This Woman Yelling at Gov. Rick Scott in a Starbucks Is a Florida Hero

Update: According to our sister paper New Times Broward-Palm Beach, the woman who called Gov. Rick Scott an "asshole," Cara Jennings, is a former Lake Worth commissioner. She says things escalated after Scott told her to "go to a county health clinic."

Gov. Rick Scott is vastly unpopular. Almost half of Floridians disapprove of the job he's doing, while only 38 percent approve of his work in Tallahassee, according to the latest polls. Which isn't news. His approval ratings have famously been horrible practically since the moment he stepped into office. 

Yet somehow we've elected him to two terms. Most of us seem resigned to that fact, but not Cara Jennings.

She was sitting in a Gainesville Starbucks when none other than Scott himself walked in, and she went off on the governor.

"You cut Medicaid, so I couldn't get Obamacare," Jennings yelled. "You're an asshole." 

Scott technically didn't cut Medicaid; he just refused to expand it. Medicaid expansion was a key part of President Barack Obama's health-care plan, and his administration has offered federal dollars to expand the program. As many as 800,000 low-income individuals in the state would receive health insurance if Medicaid were expanded.

But Scott blocked those federal dollars and left all of those Floridians — including, it seems, Jennings — without access to health care. 

By the time Jennings called the governor an "asshole," a Scott staffer had approached her to apparently try to calm her. 

Without even looking at the staffer, and barely interrupting her rant, Jennings pointed to the woman and said, "I'm not talking to you." 

"You don't care about working people," Jennings continued. "You should be ashamed to show your face around here." 

Scott responded with something about the 1 million jobs that have been created in Florida since he became governor. Though technically true, not many of those jobs have been particularly high-paying. In fact, many of those workers in the service industry are the same workers who got screwed by Scott's Obamacare decision. It's also highly debatable to what degree Scott's policies are responsible for those jobs. 

Jennings then attacked Scott for cutting funding for Planned Parenthood, an important provider of health-care services to low-income women. 

Scott then walked out the door. 

"You're an embarrassment to our state," Jennings yelled after him. 

Cara Jennings, you are a hero to our state.