In the News
ICYMI: ‘It’s time for Rubio and Scott to grow up’
Yesterday, the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board called out Rick Scott for his self-serving pledge to block legislation critical to Floridians to score political points and boost himself. With critical legislation, including disaster relief, the Farm Bill, and government funding on the Senate’s agenda, Scott is focused on partisan games and his bid for Republican leader at the expense of Floridians.
Read the full article here. See key excerpts below:
Sun Sentinel: It’s time for Rubio and Scott to grow up
Editorial Board
6/6/24
- Florida has never been so poorly represented in the Senate, but the situation is more dreadful than that.
- Scott wants to succeed Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as Senate Republican leader. Neither the Senate nor the nation could possibly be served worse.
- All politics is relative. McConnell is, at least, a traditional Republican and consummate insider who has always known when it was time to stop posturing and work across the aisle to keep the government open and troops supplied.
- Scott, quite the opposite, is a partisan kamikaze. He has voted on the wrong side of impending shutdowns, in favor of crashing the economy by refusing to raise the debt ceiling, and was one of only eight senators to reject Biden electoral votes after the Trump riot on Jan. 6, 2001.
- While running the National Republican Senatorial Committee two years ago, Scott hatched a sunset scheme that could have ended Social Security and Medicare. McConnell disowned it. Scott’s fund-raising, candidate recruitment and campaign success turned out to be disastrous for his party.
- He was a conspicuous sycophant on day 14 of Trump’s trial, accompanying him to the courthouse, sitting in the front row and spouting off outside against the prosecution and judge.
- Scott has also compared himself to Trump, claiming, without evidence, that his own legal troubles at the massive HCA hospital corporation he once led were in retaliation for his opposition to the Clinton administration’s ultimately unsuccessful health reform.
- HCA agreed to pay a then-record $1.7 billion in civil fines, restitutions and criminal penalties for defrauding Medicare. Honest corporations don’t need to cop to scandals like that.
- HCA gave Scott a golden parachute. He never admitted any responsibility and, in a separate civil suit, took the Fifth Amendment 75 times rather than answer questions about himself and HCA.