Tag: Rick Scott

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GOP Ron DeSantis

Florida’s GOP Senators Have Had Quite Enough Of Ron DeSantis’ War On Disney

It’s been another bad week for Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who saw the Walt Disney Company announce it would be canceling its plans to build a $1 billion office complex in Lake Nona, Florida that would have meant 2,000 new jobs in the Sunshine State.

Asked if Disney’s plans would cause him to rethink his ongoing war with the company, DeSantis remarked, “They can do whatever they want . . . the chance of us backing down from that is zero.”

Not everyone in Florida agrees with DeSantis’ selfish attacks on Disney, which first drew his ire when they opposed his “Don’t Say Gay” legislation which forbids any discussion of gender or sexual identity, even if such conversations are begun by high school students or involve the possible formation of support groups for LGBTQ students at public schools.

Among the voices publicly disagreeing with DeSantis are its two GOP senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, according to Newsweek.

Scott had this to say:

“This is the biggest or second-biggest employer in the state. Half the tourism that comes to our state comes to visit Disney. It’s a reason people come to our state. After they come there, people move there. So I think cooler heads need to prevail. My view is we have to do everything to help our businesses grow.”

And a month ago, Rubio weighed in during an interview on Fox:

“I think where it gets problematic in the eyes of some people is when you start creating the idea—and I’m not saying we’re there yet as a state—but the idea that somehow if you run crossways with us politically, whoever’s in charge, then you may wind up in the crosshairs of the legislature for political purposes to make a statement at you.”

Of course, the real reason for DeSantis being so eager to attack Disney is purely political. He wants to position himself to the right of failed former president Donald Trump on social issues in the hope of appealing to Republican primary voters who will choose the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, even if his selfish attacks on Disney wind up costing his state economically. That alone proves that he’s unfit for any public office, and suggests his message to voters will be one of anger and division, which may sell in the primaries but will make him unelectable come November of 2024.

 

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GOP Joe Biden

Jake Tapper Calls Bullsh*t On Rick Scott’s Bogus Claim That Joe Biden ‘Cut’ Medicare

Rather than admitting that he wants to dramatically slash spending on Social Security and Medicare, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is now trying to shift blame for his heartless plan and suggest that others are the ones who have cut the programs.

But CNN anchor Jake Tapper is having none of Scott’s bullshit, and he called him out Thursday on the network, noting the the senator had tried to suggest that Tapper himself had reported Biden cut Medicare by billions of dollars.

Speaking with CNN host Kaitlan Collins, Tapper began:

“You interviewed Senator Scott about his proposal, about the fact he did, in Rescue America, call for all federal legislation to sunset after five years and then it could be brought back up if Congress chooses to do so. Then he started saying that Democrats tried to cut Medicare spending. You pointed out what he was talking about was not a cut. It was allowing Medicare to negotiate for cheaper drugs, and then he tried to use something I said — I was very surprised by this — back in 2017 as his defense to that. Take a listen to this little excerpt.”

In the video clip, Scott remarks:

“Okay, Kaitlan, let me just read you something Jake Tapper said. This is back when Republicans were proposing reducing the cost of Medicaid. He said — Jake Tapper said, ‘I know the Trump Administration is excited that Medicaid will go back to the states where they have more control and can experiment and be more efficient, but without question, $880 billion is a cut.”

That led Tapper to rightly note:

“So, he didn’t include the quote where I talked about that the cut was analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office. Here’s what I actually said back in 2017. So the context here is I was quoting the CBO on its analysis for a proposal from Medicaid, and I was asking the Health and Human Services secretary, Tom Price, how that cut as, defined by CBO, didn’t violate Trump’s campaign promise to never make such a cut.”

Collins concurred with Tapper that Scott was blowing smoke out of his butt:

“Yeah, and really the issue here that it’s a separate matter, Jake.It’s what was most confusing to me as we were talking about this … what is happening here in the Inflation Reduction Act is that they reduced drug prices. Basically the government can negotiate drug prices. so basically their spending money. And reducing money is not the same as reducing drug prices. It makes the provision more beneficial to those recipients. That was not the point of the interview, was which was to talk about the plan he proposed, which, he told me this morning, does not believe a mistake. To roll out this plan that would sunset all this including Medicare, including Social Security every five years unless it was authorized by Congress. That is at the heart of the matter.”

Republicans have been dying to cut Social Security and Medicare for years. If you doubt that, consider what Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said in 2010:

“It will be my objective to phase out Social Security — to pull it up by the roots and get rid of it.”

 

Categories
GOP GOP Whining

Rick Scott’s CPAC Speech Was Such A Disaster That The Audience REFUSED To Applaud

Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott is considered by some to be a potential candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, but based on the reception he received Friday during a speech he gave at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC), it doesn’t look like may Republicans are excited by the prospect of a Scott candidacy.

Scott began his speech by tossing out plenty of culture war red meat to the crowd, but they weren’t the least bit hungry when he told them:

“If you do speak up, boom, you’re going to be canceled. Your views, if you don’t conform with Big Tech, Fauci, or Neil Young, can be taken off Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.”

Even though Scott paused for applause, there was none, which forced him to soldier on:

“The militant left in America are a modern day version of book burners.

“That’s right. Canceling, silencing, and banning from the Internet is book burning. These are the most narrow-minded, intolerant people our country has ever seen.”

The most blatant silencing, however, was from the audience, where perhaps two people offered up a few tepid claps of accord.

No doubt thinking he would bring the house down with his denunciation of “socialism,” Scott remarked:

“Socialism is not a new idea. It’s one of the dumbest, oldest, most discrete ideas of the 20th century that resulted in the deaths of 100 million people.

“If these Democrats who have no idea how the real world works, are acting like they just invented socialism. The modern wacky left Democrat has never read George Orwell. They don’t know they’re making his predictions come true.”

Crickets. Nothing.

Scott was forced to use what he probably considered his rhetorical nuclear weapon:

“Let’s be clear. What the militant left is now proposing is not simply wrong. It is evil.”

You could almost sense that people were yawning and checking their watches.

Rick Scott is not a serious person or a serious candidate for the White House two years from now. Watching paint dry is more exciting than listening to this wannabe funeral director whine.

Here’s the video. (WARNING: May cause drowsiness):