By Ledyard King

USA Today

WASHINGTON — Think moderate and left-leaning Hispanics in Florida need more motivation to oppose Donald Trump?

Progressive activists are using Trump's vow to repeal the "terrible" Affordable Care Act to boost support for Hillary Clinton.

Rafael Collazo, national political director for the National Council of La Raza Action Fund, told reporters Thursday his organization is seeking to mobilize some 100,000 Hispanics in the nation's most important swing state this fall.

The effort, involving house visits, mailers, phone banks and community forums, will be largely centered in South Florida and the politically pivotal I-4 corridor stretching from Tampa through Orlando and to the Daytona-Melbourne area.

"As we speak, we have people knocking on doors to let (voters) know what are the policies of the presidential candidates and why it's so important that they come out and stand up for our community's values on election day," Collazo said.

Trump has angered many Hispanics with inflammatory rhetoric and promises to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. He wants to get rid of the 2010 health care law, one of President Obama's signature domestic achievements, and replace it with a system that follows "free market principles."

Trump's proposal would provide states with the federal money they now get to operate Medicaid but with fewer strings. The plan also would relax restrictions on selling health insurance across state lines and allow taxpayers to fully deduct the cost of insurance premiums.

Collazo said repealing the ACA would be bad news for Hispanics, many of whom have been able to sign up for health coverage for the first time.

But Daniel Garza, executive director of the LIBRE Initiative, a conservative Latino group based in Virginia that is politically active in Florida, said Hispanics should want to get rid of what he describes as an inefficient model for health care.

"It's no surprise that consumers are refusing to purchase policies under the health care law, and as a result, insurance companies are losing money," he said. "Sadly, many in Washington seem to think that the solution to this problem is to take more money from hard-working taxpayers to bail out politically connected insurance companies."

Polls indicate Trump will fall well short of the 40 percent support Mitt Romney got from Florida Hispanics in 2012.

Jolly shares Zika 'fear' on House floor

Florida Rep. David Jolly provided an unsettling display of show-and-tell on the House floor on Wednesday.

During morning speeches, when members are free to speak about any topic they want, the Pinellas County congressman strode to the podium carrying a clear container.

Inside? About 100 Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the same breed that carries the Zika virus.

Jolly's was blunt: While Congress dawdles on approving a funding bill to fight the mosquito-borne disease, his home state is seeing dozens more cases every week.

The Obama administration is warning Congress that federal programs to combat Zika, through vaccine research, mosquito control and testing kits, will run out of money unless new funding is approved by the end of the month. A solution has been stymied by partisan gridlock, as evidenced by Tuesday's defeat of a Zika bill in the Senate.

"It is time to act," Jolly said. "The politics of Zika have gone on far too long."

And he was just warming up.

"Can you imagine, colleagues, the fear and anxiety in this chamber if these hundred mosquitoes were outside this jar and not inside this jar?" he said. "Members of Congress would run down the hall to the physician's office to be tested. They would spray themselves before coming down here. This is the fear of Floridians."

The lawmakers listening presumably felt relieved when Jolly disclosed that the mosquitoes in his jar weren't carrying the Zika virus.

The best hope for passage of a Zika bill is later this month when lawmakers are expected to pass a stop-gap funding bill to keep the government open past the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30. Zika funding could be attached to that measure.

Rubio wants to protect military from Zika

A small but potentially alarming rise in the number of Zika cases among U.S. military personnel has prompted Sen. Marco Rubio to revive legislation that would give the Pentagon more latitude to protect service members.

The Servicemembers' Zika Protection Act of 2016 would give the Defense Department the flexibility to transfer funds from other Pentagon health programs to pay for additional bug repellant and mosquito spraying at installations where the disease is considered a threat.

Since mid-August, the number of service members infected with Zika has jumped from 55 to 81, according to Pentagon documents. Another 19 family members are infected, including three who are pregnant.

"Our service men and women are deployed all over the world," Rubio said on the Senate floor Thursday. "Unlike people who travel, they don't have a choice. When they deploy you they can't say, 'Well I'm not going to go because Zika's there. You have to go. And we need to make sure we are protecting our men and women."

Contact Ledyard King at lking@gannett.com or on Twitter @ledgeking.