Sen. Rick Scott: Inflation Reduction Act Is a ‘War on Medicare’

Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) argued Democrats’ climate, tax and health legislation in the Senate was  “a war on Medicare.”

Partial transcript as follows:

MARGARET BRENNAN: 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 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 reliant on the Affordable Care Act than any other state, and Republicans like reducing the deficit. The CBO says this will reduce it by $100 billion over the next decade. Isn’t there some good stuff in here for you, too?

SCOTT: So, Margaret, here’s the way I look at it. Right now, this bill actually ought to be called the war on seniors act. I mean, this is a war on Medicare. If you look at this. This is a $280 billion cut in Medicare. So, what’s going to happen is Medicare is gonna get cut and there’s gonna be seniors that don’t get life-saving drugs because the–

BRENNAN: –reducing Medicare cost is not the same as benefits though, you- you know that.

SCOTT: Margaret, it’s $280 billion that would 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 pay 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 $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? We’re increasing taxes.

BRENNAN: So, the Committee for a 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. So how do you respond to that?

SCOTT: Margaret, 1 percent. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. If your grandmother is not 1% important, if there’s if- if it impacts- 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 rate’s low, wages not saying 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 got to stop raising taxes. We got to make it easier for businesses to build their businesses, compete and we’ll get more jobs.

Follow Pam Key On Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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