
Castro brothers have taken since they
led a ragtag band of guerrillas into
the Sierra Maestra Mountains to
make a revolution.
Why would they now take this
gamble? Because they have no
choice. The Castro regime survived
the collapse of the Soviet Union —
and the end of huge annual subsidies
from the Eastern Bloc — but the Cu-
ban economy sank into depression.
Copious quantities of Venezuelan oil,
provided by strongman Hugo Chávez
(who was Fidel Castro’s protege),
provided a respite. But now Chávez is
gone, Venezuela is an economic ruin
and Cuba has no choice but to mone-
tize the resource it has in greatest
abundance, human capital. From the
Castros’ point of view, better rela-
tions with the United States must now
seem unavoidable.
It is possible that Raúl Castro, who
has promised to resign in 2018, will
seek to move the country toward the
Chinese model: a free-market eco-
nomic system overseen by an authori-
tarian one-party government. Would
this fully satisfy those who want to
see a free Cuba? No. Would it be a
tremendous improvement over the
poverty and oppression Cubans suf-
fer today? Absolutely.
Fidel Castro will be 90 in August;
Raúl is just five years younger. At
some point in the not-too-distant fu-
ture, we will see whether Castroism
can survive without a living Castro.
Anyone who wants U.S. policymakers
to have influence when that question
arises should applaud Obama’s initia-
tives.
And speaking of applause, did you
see the rapturous welcome the presi-
dent and his family received in Ha-
vana? Cubans seem to have a much
more clear-eyed — and hopeful —
view than Obama’s shortsighted
critics.
Eugene Robinson’s email address
is eugenerobinson@washpost.com.
PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS / AP
President Barack Obama watches as Cuban President Raul Castro reacts to a question during their news conference in Havana, Cuba.
Obama visit will
speed Cuba’s freedom
Eugene
Robinson
WASHINGTON POST
“President Obama’s
whirlwind trip is the
culmination of his
common-sense revamping
of U.S. policy toward
Cuba.”
EUGENE ROBINSON
COLUMNIST
LO CA L N E W S
Johnny House III, his business part-
ner and friend, said despite the pain of
loss, closure has finally come.
“I know the family has lost a son,
nephew and uncle who was rewriting the
family story,” he said. “Countless
friends have lost the ability to make last-
ing memories with someone they loved,
admired and cherished.”
Goodwin, a Rockledge native, gradu-
ated from FAMU in spring 2014 with a
bachelor’s degree in architecture. He
was one class short of getting his mas-
ter’s degree in facilities management
and was set to be enrolled in 2015 sum-
mer classes at the time of his death.
Posthumously, Goodwin was awarded
his master’s degree.
Two others, Zachary D. Jones, 26, and
former Lincoln High School student
Marvin Barrington, 23, face charges of
accessory after the fact felony murder.
Investigators say after the robbery, they
gave Hawkins a ride to Jefferson Coun-
ty, where he burned the car and then
drove him back to Tallahassee.
Defense attorneys called Hawkins’
family members to the stand during sen-
tencing proceedings. His mother Ginger
Hawkins said she raised her three chil-
dren nearly alone while her husband
struggled with substance abuse.
She said prior to the murder, her son
had become homeless and had started
hanging out with Jones and Barrington,
who were friends of his older brother
and were bad influences on her 23-year-
old son.
He was a follower easily swayed by
peer pressure, not a leader, she said.
His paternal grandmother, Florida
“just like the state” Hawkins described
her grandson as a “rambunctious, all-
American” child. While he was growing
up, she tried to impart the values of right
and wrong in him. The person she saw in
court was not the grandson she knew.
“I could not believe it,” she said of
when she heard he was accused of mur-
der. “And I still don’t.”
As she was helped down from the wit-
ness stand by bailiffs, Florida Hawkins
blew her grandson kisses.
Prosecutors told jurors Hawkins
called the store 11 times the day of the
murder and committed the crime for fi-
nancial gain. He started the fire to avoid
being caught. He sold the shoes for $300
and two ounces of marijuana.
But he didn’t have to kill Goodwin,
who was bound with his own belt, choked
and beaten before being burned alive,
said Eddie Evans, assistant state attor-
ney for the 2nd Judicial Circuit.
“Did he ever show by his actions that
he cared about what Mr. Goodwin was
goingthroughwhenhechokedhim?”Ev-
ans asked jurors during his closing argu-
ments. “Aaron Goodwin was laying in
that store, tied up fighting for breath;
fighting for his life. (Hawkins) could
choose between right and wrong. Had
been able to all his life. He chose wrong.”
Hawkins’ attorney Chuck Collins said
despite the sentence, he was pleased his
client was spared the death penalty.
“Obviously, it was a relief. These
aren’t easy cases,” he said. “(Jurors)
knew or they believed Mr. Hawkins was
involved … I believe they found this
wasn’t a premeditated murder and I be-
lieve that is why they didn’t find this was
cold, calculated and premeditated.”
Dozens of Goodwin’s family and
friends attended every day of the week-
long trial. After the conviction and sen-
tencing, they expressed relief.
“The last 24 hours for our family has
been a blessing. It’s been a miracle,” said
Goodwin’s cousin Daniel Davis sur-
rounded by family after the sentencing.
“We have been praying and holding tight
and asking for justice and it’s been a re-
lief. What was going through our mind is
we just want justice. The justice system
got it right.”
During closing arguments, prosecu-
torsshowedaphotoofGoodwin’sbodyin
the charred remains of his once profit-
able business. Both Hawkins and Good-
win’s families broke down crying. Some
left the courtroom. Jurors appeared
shocked by the image.
Around4:30p.m.,assheleftthecourt-
room, her grandson having been taken
into custody for the rest of his life, Flori-
da Hawkins blew kisses to Aaron Good-
win’s family.
Contact Karl Etters at ketters@talla-
hassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.
Hawkins
Continued from Page 3A
KARL ETTERS/DEMOCRAT
Assistant State Attorney Eddie Evans shows jurors the gas can used to spread gasoline in Aaron
Goodwin's sneaker shop. Antowan Hawkins was sentenced to life in prison without parole
Friday.