Rick Scott is a 'gift' for Democrats as the richest man in Congress pushes GOP taxing the poor: analysis

The chairman of the National Republican Committee and richest man in Congress has received bipartisan criticism for his plan to raise taxes.

"Senator Rick Scott of Florida, the somewhat embattled head of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, said one utterly indisputable thing on Thursday when he stood before a packed auditorium of supporters at the conservative Heritage Foundation: His plan for a G.O.P. majority would make everyone angry at him, Republicans included," Jonathan Weisman reported for The New York Times. "His leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has repeatedly told Mr. Scott to pipe down about his '11-Point Plan to Rescue America,' with its call to impose income taxes on more than half of Americans who pay none now, and to sunset all legislation after five years, presumably including Social Security and Medicare."

Conservatives have been harshly critical of Scott's plan.

"It has divided his party, put Mr. Scott’s own candidates in awkward positions, and is already featured prominently in Democratic advertising. But after Thursday, it is clear the Republicans have not figured out how to address their Rick Scott problem," the newspaper reported. "The senator insisted on the Heritage Foundation stage that his plan would raise taxes on no one, only to concede to reporters after the talk that it would — or that it wouldn’t, he couldn’t decide."

Even Fox News has fact-checked Scott on what's in his plan.

"Last year, 57 percent of U.S. households paid no income tax, but that was by design. Successive Republican tax cuts, including President Donald J. Trump’s tax cut of 2017, which greatly expanded the standard deduction, took tens of millions of workers off the income tax rolls, though virtually all of them pay Social Security, Medicare and sales taxes," the newspaper reported. "And for all of Mr. Scott’s evasions, the criticism is not coming just from the “militant left” that he denounced. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimated that ensuring all households pay at least $100 in income taxes would leave families making about $54,000 or less with more than 80 percent of the tax increase. Those making less than about $100,000 would shoulder 97 percent of the cost."

McConnell declared Scott's plan "will not be part of the Republican Senate Majority agenda.

"For Democrats, Mr. Scott is a gift. The 2022 campaign is shaping up as a conventional midterm, focused on the economy under Democratic control," Weisman explained. "Democrats are gleefully calling attention to it, even going so far as to promote the Republican senator’s speaking engagement on Thursday."

Read the full report.