It’s Tax Day, and so the White House is helpfully reminding us that, earlier this year, NRSC chair Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-FL) released an outrageous tax plan. That plan was part of an 11-point GOP agenda Scott floated — and that his fellow Republicans immediately scrambled to distance themselves from.
Scott’s plan to “rescue America,” released in February, includes tax provisions that would mandate all Americans to “pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount” because, as the plan reads, “currently over half of Americans pay no income tax.”
That number includes a whopping 57 percent of Americans, many of whom work but do not qualify for income taxes.
The plan also called for all legislation to be sunset after 5 years, which would presumably include laws that are foundational to American life, such as Social Security.
Republicans haven’t been thrilled about Scott’s decision to freelance on policy issues. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who hasn’t offered much of a 2022 agenda himself, stepped in to aggressively counter Scott’s 11-point plan. Fox News anchors have also expressed bewilderment at Scott’s tax proposal.
In its fact sheet released Monday morning, the White House strikes a contrast between President Biden and Republicans — or, at least, Scott — on taxes: the President advocates for cutting taxes for the middle class while Republicans turn a blind eye to the “the back bone” of the country’s economy, it argued.
“Republicans complain that middle-class Americans don’t have ‘skin in the game’ and don’t pay enough in taxes,” the White House’s fact sheet reads. “But the truth is that middle-class Americans are the back bone of our economy, pay plenty in federal, state, and local taxes, and in many cases pay a higher rate than the super-wealthy.”
A Washington Post report published Monday, meanwhile, sheds light on the private rebukes of Scott’s colleagues.
Among the grumblings in the Senate GOP are jokes that Scott has turned the NRSC into the “National Rick Scott Committee” as the chair has directed a significant share of the committee’s fundraising to his own campaign accounts, according to the Post.
Scott’s colleagues also lamented the backlash they were facing during a Feb. 28 meeting with Senate leadership in McConnell’s office, according to the Post. In the meeting, senators brought articles that showed members taking heat for various parts of Scott’s plan, particularly the tax provision and the 5-year legislation sunset idea. Senators reportedly made clear to Scott that he was creating headaches for his fellow caucus members.
But Scott, for his part, appeared unfazed. Days after the meeting, he stated his refusal to back down after taking heat from his colleagues in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, in which he complained that unnamed people were mad that he had “committed heresy.”
“There will be many more attacks on me and this plan from careerists in Washington, who personally profit while ruining this country. Bring it on,” Scott wrote.
