Rick Scott’s communist-socialist rant fact-checked by law professor using federal funding stats

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) has been gauging whether he should announce he's running for president. Tuesday morning, he posted a video ranting about communists and socialists not being welcomed into Florida. But one law professor walked through just how communist and socialist the state of Florida already is.

Taking to Twitter, Jen Taub, author of "Big Dirty Money," brought up statistics on "socialist" programs in the United States like Social Security.

"More than 559,000 Floridians get Social Security payments," she tweeted. "Floridians get more than $330 million in Social Security payments each year." She cited the statistics from the Social Security Administration.

She also cited "67 million Americans get a social security payment The total monthly payments are more than $100 billion nationwide."

Hurricane assistance funds have always been an issue for Florida, too. The state suffers from many natural disasters that are so costly that the federal government bails the state out.

"More than $3.31 billion in federal grants, disaster loans, and flood insurance payments has been provided to the state of Florida and to households after Hurricane Ian," said FEMA in 2022.

As of Feb. 2023, FEMA reported, "More than 70,000 Florida households have been approved for $647 million in financial assistance for rent or basic home repairs, and more than 4,500 households have stayed in hotels temporarily under FEMA's Transitional Sheltering Assistance program."

Before President Joe Biden's administration, the Trump White House was also doling out federal funds to Florida. By Oct. 2020, FEMA funds reached $2 billion in disaster assistance to Florida for Hurricane Irma.

In 2022, Scott voted against the hurricane money, but he still said that getting federal money handed to Floridians is important.

“The federal government is a major partner in helping families, helping businesses, helping governments get back to – get back to normal. But you don’t want to waste money,” Scott said on "Meet the Press."