Rick Scott Facts

Rick Scott's "Rescue America" 12-Point Plan: 

"All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again." 

Source: RESCUE AMERICA Point 6 https://rescueamerica.com/steps/6-government-reform-debt/

This from a senator who is one of the least Bi-Partisan Senators, see https://www.thelugarcenter.org/ourwork-Bipartisan-Index.html. In fact, Rick Scott is pathologically partisan. WHY would we trust him to vote to renew Social Security, especially if it's a bi-partisan bill? he'd rather have Democrats lose a vote than protect seniors.

Comment: If Social Security lapses as a social program, many American senior citizens will fall into poverty. Rick doesn't care, apparently. He's rich having made hundreds of $millions in the FOR-PROFIT healthcare industry - even while overseeing a company that pled guilty to 14 felonies and paying $1.7 billion in fines to settle charges of a massive Medicare fraud scheme.

Sen. Rick Scott voted against Biden's Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Bill, then took credit for it. 

"After the Biden administration announced that the new bipartisan infrastructure law would provide $1.1 billion to protect and restore the Everglades in South Florida, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., visited the region to celebrate the investment. "I am proud that Senator Rubio [who also voted NO] and I were able to help secure an unprecedented $1 billion for Everglades restoration, the largest single amount ever allocated by the federal government." https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/feb/02/sen-rick-scott-carrying-tradition-takes-credit-inf/ 

He also voted against the Bi-Partisan IVF-protection Act - and then claimed he supports IVF. "The only thing Rick Scott is better at than bad timing is hypocrisy. The Republican senator ... released a campaign ad touting his support for in vitro fertilization on Friday—less than 24 hours after voting against the Right to IVF Act."https://newrepublic.com/post/182782/republican-senator-rick-scott-ivf-ad-vote-fact-check

Comment: Rick Scott, like Trump, is bald-faced [and bald-headed] LIAR

Source: https://rescueamerica.com/12-point-plan/:

"The weather is always changing. We take climate change seriously, but not hysterically. We will not adopt nutty policies that harm our economy or our jobs." [this means short-term profits over long-term solutions]

However, on the topic of Transgender Americans, Scott is clear: "Humans are born male and female, there are two genders, and to deny that is to deny science." So he believes in science when it comes to binary gender cruelty, but not the climate.

Reminder: The climate affects 100% of Americans.Trans people represent about 0.5% of adults and 1.4% of teenagers in America (https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/); Trans people may receive Medicare funds for treatment if a doctor deems it medically necessary; compared with over the past 5 years, climate change & extreme weather have cost the federal government about $62 BILLION per year (https://www.taxpayer.net/climate/extreme-weather-extreme-costs/#:~:text=Taxpayers%20are%20already%20paying%20for,the%20impacts%20of%20climate%20change.)

Comment: Scott pays a disproportionate level of cruel attention to a tiny minority of Americans (transgender), while making light of climate change by declaring that "the weather is always changing."

That's Rick! Disqualifying.

Source: On the day of the insurrection, Scott voted against certifying Biden’s 2020 victory in Pennsylvania. Biden won Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes.When the House of Reps. moved to impeach Trump for his role in inciting the insurrection, Scott dismissed the effort as “political theater.”  Scott opposed the creation of the bipartisan Jan 6 congressional commission to investigate the riot. When the Jan. 6 Special Committee recommended 4 criminal charges against Trump, Scott questioned the validity of its findings. “I think we ought to leave it to the Department of Justice to deal with these issues.” But less than a year later, when the Justice Department actually filed criminal charges against Trump for his role in the insurrection, Scott attacked Biden & the DOJ: “Joe Biden’s DOJ will do anything they can to silence Biden’s political opponents, this is what communist dictators do.” Rick Scott's "tweet" on X.

https://americanjournalnews.com/florida-sen-rick-scotts-history-of-defending-january-6-insurrectionists/

Comment: No accountability. No honesty. Pathological partisanship and Trump-pandering.

Source: Rick Scott's Senate Website https://www.rickscott.senate.gov/biography ("He used the G.I. Bill to attend the University of Missouri, Kansas City.")

Comment: Rick didn't have to pay for college - the government paid for it. Yet Rick attacks EVERY SOCIAL PROGRAM as being SOCIALISM!! One of many examples of Rick's rank hypocrisy. It's not socialism when Rick needed help paying for college; but any discussion of or legislation to help today's students who are mired in student debt and it's socialism. Rick does not believe the purpose of govt is to help Americans in need - it's that simple.He believes the federal govt exists to help the rich get richer - like he did when he spared personal consequences for committing massive medicare fraud, see 

Examples of Rick's hypocrisy, hysteria and "socialism" hyperbole: 

"Raging Inflation Shows Biden's Socialism [is] Destroying America," 11/29/2021 Press Release of Sen. Scott.

"We will grow America’s economy, starve Washington’s economy, and stop Socialism.” See Rescue America Point 5, https://rescueamerica.com/steps/5-economy-growth/

Rick thinks Social Security and Medicare are socialism. Rick would rather see seniors be impoverished than pay taxes.

“Every country that goes socialist destroys freedom and makes people poor. And President Biden is moving America towards socialism." - April 2024 ad run by Sen. Rick Scott, see https://floridapolitics.com/archives/670217-rick-scott-socialismo/

That's a lie. President Biden, like every Democratic President, has cleaned up Trump's & Republicans' economic messes.

Sources: https://www.rickscott.senate.gov/2022/6/sen-rick-scott-scotus-is-right-to-protect-life-respect-federalism-reverse-roe ("Since Roe in 1973, more than 60 million unborn children have lost their lives to abortion. ... The importance of today’s decision by the Supreme Court cannot be overstated. For nearly 50 years, our country endured flawed legal reasoning that invented an implied constitutional right to abortion.... Today, the Court ...defended human dignity ... and rightly declared that there is no constitutional right to end the life of an unborn child. I firmly believe that life begins at conception.... Abortion ends a life. It is abhorrent and has no place in our society.") - dated 6/24/2022; https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/61/cosponsors?s=1&r=1&q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22Pain-Capable+Unborn+Child+Protection+Act%22%7D (Scott (and Rubio) co-sponsored Sen. Lindsey Graham's NATIONAL ABORTION BAN bill called Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (117th Congress (2021-2022)) ("This bill establishes a new criminal offense for performing or attempting to perform an abortion if the probable post-fertilization age of the fetus is 20 weeks or more. A violator is subject to criminal penalties—a fine, a prison term of up to five years, or both."); https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3945256-republicans-appeals-court-abortion-pill-texas/ (Scott (and Rubio) signed a brief urging an Appeals Court to uphold a ban on Mifepristone, the abortion pill, and attacking the FDA: “The FDA’s (Food and Drug Administration) unlawful approval and deregulation of chemical abortion drugs subverts Congress’ public policy considerations and safeguards for patient safety,” the Congress members said in the brief.) - dated 4/1//2023; https://rescueamerica.com/steps/9-gender-life-science/ (Scott's so-called Rescue America Plan states "Abortion kills human children. To deny that is to deny science. Whether you believe in God or not, as a civilized people who accept science, we must protect babies, born and unborn, from all acts of violence. All government policies will favor having more babies adopted, not aborted.");  https://flhealthsource.gov/nonviable-bc/#:~:text=On%20May%2031%2C%202017%2C%20Governor,is%20effective%20July%201%2C%202017 ("On May 31, 2017, Governor Rick Scott approved a new law that created a new Certificate of Nonviable Birth to be filed with the Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. Definition of a “nonviable birth” is an unintentional, spontaneous fetal demise occurring between the 10th through the 19th week of gestation of a pregnancy that has been verified by a health care practitioner." In a nutshell? Birth certificates for miscarried fetuses ... because fetuses - even those not meant to be - are "human children.")

Comment: Rick Scott prioritizes "unborn babies" over women. He applauded the Supreme Court's radical Dobbs decision, which overturned 50 years of women's right to choose an abortion before viability, and right to privacy. Supposedly, Republicans are pro-individual rights, but for anti-abortion Republicans, women don't count.Rick Scott thinks government has a right to control women and their reproductive decisions. Rick's pro-fetus obsession goes back to when he was governor of Florida: he passed a law that provided "NONVIABLE BIRTH CERTIFICATES" to women who miscarried. Of course, they cost a fee.

Source: https://www.local10.com/news/local/2022/11/30/rubio-scott-explain-votes-against-bill-protecting-same-sex-marriage/ - date 11/30/2022

Comment: Rick gave lip service to gay marriage rights, which are supported by the majority of Americans, but voted against the bill to protect legalized gay marriage. [Rubio voted against it, too.] The bill also allows for protections for religious groups that oppose same-sex marriage.

Comment: Florida has a robust gay community - our Republican senators have shown their hostility to gay Floridians over and over again, including by this vote.

Sources: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/florida-sen-rick-scott-endorses-trump-2024-battle-shifts-state-rcna123333# ("Florida Sen. Rick Scott endorses Trump as 2024 battle shifts to their state); 

Comment: Business frauds gotta stick together! Both men are business frauds - Turmp's company was adjudicated a fraud, Scott's prior company settled charges of massive Medicare fraud.

See https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/rick-scott-persecuted-medicare-fraud-trump-1235018008/:

"Scott, the former governor of Florida, was previously the CEO of Columbia/HCA — now known as HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest hospital chain. He resigned from Columbia/HCA after the FBI began a probe that ultimately resulted in the company paying $1.7 billion in fines to settle charges of rampant Medicare fraud. The fines were a record at the time. 

According to the Miami Herald, “federal investigators found that Scott took part in business practices at Columbia/HCA that were later found to be illegal — specifically, that Scott and other executives offered financial incentives to doctors in exchange for patient referrals, in violation of federal law, according to lawsuits the Justice Department filed against the company in 2001.”

Columbia/HCA pleaded guilty to 14 felonies — most of which were committed during Scott’s time leading the company [CEO], according to the paper.

"Standing outside Donald Trump’s criminal trial, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) suggested he, like Trump, was the victim of unfair political persecution — pointing to the Justice Department’s inquiry into his hospital chain, which paid $1.7 billion to resolve Medicare fraud charges. 

“I’m fed up,” Scott said Thursday. “I watched what happened to me and my company. I’ve talked to businesspeople over the years [about] what’s happened to them, when you have political persecution. And now what I’ve watched with [former] President Trump with all these cases. This is just simply — they don’t want this guy on the ballot.”

He added, “I’ve had experience with this. Back in the 90s, I was the lead opponent to Hillarycare,” referring to then-First Lady Hillary Clinton’s health care plan. “After it was defeated, she used the Justice Department to go after me and my company,” he claimed. “This can’t continue. What’s happening to this president is wrong.”

"The comments represent a major shift for Scott, who has long apologized for the company’s behavior. During his 2010 campaign for governor, Scott said, “As I have said repeatedly, Columbia/HCA made mistakes, and I take responsibility for what happened on my watch as CEO.”

Source: See https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/rick-scott-persecuted-medicare-fraud-trump-1235018008/

“I’m here because I have known Donald Trump a long time,” he said. “I consider him a friend. And what he is going through is just despicable.” 

May 9, 2024 "Today, Senator Rick Scott joined President Trump in court during his politically motivated persecution being carried out by the Biden DOJ and their minions in New York." https://rickscott.com/2024/05/09/icymi-sen-rick-scott-joins-president-donald-trump-in-court/

Comment: This "political persecution" / VICTIM-COMPLEX is now the stock answer for Republicans who break the law. They REFUSE to take responsibility for their actions. They would rather attack our most important and esteemed institutions, like our justice system, than accept responsibility for their own criminal and immoral behavior.