Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) has admitted defeat on his controversial "Rescue America" plan which would sunset Social Security and Medicare — a sign that even his own party is tired of his presence as a thorn in their side and a liability, explained CNN political director David Chalian on "The Situation Room" Friday.
While Scott's plan didn't explicitly call for cutting the massively popular and important Social Security and Medicare entitlement programs, it called for requiring all programs "sunset" after five years with renewal requirements for Congress to keep them going, without any exemption for those two programs. Scott repeatedly doubled down on this when pushed, but this week finally said he would exempt Social Security and Medicare from that requirement, saying it "was obviously not intended to include entitlement programs."
"What does it say that Senator Scott is changing course now?" asked anchor Pamela Brown.
"That he realizes it was a political loser of a position to be in and he needed to reverse course here," said Chalian. "Remember, Rick Scott ... introduced this plan last year to the chagrin of Republican leadership. He was part of Republican leadership last year as the head of the campaign arm last year for Republicans and yet, Mitch McConnell, the party leader in the Senate, still was stiff-arming him and totally distancing from this plan."
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This was exemplified last week, noted Chalian, when McConnell reiterated on a Kentucky radio show, "That was the Scott plan, that's not a Republican plan." McConnell went on to call Scott's plan "just a bad idea."
The upshot, concluded Chalian, is that "Rick Scott does this complete caving to the political pressure from the president, and from those in his own party, in clear recognition this was not going well for him."
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David Chalian on Rick Scott walking back his plan www.youtube.com
