Republicans have been rushing to distance themselves from a plan put forward during the last election by Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), which calls for raising taxes on the poor and "sunsetting" Social Security and Medicare every five years, ever since President Joe Biden called it out at the State of the Union Address earlier this week.
But, noted CNN's Abby Phillip in a panel on "The Lead" Friday, one reason it's hard for Republicans to claim Rick Scott's "Rescue America" proposal isn't their plan, is that they haven't actually proposed a plan of their own to cut spending — even as they threaten to hold the debt ceiling hostage to demand cuts during upcoming budget talks.
"President biden, during the State of the Union Address, accurately said some Republicans wanted to sunset Social Security and Medicare, which is what Rick Scott proposed," said anchor Jake Tapper. "[Senate GOP Leader] Mitch McConnell today said that's not a Republican plan, that's a Rick Scott plan. But we should note that when Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel — when it was released from Rick Scott, she praised it. She said, quote, 'Republicans like Senator Rick Scott have real solutions to put us back on track. Republicans are offering a clear plan to protect and reinvigorate the America we know and love.' Did none of these people read the plan?"
"Well, Mitch McConnell read it," said Phillip. "To be fair, from the very beginning McConnell was like, this is going in the trash can. He really had no interest in this plan. That's part of the reason for the bad blood between these two men. He really dismissed it out of hand and knew how damaging it would be before the midterms. This is part two of a strategy — well, I guess you could call it a strategy — on Rick Scott's part to put out a plan that he thought was great. The Democrats immediately seized on it and ran on it. They ran on this in 2022 as well, as the last midterm cycle, and found it to be a very effective argument to redirect the American public toward something that they know Americans really care about, which is the issue of entitlements. I think the White House is more than happy to have this discussion."
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The big problem for Republicans trying to disown Scott's plan, Phillip continued, is that they "haven't put anything else on the table."
"It would be one thing if they were saying, this is Rick Scott's plan but we have a whole other plan," said Phillip. "The only plan that's out there is Rick Scott's plan. So when they're saying we're going to negotiate over all these other things on the debt ceiling, it's not as credible because there are no other things on the table."
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Abby Phillip says Republicans have no budget plan other than Rick Scott'swww.youtube.com
