After President Joe Biden effectively trapped congressional Republicans into denying that they ever wanted to cut Social Security and Medicare and then vowing to protect the programs, two of the GOP senators who’ve been making the loudest threats decided to prove Biden’s point. Sens. Rick Scott (FL) and Ron Johnson (WI) are staying on the attack, helpfully assisting Biden in his strategy of cornering the GOP in the debt ceiling fight.
Scott immediately came out swinging, but doubled down on his aim. “In my plan, I suggested the following: All federal legislation sunsets in 5 yrs. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again,” he tweeted Wednesday. Which is precisely confirming what Biden charged: He has a plan to sunset the programs. Period. He doesn’t have a plan to reinstate them.
He then denied what he had just confirmed, insisting that his plan applied to “all legislation,” tweeting it is “clearly and obviously an idea aimed at dealing with all the crazy new laws our Congress has been passing of late.” He also implied that Biden is senile. “@JoeBiden is confused…to suggest that this means I want to cut Social Security or Medicare is a lie, & is a dishonest move…from a very confused President,” he added. “I’ve never advocated cutting Social Security or Medicare and never would.”
You can totally trust anything Scott has to say about Medicare, right? I mean, it’s not like he was founder and CEO of a hospital company that was forced to pay a $1.7 billion fine to the federal government back in the 1990s for the largest Medicare fraud case in the country at the time, right? Oh, yeah, that’s right. He was!
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In its settlement with the government, the company admitted to 14 felonies related to fraudulent billing and practices. Most happened under Scott’s leadership.
Columbia/HCA gave kickbacks to doctors so they would refer patients. Columbia/HCA made patients look sicker than they were, so Medicare would pay more. Columbia/HCA kept two sets of books.
Scott was forced out of the company, but had a soft landing: “$300 million in stock, a $5.1 million severance and a $950,000-per-year consulting contract for five years.” Then, in all their wisdom, Florida voters made him governor and then senator. Oh, Florida.
Then there’s Wisconsin, who returned this guy to the Senate in 2022.
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Setting aside the fact that that’s not how Ponzi schemes work at all, Johnson’s not even trying to pretend like he’s not calling for the programs to be destroyed. He’s been at this for more than a decade. He has bemoaned the fact that former President George W. Bush failed to privatize Social Security.
“It went nowhere, which I thought was a shame,” he said at a town meeting in 2015. (By the way, Johnson is 67, now eligible to collect Social Security. The next time some roving reporter in the Senate or Capitol sees him in the hall, they should ask him if he’s collecting it.)
Biden took his Social Security and Medicare victory on the on the road following the State of the Union address, and it’s no coincidence that Wisconsin and Florida are included—with receipts.
“I remind you that Rick Scott from Florida, the guy who ran the U.S. Senate campaign, has a plan—I got his brochure right here,” Biden said, holding up Scott’s brochure. “Here’s what he says in his plan … He says ‘All federal legislation sunsets every five years. If a law is worth keeping Congress can pass it again.’”
“And by the way, you have senator named Ron Johnson … Ron Johnson on Social Security and Medicare, quote, ‘We should transfer everything. So, we have to consider everything every year,’” Biden continued. “Come on, man.”
Here he is Thursday in Florida, clearly relishing this fight.
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