Another major political player entered the fray in this week’s hot-button debate over Medicare and Social Security: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The Kentucky Republican slammed Florida Sen. Rick Scott, a member of his own party, over his proposal to sunset all federal legislation after five years — including the two entitlement programs — while suggesting such a position could harm his re-election bid in the Sunshine State.
“That’s not a Republican plan,” McConnell told Kentucky radio host Terry Meiners on Thursday. “That was the Rick Scott plan.”
McConnell said that the Republican plan, were they to win back the Senate majority in last year's midterms, included “no plans to raise taxes on half the American people or to sunset Medicare or Social Security.”
“It’s clearly the Rick Scott plan,” he continued. “It is not the Republican plan, and that’s the view of the Speaker of the House as well.”
Scott’s plan has been the subject of much discourse in Washington this week following President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday. In his speech, the president slammed the proposals of some Republicans who want to sunset Medicare and Social Security on a five-year basis, or want to cut the programs entirely.
“Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset every five years. That means if Congress doesn’t vote to keep them, those programs will go away,” Biden said in his speech. “Other Republicans say if we don’t cut Social Security and Medicare, they’ll let America default on its debt for the first time in our history.”
The comment prompted a large contingent of Republicans to shout back at Biden. At least one shouted "Liar!" at the president.
“Anybody who doubts it, contact my office,” Biden responded. “I’ll give you a copy. I’ll give you a copy of the proposal.”
As chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Scott introduced a “12-Point Plan to Rescue America,” which proposed that all federal legislation sunset after five years, meaning the laws would need to be passed again to remain in effect.
“If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again,” his proposal said.
The president made protecting Medicare and Social Security a key theme of his campaign for Democrats in last year's midterms, which saw the president's party outperform expectations of a "red wave."
Biden doubled down on his stance to protect Medicare and Social Security at post-State of the Union events this week in battleground Wisconsin and Scott’s home state of Florida.
"I know that a lot of Republicans, their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare," Biden told the crowd in Tampa on Thursday. "Let me say this, if that's your dream, I'm your nightmare.”
Ahead of the president's event in Tampa, staffers handed out copies of Scott's proposal to those in attendance.
McConnell on Thursday distanced himself from Scott’s proposal, calling it a “bad idea” and saying he “doesn’t have anything to do with that.”
“I think it will be a challenge for him to deal with in his own re-election in Florida, a state with more elderly people than any other state in America,” the Kentucky Republican said.
Meanwhile, Scott on Friday unveiled a new proposal to fund the entitlement programs by rescinding IRS funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats’ health care, climate change and tax reform bill, and redirecting that money to fund Medicare and Social Security. It would also require require two-thirds of the senate to back any bill that would make cuts to the programs, and establish a rule that blocks Medicare savings from being used in any other programs.
“While Democrats howl and lie about made-up threats to Social Security and Medicare, the reality is they haven’t done one thing to protect them,” Scott claimed in a statement. “In fact, Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress have done more to hurt Social Security and Medicare than anyone I can think of.”