Florida Sen. Rick Scott played the "don't blame me game" when asked about Republicans running up the deficit under Trump. Of course, Fox host Bret Baier failed to ask Scott about funneling those tax cuts to his wealthy GOP donors while he was Governor of Florida.
Yet another reason why this propaganda network should never be called "news." As the Senate gets closer to finally passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill, a number of the holdouts like Scott are still carping about raising the deficit, and Republican leadership is once again playing a game of chicken with raising the debt ceiling, demanding cuts to Social Security and Medicare as ransom in exchange for their vote.
Scott is one of the holdouts, refusing to vote for the infrastructure package because of the cost, and Baier asked Scott about his party's blatant hypocrisy since they weren't concerned one bit about exploding the debt when they voted for those Trump tax cuts, and admitted that it "wasn't a great track record for Republicans" who are trying to tout themselves as deficit and debt hawks.
Scott deflected instead, bragging about his time as Governor of Florida, and reminded Baier that he wasn't in the Senate when they passed the Trump tax cuts, before making the ridiculous analogy that somehow government budgets are the same as household budgets, and yammering on about people living within their means.
What Baier failed to note was that Scott did with the money from those tax cuts as Governor, and the fact that a Trump tax break that was meant to go to the poor ended up getting funneled to a rich GOP donor's superyacht marina instead.
The Orlando Weekly summed up ProPublica's reporting nicely here: Thanks to Rick Scott, Trump's tax break for poor people went to Florida's billionaires instead:
Essentially, President Trump’s 2017 tax plan was supposed to create jobs by handing over $1 trillion in tax cuts to corporations and our nation’s billionaires. But since Trump knew he also had to appeal to the proletariat, a portion of the plan was dedicated to things called “opportunity zones,” which would supposedly create jobs and housing opportunities for our nation’s poorest residents.
However, since state governments were allowed to decide who got these designations, and Florida is the proverbial never-ending pasta pass of corruption, it would appear this massive tax break turned into just another windfall for Florida’s richest chuds.
According to an incredibly damning report released today from ProPublica, a few of Florida’s richest residents like Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik lobbied then-Governor Rick Scott for this lucrative tax break, and ultimately his massive Water Street Tampa project – which literally surrounds his downtown hockey arena – was chosen over, you know, actual projects that would help poor people.
While the report mostly focuses on Rybovich owner Wayne Huizenga Jr. and his insane quest to get the coveted “opportunity zone” designation for his mega-yacht marina project in West Palm Beach, Vinik’s luxury redevelopment project is also given plenty of ink.
Rather than ask Scott about how he used the revenue from those Trump tax cuts, he just moved onto the next topic instead.
