As GOP Senate leadership scrambles to put out the fires sparked by National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) chair Rick Scott’s (R-FL) tax proposal, Scott himself is out here gargling more lighter fluid.
In the face of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) fury over Scott releasing his own 11-point GOP agenda for the 2022 midterms — which included a proposal to tax all Americans that Democrats have gleefully pounced on — the Florida senator doubled down in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Thursday.
Scott opened the piece with a declaration: “I have committed heresy in Washington.”
The NRSC chair went on to slam what he sees as McConnell’s ineffective 2022 strategy: refusing to campaign on an actual agenda or policies and to just focus on attacking Democrats.
“If we have no bigger plan than to be a speed bump on the road to socialism, we don’t deserve to govern,” Scott wrote.
He insisted that his tax plan was “common sense” because it would require “free-loaders” to “pay a small amount so we’re all in this together.”
Scott ended his missive with a clear message to McConnell: I do what I want.
“There will be many more attacks on me and this plan from careerists in Washington, who personally profit while ruining this country. Bring it on,” he wrote.
The salvo came several days after McConnell put Scott’s tax proposal on blast during a press conference.
“If we are fortunate enough to have the majority next year, I’ll be the majority leader. I’ll decide in consultation with my members what to put on the floor,” the Kentucky senator asserted after Scott abruptly walked away from the presser on Tuesday. “And let me tell you what would not be a part of our agenda: We will not have as part of our agenda a bill that raises taxes on half of the American people and sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years. That will not be part of the Republican Senate majority agenda.”
