Sen. Rick Scott accuses Democrats of "pushing us into a recession"

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Good morning and welcome to Face the Nation. As we come on the air, the Senate is poised to make the biggest investment to fight global warming in history with the hopes of reducing carbon emissions 40% by 2030. This long-stalled bill will now expand credits for the manufacture and purchase of electric vehicles, fund rebates for energy-efficient appliances, allocate money to fight drought in western states, and help vulnerable communities impacted by climate change. The bill also cuts health care costs by lowering premiums and extending subsidies, and it caps out-of-pocket Medicare drug costs for seniors at $2,000 a year. To pay for all of that spending, the bill calls for a 15% corporate minimum tax on companies that book income of more than a billion dollars a year and will provide money for the IRS to crack down on tax enforcement. With the Senate parties, Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to break the tie, which would give Democrats a much-needed boost headed into the November midterm elections. And we go now to Capitol Hill and Florida Senator Rick Scott, who is in between votes on the Senate floor. He's also the head of the Republican Senate Campaign Committee, working to retake control of the Senate. Senator Scott, good morning. I know you have been up all night, so I appreciate you joining this morning. [00:01:27] Rick Scott: I hope I'm going to, I hope I'm coherent. [00:01:30] Speaker 1: Well, I, you know, no matter what, it does not look like there is any way to stop what is expected to be a very big win here for, for Democrats. And I know you're opposed to it, but I want to press you on that because isn't expanding Medicare access good for a state like yours, which has more residents, uh, reliant on the affordable care act than any other state. And Republicans like reducing the deficit. The CBO says this will reduce it for by a hundred billion dollars over the next decade. Isn't there some good stuff in here for you too? So Margaret, here's the way I look at it. Uh, right [00:02:05] Rick Scott: now, this bill actually ought to be called the war on, um, seniors act. I mean, this is a war on Medicare. You look at this, this is a $280 billion cut in Medicare. So what's going to happen is Medicare is going to get cut and there's going to be seniors that don't get life-saving drugs because the farm and school industries will not be able to have to, will be able to. [00:02:24] Speaker 1: Not the same as reducing benefits though. You, you know that. Margaret, it's $280 billion that would [00:02:30] Rick Scott: have been spent. It was anticipated to be spent. It's not going to be spent now. And the drug companies that would be doing more research are not going to be able to spend the money on research. There will be life-saving drugs that seniors will not get on top of that. I mean, they're going to raise taxes by over $700 billion. And let's remember companies don't end up paying the taxes, shareholders paying the taxes, lower income for the employees paid the taxes, less investment pays the taxes. So this, $700 billion is actually going to hurt the economy. And then while gas prices are at $2 more than they were when Joe Biden took office, there's an excise tax on gas. So why would you, you know, we're in a recession. Why would you be increasing the cost of government, increasing taxes? [00:03:12] Speaker 1: So the committee for responsible federal budget called your claim there that you just reiterated in terms of Medicare spending completely misleading. The congressional budget office estimates that just about 1% of new drugs would be affected by the changes there on drug development. [00:03:31] Rick Scott: So how do you respond to that? Wait a minute, wait a minute. What if your grandmother is not 1% important? If there's, if, if it impacts, if it impacts a life-saving drug that we could do now, we shouldn't be, we shouldn't be cutting Medicare like this. I don't believe it. And by the way, we shouldn't be raising taxes ever, but especially in a recession. And why would we be raising the taxes on gas right now when it's $2 above what it was when Joe Biden took office? This is going to continue to drive us into a further, a bigger recession than we are. Look at where we are right now. Labor participation rates low, wages not stand up with inflation, two quarters of negative GDP. I mean, we, this is, Joe Biden has pushed us, and these plans are pushing us into a recession. So I think we've got to, we've got to stop raising taxes. We've got to make it easier for businesses to build their businesses, compete, and we'll get more jobs. [00:04:23] Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. Well, you know, we just had that stellar July jobs number, but we're going to dig into the specifics of that ahead with economist Mary Daly. Let me talk to you about the politics of all of this. Republicans have been hoping to ride the high inflation we are at, and it is historic high, and President Biden's low approval ratings to a win in November. But the president and Democrats just had a really good streak here. Gas prices are down. You have this massive spending bill going through. These are a lot of big wins for Democrats. The president just authorized that strike to take out the leader of Al Qaeda. Isn't this going to get harder for Republicans to get the edge that you [00:05:06] Rick Scott: are trying to manufacture here? Well, you know, that sounds good, right? But that's a White House talking point, but let's think about this. 72% of Americans believe we're heading the wrong track. Biden's numbers are in the tank. And if you look at all the Democrats, all the Democrats writing, they have to basically, they're a surrogate for Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer. I mean, they have to defend inflation, high gas prices, you know, the Afghan withdrawal, an open border, critical race theory, defunding the police. That's what they have to defend, because that's what the, that's what Biden's known for, and that's what, that's basically what Democrats are known for. Now, it's going to be, look, this, it's an election year. It's going to be a hard year. We have 21 Republicans up, only 14 Democrats. The Democrats are out racist, but we have good candidates, and I believe Joe Biden is going to be our key here. You said it'll be a hard year. [00:05:59] Speaker 1: I want to play for you what Republican leader Mitch McConnell told Fox last week. [00:06:03] Speaker 3: I think it's going to be a very tight. We have a 50-50 Senate now. We have a 50-50 nation. And I think when this Senate race smoke clears, we're likely to have a very, very close Senate still with either us up slightly or the Democrats up slightly. [00:06:21] Speaker 1: If things are so bad, then why is it going to be so tight for Republicans? [00:06:28] Rick Scott: Well, first off, we have, we have very good candidates. I mean, the Democrats are raising good money. So we've got to be able to get our message out. So, you know, we, we have to raise our money. We have to work, work hard. You know, we went through a lot of primaries. So, but I believe we're going to, I believe we're going to win, but it's going to be, it's going to be hard. We've got to raise our money. We've got to work really hard. Our candidates have to work really hard. Everybody has got to help our candidates, [00:06:50] Speaker 1: but I'm optimistic. So, but you do agree it's going to be tight, that Republicans have at best a slight edge? I'm very optimistic. But I, but I'm realistic that, [00:07:04] Rick Scott: you know, you have to raise your money. Democrats are raising good money. Joe Biden is our key here. And by the way, this bill is not going to help Democrats. It's going to help Republicans, raising taxes, $700 billion, cutting Medicare, $280 billion, raising gas taxes. I have an 87,000 more IRS agents. Do you know how much IRA, how happy people are to have more IRS agents out there? I mean, this is not, this is not going to be popular around the country. [00:07:27] Speaker 1: In a local radio interview in July, you talked a lot about your, your business as an executive, and you said, we should start electing people that we would hire. In Georgia, Herschel Walker, Republican Senate candidate, has lied about the number of children he has, about his business dealings. His ex-wife said he held a gun to her head and said, I'm going to blow your effing brains out. In Arizona, the candidate Blake Masters called the Unabomber an underrated thinker. He said that Al Qaeda doesn't actually pose substantial threat to Americans. I mean, I've got a list of candidates here who've had some and said some pretty troubling things. Would you hire these people to work for you? [00:08:12] Rick Scott: Well, you'd go through each person and, but I'm not the one doing it. It's the voters of those states are doing it. The voters of those states are going to make a choice. [00:08:19] Speaker 1: You're trying to help Senate Republicans and lead them to victory. These are your candidates. [00:08:25] Rick Scott: So, you know, Margaret, as you remember, the voters in Arizona choose who they're going to they're going to vote. And what they're going to choose is they're going to choose between Blake Master and Mark Kelly. Mark Kelly has voted to keep the border open. He's never voted for border security. He's voted for the tax increases. He's voted for cutting Medicare. You know, he's he's voted with Chuck Schumer and with Joe Biden basically 100% of the time. Warren except the same problem. This election is going to be about Joe Biden. And so this election is going to be about all the bad things that have happened. The fact that we're going into recession, the fact that, you know, inflation is of 9%, the fact that gas prices are up $2, all these things. That's what people are looking [00:09:04] Speaker 1: at. But these are your Senate Republican candidates. These are your candidates. [00:09:10] Rick Scott: And the voters of each of these states, the voters of these seats are going to decide if they're going to hire. Now, I get to vote. I get to vote in Florida. And that's how I think about it. But the voters in those states will choose in those states who they want. And it's a choice between two people. But look, all the Democrat nominees are basically Biden clones. Yeah. We don't. By the way, they won't. But if you are, I mean, you would acknowledge that if somebody [00:09:36] Speaker 1: went in for an interview for a private corporation, these things would come up as red flags to HR. [00:09:42] Rick Scott: So it's just Biden is not campaigning with anybody because he is he is he's toxic. That's how the voters think. That's why they say 72% of Americans say the economy is in the wrong track. When that happens, people say, I'm going to take a serious look at somebody else. Right. And our candidates have to go tell them what they're going to do. And we're going to make sure that everybody knows exactly who are who the Democrats are. That's what that's what's going to happen all across the country. And we're going to have races [00:10:08] Speaker 1: and we'll see what happens. Are you advising all of your candidates in these races to accept the outcome of their elections since so many of them are questioning [00:10:16] Rick Scott: still the outcome of the 2020 race? Well, Margaret, let's remember that's exactly what happened to me with Bill Nelson and Mark Elias. They didn't accept the outcome of the election. And they tried to illegally cast count ballots after election day after I won by 57,000 votes. So election security is very important to me. And I want to make sure we make sure we do everything we can to make sure people know that the election is fair. We're already putting together teams, which I had to do in Florida in 18, teams of lawyers and volunteers to make sure these elections are fair. [00:10:48] Speaker 1: But you accept the election are, you know, the integrity of these races that all your candidates are in, or you're only going to have a problem with them if they lose? [00:10:59] Rick Scott: Well, I, you know, I won free and fair elections, so I'm going to work my, you know, work hard to make sure, you know, these elections are fair. Then everybody will get to decide at the time. So I, I'm still frustrated with what happened in my race. We had, we spent millions of dollars to make sure we won. And we won election night and they tried to count illegal ballots after election night. That's wrong. [00:11:20] Speaker 1: Very quickly, before I let you go, do you think that the U.S. military should be deployed to defend Taiwan if China makes, China makes a move on it? [00:11:28] Rick Scott: I think we've got to be very clear that we will defend Taiwan. We've got to be very clear exactly what's going to happen to China with exactly what sanctions is going to happen to China if they invade Taiwan. I think all American businesses need to understand that they're at risk right now if they're doing business there. And I think every American, whenever they see a box this is made in China, they ought to send it back to whoever sent it to them, say, I'll never buy another product made in China. Well, there's a whole story about inflation there, [00:11:51] Speaker 1: Senator, but that's for another day. We got to leave it there. Thank you for your time. And I'll let you get back to work there.