Rick Scott challenged on Fox News Sunday over tax hikes and sunsetting Medicare, Medicaid
Sen. Rick Scott was challenged Sunday by Fox News host and former Miami reporter John Roberts over his recently released “Rescue America” plan.
During the interview on the conservative network’s Fox News Sunday program, Scott said Roberts was repeating Democrats’ “talking points” after the news host read word by word two of the plan’s proposals: raising income taxes for low- and middle-income earners and allowing federal programs like Social Security Medicare and Medicaid to sunset or expire within five years if Congress fails to pass legislation to renew them.
“That would raise taxes on half of Americans and potentially sunset programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security,” Roberts said. “Why would you propose something like that in an election year?”
“That’s of course the Democrats’ talking points,” Scott said, leading Roberts to interrupt him mid-sentence.
“No! It’s in the plan,” a chuckling Roberts said. “It’s in the plan.”
As Scott tried to brush off Roberts rebuttal, the news host interrupted the congressman for a second time.
“But Senator, it’s not a Democratic talking point. It’s in the plan,” Roberts said.
But Scott said his plan is to “fix” Medicare and Social Security.
“No one that I know of wants to sunset Medicare or Social Security but what we are doing is that we don’t even talk about it. Medicare goes bankrupt in four years, Social Security goes bankrupt in 12 years. I think we ought to figure out how to preserve those programs,” Scott said.
Scott said he will focus on reducing taxes despite his proposal to raise taxes on over half of Americans.
Read: Tax Policy Center report finds 61% of U.S. households paid no income taxes in 2020
“Here what’s unfair. We have people that could go to work and have figured out how to have government pay their way,” Scott said. “That’s not right. They ought to have some skin on the game.”
Nearly 107 million households or roughly 61% owed no federal income tax in 2020, a 2021 report from the Washington-based Tax Policy Center found. The nonpartisan think tank called the spike in non-payers, “eye-popping, but temporary,” and attributed it to the economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The report predicted that the percentage of non-payers would fall to 40% by 2026 based on current tax laws.
“I don’t care if it’s a dollar. We ought to all be in this together,” he added.
After Scott said that not everybody will agree with his plan, Roberts saw an opening to ask Scott about one of his plan’s biggest detractors — Sen. Mitch McConnell.
During a GOP leadership conference on March 1, Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, walked away from a podium just as reporters began to ask questions about his plan. McConnell, who has led the party in the Senate since 2007, criticized Scott’s plan.
“If we’re fortunate enough to have the majority next year, I’ll be the majority leader. I’ll decide in consultation with my members what to put on the floor,” McConnell said. “Let me tell you what will not be on our agenda. We will not have as part of our agenda a bill that raises taxes on half the American people and sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years. That will not be part of the Republican Senate majority agenda.”
Several days later, Roberts noted that the Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece by Scott entitled: “Why I’m defying Beltway Cowardice.”
“Are you calling Mitch McConnell a coward?” Roberts asked.
Scott did not give Roberts a “yes” or a “no.”
“What I’m saying is, I’ve been in D.C. for three years. I want to get something done,” he said. “I went to D.C. to change this country.”
This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
