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ICYMI: Rubio Supported Extreme Budget Plan That Could Cut Programs Florida Depends On
Last week, Marco Rubio voted to support Senator Rand Paul’s radical Five Penny Plan, which would gut our federal budget, mandating “enormous cuts to practically every aspect of federal operations,” and putting defense, education, FEMA, and Medicare in jeopardy.
“Instead of voting for a budget plan that will lower health care costs and ensure no Floridian making under $400,000 will pay more taxes, Rubio decided to support an extreme budget proposal that could make dramatic cuts to Medicare, emergency management programs, and national security efforts,” said Florida Democratic Party spokesperson Grant Fox. “Once again, Rubio has shown he is not looking out for Floridians and their best interests and in 2022, voters will hold him accountable.”
Senator Rand Paul’s Five Penny budget plan would impose “austerity measures that would both hurt millions of American families” and undermine our economy. Read more on the budget below:
MSNBC: Rand Paul’s radical budget plan receives significant GOP backing
By Steve Benen
Key Points:
- Last week, as part of the debate over the Democratic budget plan, Paul introduced his own budget blueprint as an alternative and offered it as a proposed amendment. To no one’s surprise, it failed in the face of unanimous opposition from the Democratic majority.
- But this was not a 99-to-1 vote. On the contrary, as the dust settled last week, 28 Senate Republicans ended up voting for Rand Paul’s budget plan.
- To achieve such a goal, the GOP senator would mandate enormous cuts to practically every aspect of federal operations, slashing hundreds of billions of dollars in federal investments every year, imposing austerity that would both hurt millions of Americans families and severely undermining the domestic economy.
- And while that helps explain why Paul’s budget plan was defeated, it doesn’t change the fact that most of the Senate Republican conference voted for it.
- Among the Republicans who voted for the radical blueprint are members of the Senate Republican leadership — Florida’s Rick Scott, South Dakota’s John Thune, and Wyoming’s John Barrasso — as well as some members who are up for re-election next year, including Florida’s Marco Rubio, Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, and Iowa’s Chuck Grassley.
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