Even Fox News isn’t buying Sen. Rick Scott’s ridiculous spin on his proposal to possibly “sunset” Social Security and force poor people to pay more in taxes.
Ostensibly appearing on Fox News Sunday to discuss the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and President Joe Biden’s European trip, the Florida Republican soon found himself being grilled by anchor John Roberts over the legislative agenda he recently unveiled.
As the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Scott hoped to give GOP candidate a platform to run on by putting forth his “11-Point Plan to Rescue America” last month. The plan, however, was roundly mocked across the political aisle, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell quickly dismissed it.
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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,” McConnell said earlier this month.
During Sunday morning’s interview with Scott, Roberts brought up two of the most contentious items in the politically ambitious senator’s proposal.
“Two of the big points are ‘all Americans should pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount. Currently over half of Americans pay no income tax,’” the Fox News moderator stated. “It also says, ‘All federal legislation sunsets in five years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.’ So that would raise taxes on half of Americans and potentially sunset programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Why would you propose something like that in an election year?”
Despite Roberts reading directly from his plan, the conservative lawmaker immediately objected and insisted that the anchor was echoing “Democrat talking points,” prompting Roberts to push back.
“No, no, it’s in the plan! It’s in the plan!” Roberts dramatically exclaimed.
“But here’s the thing about reality for a second,” a clearly flustered Scott begged, only to find the Fox host continue to grill him.
“But, Senator, hang on," Roberts declared. “It's not a Democratic talking point! It's in the plan!”
Defending his policy proposals, Scott went on to say that his plan “says we ought to every year talk about exactly how we are going to fix Medicare and Social Security,” adding that “no one that I know of wants to sunset” those programs. Additionally, he appeared to paint poor Americans as freeloaders that need to be taxed more by the government.
“Here’s what’s unfair. We have people that don’t—that could go to work and have figured out how to have government pay their way. That’s not right. They ought to have some skin in the game. I don’t care if it’s a dollar. We ought to all be in this together.”
Roberts, meanwhile, pointed out that McConnell doesn’t agree with Scott’s plan, noting that the Florida senator followed that up with a Wall Street Journal op-ed declaring that he was standing up the “Beltway cowardice” with his proposal.
“Are you calling Mitch McConnell a coward?” Roberts wondered.
Dodging the Fox News Sunday host’s question, Scott instead sounded a familiar right-wing refrain about culture war issues and the “woke left” destroying America.
“What I’m saying is—I’ve been in D.C. for three years. I want to get something done. I went to D.C. to change this country,” he groused. “Look at where we are now. The woke left controls, you know, the executive branch, they control a lot of our government, they control academia, they control Hollywood. Look at — we have an open border, we’ve decided we’re not going to be energy independent. We’ve got to change this. You don’t change it without having a plan.”
