Rick Scott Protects Social Security, Medicare in Proposal to Sunset Federal Programs after Pushback

Following high-profile criticism that his proposal to sunset all federal legislation every five years would include ending Social Security and Medicare, Florida Senator Rick Scott has amended the plan to include carve-outs specifically exempting the massive entitlement programs.

Scott has said his Rescue America plan includes the proposal to sunset federal legislation every five years as part of an effort to force Congress to eliminate spending programs that aren’t working. But he said the proposal was never intended to include Social Security or Medicare.

“Note to President Biden, Sen. Schumer, and Sen. McConnell – As you know, this was never intended to apply to Social Security, Medicare, or the US Navy,” Scott, a Navy veteran, wrote in his revised twelve-point plan.

Scott released the proposal last February ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. He advocated for, among other things, imposing the pledge of allegiance in classrooms, color-blind equality policies across the federal government, and finishing the border wall with Mexico. His plan also included the proposal that “all federal legislation sunsets in five years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.”

Democrats utilized the plan to accuse Republicans generally of wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare. The plan drew the ire of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), who believed it would be a drag on GOP candidates during last year’s elections.

“Let me tell you what would not be a part of our agenda,” McConnell said after Scott released the plan. “We would not have as part of our agenda a bill that raises taxes on half the American people and sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years. That will not be part of a Republican Senate majority agenda.”

During his State of the Union address last week, Republicans booed President Joe Biden when he suggested that sone of them “want Medicare and Social Security to sunset.” Biden declined to name names, but it was clear he was talking about Scott. “I’m not saying it’s a majority of you,” he said, adding that it likely wasn’t even a significant number. “But it’s being proposed by individuals. I’m not planning on naming them, but it’s being proposed by some of you.”

Speaking on a Kentucky radio last week, McConnell reiterated his criticism of the Florida senator’s bill. “That’s not a Republican plan. That was the Rick Scott plan,” he said.

Scott continues to support sunsetting vast swathes of federal legislation every five years. Writing in the Washington Examiner on Friday, Scott said the move to sunset federal legislation would force Congress “to review ridiculous spending programs, analyze whether they’re working or not, and reauthorize the ones that are. It’s common sense to every single person in the country except the politicians, bureaucrats, and lobbyists who get rich off the government gravy train that’s led to $32 trillion in debt.”

Scott accused McConnell and Biden of intentionally misleading the public about his plan.

“I have never supported cutting Social Security or Medicare, ever. To say otherwise is a disingenuous Democrat lie from a very confused president, Scott wrote. “McConnell is also well aware of that. It’s shallow gotcha politics, which is what Washington does.”

“These are leaders of the Washington status quo,” he added, “who are more than happy to watch the country fall deeper and deeper into debt and further and further into the Democrats’ woke, liberal nightmare if they can maintain their hold on power.”