(FreedomBeacon.com)- Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott is sticking to his guns: He will push to raise taxes on almost all Americans should the GOP retake the majority of the Senate following the midterm elections later this year.
Scott, who is the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, originally unveiled his plan last month. At the time, he said:
“All Americans should pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount. Currently, over half of Americans pay no income tax.”
Then, when he was interviewed by Sean Hannity on Fox News, he claimed his plan wouldn’t end up raising taxes for most Americans.
But, speaking this week with Laura Ingraham on Fox News, Scott didn’t back off his initial sentiments. Instead, he tried to justify them by saying that American people “want free government stuff.”
In trying to explain his plan — which Ingraham called “unabashedly populist — Scott said:
“Here’s what’s not fair. We have hard-working Americans — they’re paying all these taxes, and retirees pay them. Who’s not? We’ve got some billionaires not paying it, and we got people that want free government stuff and they don’t want to have any skin in the game. That’s not fair.”
In responding to Scott’s plan last month, Mitch McConnell — the leader of the GOP in the Senate — said that the plan “will not be a part of the Republican Senate majority agenda” if they were indeed able to retake the majority in the upper chamber.
Of course, a lot of that would revolve around not only whether the GOP retakes the majority, but also whether McConnell serves as the majority leader again.
McConnell seems pretty confident of that happening, though, and he is also confident that he would not put forth Scott’s plan to raise taxes on most Americans. Commenting on the situation last month, he said:
“If we’re fortunate enough to have the majority next year, I’ll be the majority leader. I’ll decide in consultation with my members what to put on the floor. We will 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 the Republican Senate majority agenda.”
Ingraham classified McConnell as “not a populist … [but] an old-style Bush Republican” when speaking with Scott last week. Then, she asked the senator what he thought about McConnell’s previous comments. Scott responded:
“I just think there’s a difference of opinion.”
Scott was also very much in favor of having his plan presented to the American people for a vote. That’s obviously not likely to happen — and even if it were, it’s not likely that a majority of people in the country would vote for an increase in their own taxes, even if they were to get “free stuff from the government” in return.
