Rick Scott has no idea ‘what Americans want’
Who knew that Rick
Scott could be so funny?
Florida’s junior senator and Republican presidential aspirant normally radiates all the humor of a TSA agent. This week, however, the Sun Sentinel ran a commentary by Scott that had more howlers than a segment of Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update.”
Scott can’t pitch himself as reopening Florida’s economy despite the pandemic. Gov. DeSantis has that ground. So Scott must take on Washington.
Under President Biden, Scott claimed, Democrats are “not doing what Americans want and deserve.” Instead, the party has made a “hard left turn.”
Scott listed what he considers congressional Democrats’ priorities: “Racist Dr. Seuss books. Men in women’s sports. Closed schools. Open borders. Socialism. $2 trillion spending bills that pass in the dark of night, with no one knowing what’s in them.”
Let’s break down Scott’s hilarity.
Start with the COVID19 relief bill. With it, Scott argues, Democrats are “not doing what Americans want.”
In fact, polls consistently show that between 60% and 70% of Americans support the plan. When polltakers don’t mention Biden’s name, a majority of Republicans indicate support for many or all parts of the bill.
Like many Republicans, Scott stokes fears of invading immigrants. Again, however, Democrats are more in tune with Americans’ beliefs than Scott’s party.
The House just passed legislation that would legalize status on “Dreamers,” whose parents brought them here as children. Across several polls in mid-2020, between 70% and 85% of Americans agreed with legal status for Dreamers, including most Republicans.
As for those “open borders,” the Biden administration clearly failed to anticipate a surge in attempted border crossings that began to increase last April under Donald Trump. But 100,000 of those who tried to cross in February were sent back.
As for Dr. Seuss books, Democrats had no role in the decision to stop publishing six of them. That came from the Dr. Seuss Institute, which had consulted with educators.
And as for “men in women’s sports,” I refer Scott to the Republican man who testified against Missouri’s proposed ban on transgender athletes competing in high school. Brandon Boulware, a minister’s son, told legislators that his daughter had been miserable when forced to dress and behave like a boy. Now she’s happy.
Then there’s “socialism.” Which brings us to the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed.
The federal government gave and promised billions of dollars to drugmakers for development and sale of vaccines. When President Obama directed billions to solar energy companies, Republicans called it “socialism.” By that definition, so was Warp Speed. Florida isn’t paying for those doses DeSantis touts. But fully vaccinated Floridians, whatever their party, probably love this kind of socialism.
Or perhaps Scott refers to the $17.3 billion that Florida will receive under the American Rescue Plan. As DeSantis and other Republicans plan ways to spend state government’s share, Scott sniffed that the Legislature should return the money or an unspent portion.
“America,” Scott said, “is in a $30 trillion debt crisis, and so many in Washington, namely the Biden administration, couldn’t care less.” So why did Scott support the 2017 tax bill that cost $1.5 trillion while doing little for the economy? Because that was a Republican debt-enhancer.
In addition, Florida received nearly as much from the Obama stimulus in 2009, and so many in Tallahassee — namely Republicans — cared only about spending it to get the state through the Great Recession. That money helped Scott claim credit for being the governor who led Florida’s economic turnaround.
Like several hundred other Republicans, Scott is gearing up for the 2024 Iowa primary. It must rile him that DeSantis ranks so much higher among Trump cultists.
So Scott has to invent culture grievances and try to reinvent himself. He told a National Public Radio interviewer that he “would love to help the people who lost their job” because of the pandemic.
Yet Scott has criticized unemployment benefits in the COVID relief bills. Perhaps Scott believes that more Americans should follow his example: Get rich from a hospital company that defrauded the government.
And as governor, he created the unemployment benefits system that ranks as one of the nation’s worst. Imagine. Rick Scott calling himself compassionate. That’s funny.