Republican Sen. Rick Scott Friday backtracked on his plan to sunset Social Security and Medicare that President Joe Biden called out during his fiery State of the Union speech.
The Florida senator on Friday wrote that he was amending his so-called Rescue America plan to exempt the untouchable retirement benefits from potentially facing the chopping block every five years — while slamming Biden for pushing a “Democrat lie” that the plan supported slashing the programs.
“Note to President Biden ... As you know, this was never intended to apply to Social Security, Medicare, or the U.S. Navy,” Scott wrote in an opinion piece in the conservative Washington Examiner newspaper.
Scott called attacks on his plan “shallow gotcha politics” from both Democrats and his own fellow Republicans.
“I have never supported cutting Social Security or Medicare, ever. To say otherwise is a disingenuous Democrat lie from a very confused president,” Scott said.
He also sniped at GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, against whom he mounted an unsuccessful leadership challenge.
“And (McConnell) is also well aware of that. It’s shallow gotcha politics, which is what Washington does,” Scott wrote.
Along with Social Security and Medicare, the Scott plan now exempts “national security, veterans benefits, and other essential services,” a catch-all that makes it far less meaningful if ever adopted.
Scott’s claim notwithstanding, his plan did apply to Social Security and Medicare before he changed it. It called for all spending plans created by Congress, which included both the benefits for older Americans, to be renewed every five years.
That’s why everyone from progressives to McConnell derided it as dead on arrival when he promoted it as part of the GOP Senate campaign last year.
“It’s a bad plan,” McConnell said. “That’s a Scott plan. It’s not a Republican plan.”
The plan backfired badly on Republicans at the State of the Union when far right-wing lawmakers interrupted Biden’s speech with calls of “lies” after the president accurately described the contents of Scott’s plan.
Biden turned the tables on the GOP by earning a bipartisan standing ovation when he called for both parties to pledge to take Social Security and Medicare off the table for budget talks.
While Scott can truthfully deny that he specifically called for the sunset of Social Security or Medicare, his plan as written would have almost certainly forced cuts to the popular plans.
Without slashing either one of them, lawmakers would have to cut a 85% from all other programs to reach the GOP’s goal of a balanced budget in the next decade.
