Tag: Sen. Rick Scott

Biden’s Strategy Wins

By Ken Zino

Presidents Biden began his State of the Union speech to set this up: “The story of America is a story of progress and resilience … We are the only country that has emerged from every crisis stronger than when we entered it. That is what we are doing again.” The president too was stronger -- much stronger. He used the Republican politics of grievance and destructive posturing against them to promote another two years of progressive headway.

“We’re building an economy where no one is left behind. Jobs are coming back, pride is coming back because of the choices we made in the last two years. This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America and make a real difference in your lives,” Biden said. 

Then Biden out-foxed, the Republicans starting with a jab at Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). “I look forward to working with you,” he said, adding the caveat; “I don’t want to ruin your reputation.” Biden then loaded his speech with facts in the spirit of New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who in similar situations called on his political opponents to look at the record. 

Enter a tsunami of Administration triumphs: 

  • “Two years ago, our economy was reeling.”
  • “As I stand here tonight, we have created a record 12 million new jobs, more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years.”
  • “Two years ago, COVID had shut down our businesses, closed our schools, and robbed us of so much. Today, COVID no longer controls our lives.”
  • “And two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War. Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken.”
  • "As we gather here tonight, we are writing the next chapter in the great American story, a story of progress and resilience. I define our country in one word: Possibilities.”

Republicans face crossroads. Will sanity prevail and dump Trump and his losing, racist, sexist, fascist, insurrectionist ways? A party overhaul is needed. Biden Democrats did it: Look at the party’s stunning reversal of a global trade policy that had made the rich richer and harmed the middle class. Now the rest of the Democratic Party is firmly backing Biden’s policy of building and buying American. 

Biden’s jab at Republicans who wish to end Social Security was brilliant. When a witness heckler said that it wasn’t so, Biden offered to produce the document. Heckling ensued claiming it was only one individual’s position (Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who also was chair of the party’s midterm campaigns last year). 

Biden used an assumptive close that shut down the obstructionist noise. “So Medicare and Social Security are off the books in the next budget?” Biden stared them down, into silence. 

During his first State of the Union, Biden’s Unity Agenda sought areas where both parties could work together and make progress for We The People. These are now -- again -- populist policies that only heartless Republicans could oppose: a “moonshot” at finding a cure for cancer; delivering on obligations to veterans; tackling the mental health crisis; beating the opioid and overdose epidemic; immigration reform. 

I realize that many Republicans have a George Santos-like relationship to facts. However, Biden signed more than 300 bipartisan bills. And the positive effects of, say, his infrastructure bill are just beginning, including projects in Republican districts where Biden promised to attend the groundbreaking ceremonies. 

Biden Tuesday announced a new wave of plans toward more progress, with better results for families. Along the way, Biden had Republicans on the ropes with jab after jab and devastating left hooks. 

The president said he was proud to work with Democrats and Republicans to enact major legislation that delivers on all aspects of this agenda. This starts with the deficit. As I looked at the Republicans, I saw later-day Benedict Arnolds who spent too much on tax cuts for the rich. Now they want the middle class, the poor and retired to pay the price for their actions. 

Biden’s predecessor signed nearly $2 trillion worth of unfunded tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations. This Republican deficit went up every year under Trump’s mis-administration. Biden has cut the deficit by $1.7 trillion. Democratic reforms to take on Big Pharma, lower prescription costs, and make the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share will reduce the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars more.

Here’s the key to the winning strategy: Biden knows that the work to build an economy from the bottom up and middle out is far from done. “Let’s finish the job” is the rallying cry. Biden teased the budget he will send to Congress on March 9th, building on the historic economic progress of the past two years by continuing to invest in America and its people, continuing to lower costs for families; for child care, housing, college costs and health care, while protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare, and reducing the deficit through additional reforms.

Why abandon a winning strategy? 

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…meanwhile…

(WED 11/16/22)

It’s Official: GOP Wins House – Republican Mike Garcia defeated Democratic challenger Christy Smith to win California’s 27th District House seat Wednesday, the AP reports, to finally give the GOP the majority in the lower chamber it had expected to come much more easily a week earlier. Garcia’s victory puts the House count at 218 Republicans and 211 Democrats, per The New York Times, with six more seats to call. 

Reddish Trickle: The GOP House margin, which will be anywhere from one to 14 seats -- though more likely between five and seven -- is good enough for the party’s first declared 2024 presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump. The jury was still out 24 hours after Trump’s Mar-a-Lago announcement on whether his fall from party leadership finally is over. Rupert Murdoch’s news empire is sticking to its guns so far – Sean Hannity even broke away from the drone of Trump’s “low energy” speech, and ABC News’ Jonathan Karl reported that Mar-a-Lago security had to keep several in the gaga-for-MAGA crowd from leaving his speech early. 

Why would GOP leadership break up with Donald J. Trump this time, and not after three election losses – the House in 2018, the presidency and Senate in 2020 and essentially both chambers this year (and his only win was by electoral count, not popular vote) – as well as two impeachments, one insurrection, and an FBI seizure of top secret documents? 

Consider that when Mitt Romney lost, miserably, in his bid to unseat President Obama in 2012, the GOP conducted an “autopsy” on the party’s apparent lack of popularity.

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in Florida’s winds, where Gov. Ron DeSantis offers the party sanctuary, and he won’t fly you on a chartered airplane to get there.

Meanwhile, McConnell Holds: SCOTUS- and federal court-crusher Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) won over his party’s caucus to remain minority leader, with 37 votes to Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-FL) 10 votes. One Republican voted “present” in the secret ballot held in the Old Senate Chamber according to Politico, which adds that Scott sent out a memo during the vote accusing the outgoing National Republican Senatorial Committee, led by Indiana’s Todd Young, for distributing “hundreds of thousands of dollars of unauthorized and improper bonuses to staff.”

McConnell has been GOP leader for nearly 16 years, and when asked whether he might soon consider stepping down, he told reporters “I’m not going anywhere” (Politico again). 

•••

Senate Moves to Codify Same-Sex Marriage – The Senate Wednesday passed a procedural provision, 62-37, to advance a same-sex marriage bill that could reach its final vote this week, per Roll Call. The bill would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which was ruled largely unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in a 2013 decision. The bill “will not take away or alter any religious liberty,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), chief negotiator and the first openly gay U.S. senator. 

Among the 12 Republican senators voting to advance the bill was its primary GOP sponsor, Susan Collins, of Maine. It is the first among several bills the lame duck Congress will take up in a rush to beat the end of its 117th session.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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Trump Trumps, Again

(WED 11/16/22)

It’s 2015 again, with the fabulosity of Mar-a-Lago – where FBI agents seized top secret government documents just three months ago -- substituting for Trump Tower’s Golden Elevator. Some 20 minutes after beginning his speech – which came off sounding like a low-key MAGA-hat rally in which he described the magnificent success of his administration and the dismal failures of his successor -- Donald J. Trump announced his third bid for president of the United States. 

“In order to make America great and glorious again tonight I am announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.” Though Trump did not conjure up his Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him, he did suggest China had somehow meddled in the 2022 midterms. And the GOP did win the midterms thanks to Trump’s involvement, he suggested, but Republican leaders had overblown expectations they would win 40 House seats. 

Trump threw in this statement, devoid of any irony or self-awareness: “This will not be my campaign. This will be our campaign.”

Biden on Strike on Poland: Before Trump in his very big announcement could blame on the current president a missile that struck Poland – he perversely suggested that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine had he still been in office – Biden spoke at the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, telling reporters “there is preliminary information that contests that … it’s unlikely given the trajectory that it was launched from Russia.“ It has been identified as a Russian missile, however, and it killed two people in rural Poland. In discussions with Polish President Andrej Duda and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Biden says the U.S. has offered support to Poland’s investigation “and we need to determine exactly what happened.”

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

McCarthy Wins Speaker Nomination

House Republicans have nominated Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for Speaker of the House, with 188 votes to Rep. Andy Biggs’ (R-AZ) 31 votes, per The Hill. McCarthy will need at least 218 of all 435 House members to become the next speaker.

As of late Tuesday, ahead of Donald J. Trump’s “very big announcement” at Mar-a-Lago, Republicans had clinched 217 House seats to the Democrats’ 206 for the 118th Congress, leaving 12 contests yet to be determined.  

McConnell Under Pressure: Meanwhile in the Senate, Florida Republican Rick Scott is challenging Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky for the minority leadership and is one of “several conservative senators who have called on McConnell to delay” the vote, Axios reports, until after the December 6 Georgia runoff election between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and Trump-backed challenger Herschel Walker. 

McConnell and Scott, Axios says, have been feuding for months over midterm campaign strategy. No matter what happens, the Democratic Party already has clinched control of the Senate. If Warnock wins re-election, Democrats will have 51 seats to the GOP’s 49.

Question: Axios uses the term “conservative” to describe Scott and other senators calling on McConnell to delay the vote for minority leader. What does the news outlet consider McConnell?

--TL

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Something to Think About Before You Vote

By Stephen Macaulay

Maybe you’re not sure who you are going to vote for tomorrow.

If that’s the case, then perhaps what two guests on Meet the Press said on 11/6/22 might be helpful in coming to grips with how to handle your ballot.

These two guests were in sequence. First Representative Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), then Senator Rick Scott (R-FL). The sequence is important because the second person has the opportunity to hear what the first has said and thereby should be able to come up with some compelling responses.

Seems as though Scott didn’t take that into account.

When asked by host Chuck Todd about things like messaging and popularity and what the Democrats are going to do, Maloney, said things including:

“So with all due respect, what Democrats are going to do right now is going to go out and fight with everything we've got for seniors who need costs capped in Medicare, for people worried about gun violence in our schools, for people who want to have a real plan to go forward together without the anger and the fear and the hatred, fighting for women's reproductive freedom and voting rights. That's what we're going to do.”

And

“Well, let's look at the record. I mean, for one thing we passed the most important gun safety legislation in 28 years, stood up to the N.R.A., stood up to the big gun lobbies, and no Republicans, except a handful, were willing to help. That's really important. In addition to that, we passed the most important local police funding, $300 million over the next five years, out of the House.”

And

“I think the president gets a bum rap. By the way, he's been a leader on public safety his whole career. He's also fixing our roads and our bridges. He's bringing jobs back from China. He's capping seniors' out-of-pocket costs in Medicare. He took on the big drug companies. If you want to know why all this dark money's coming into these races it's because we took on the big drug companies. He's helping our veterans with extraordinary health care, $250 billion. He's done gun safety legislation. And let's not forget the Rescue Plan that saved every small business and restaurant and live venue in the country. I think the guy gets a bum rap. I think he's working through the damage of the Trump years and the pandemic, and he's not getting enough credit for it. Now, we've got more to do, and he'll be the first one to tell you that.”

Sure, there’s plenty of partisan rhetoric in there, but there are also substantive things that affect individuals young and old. And how helping seniors with Medicare costs and putting some serious funding into police departments is “radical,” and one of the main themes of the Republicans on the trail is how the Democrats are destroying the country (fixing the roads?) because they are radical, is something I can’t suss.

But let’s move to Senator Scott.

Todd asked him what, if the Republicans get the majority in both chambers, “the first bill a Republican Congress sends to the president’s desk that you actually think he would sign?”

Scott answers:

“I think the issue is we've got to deal with inflation, so we've got to figure out how to spend our money wisely so we don't continue this inflation. I think we've got to do whatever we can to get this crime rate down. So I think we have to look at that. We've got to secure the border. I think we've got to get rid of the 87 IRS agents – 87,000 new IRS agents. So I think we have to address the issues that people are worried about right now, and they're worried about those issues, the fentanyl. So I think that's what we need to focus on. So we've got to make sure our military is focused on being lethal, not woke. So I think those are the things that we have to focus on.”

Is there a bill in there?

Or more to the point, is there a specific policy or plan described outside of eliminating the jobs of IRS agents (the vast majority of which have yet to be hired because the 87,000 relates to the number who could be hired by 2030)?

Todd followed that answer — and that is the complete answer given by Scott, not edited — `with this question:

“Well, let me ask you, inflation, you saw that's the biggest – that’s the number one issue people are dissatisfied with this economy. What's the first bill you guys can pass that you think can impact inflation?”

Scott:

“I think the thing we have to work on – on inflation, it's all tied to reckless government spending. We've got to get our budget in control, we've got to figure out how we're going to balance the budget. So that's the first thing we have to do.”

In other words, Scott doesn’t know the answer.

“We have to work on.” “We’ve got to figure out how.”

Wouldn’t it seem that a political party that sees nothing good on the landscape would have specific ideas of how they were going to change it?

Apparently that’s not the case for the Republicans.

To be sure, they’re all about going after Hunter Biden (if the guy is corrupt, then do we really need the U.S. Congress to concern itself with that?), stopping illegal immigration (how they’re going to do that is evidently something they need to think about), and making sure that Anthony Fauci pays for his trying to save Americans from what many of the people running for office as Republicans thought was a hoax (only 1.07-million people died from something that their dear leader said, more than 40 times, starting in March 2020; “It will just go away”).

Think about what needs to happen and who is, apparently, thinking about it.

And vote.

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McConnell vs. Scott

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “has been on the phone with big donors for the past several weeks” to raise campaign fund to fill in for the National Senate Republican Committee’s dwindling funds, report CNN’s Manu Raji and Alex Rogers https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/06/politics/rick-scott-mitch-mcconnell-republican-senate-fundraising/index.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=9/7/22%20%20Punchbowl%20News%20AM&utm_term=Punchbowl%20AM%20and%20Active%20Subscribers%20from%20Memberful%20Combined.

McConnell and NSRC Chairman Rick Scott, of Florida, disagree on politics, policy, strategy and fundraising, Punchbowl News reports. The NSRC’s financial woes went public last weekend with a New York Times report that the committee has burned through 95% of its $181.5-million war chest, with much of it spent on a digital fund drive with a “buy it now” tactic that has angered many contributors. CNN says Republican senators are maneuvering to take the matter in their own hands and directly help candidates who need critical resources. Add to that McConnell’s “high-spending” Senate Leadership fund to help make the Kentucky senator the majority leader once again. 

Go to the Comments box below or in the left column, or email editors@thehustings.news.

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GOP Senate Campaign Goes for Broke

A CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction bill ago, the GOP was tipped to retake the House of Representatives for sure and likely the Senate along with it, thanks to President Biden’s low poll numbers, high inflation rates and conventional wisdom regarding a president’s party’s midterm election prospects. Now the Republican Party’s prospects for retaking the Senate from its 50-50 split (with Vice President Harris breaking ties) are dimming, which also makes a huge gain in the House less likely. 

The Republican Senatorial Committee is looking downright DNC-like, yanking potential defeat from the jaws of victory. On Sunday The New York Times scooped via campaign records how the committee, headed by Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, had collected a record $181.5 million in campaign funds by last July and splurged all but $23.2 million of that on a digital fund drive that has many donors cutting off subsequent contributions. The committee reportedly sent millions of text messages with provocative text messages like “Should Biden resign?” followed by “Reply YES to donate,” which if you did and already had card information stored with the party, sucked cash from your account immediately. 

Such party leaders as Senate Majority Leader-in-waiting Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “are fretting aloud that Republicans could squander their shot at retaking the Senate in 2022, with money one factor as some first-time candidates have struggled to gain traction,” according to the NYT.

Have you been frustrated by such modern methods of raising cash, for either party? If so, tell us about it in the Comments box below or in the left column if appropriate -- or email editors@thehustings.news and let us know in the subject line whether you lean right or left.

--TL

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