Paul Morigi/Getty Images, Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
- Florida Sen. Rick Scott continues to back his plan to sunset federal programs like Social Security and Medicare every five years.
- Mitch McConnell slammed the idea, saying on Kentucky radio that it's "the Scott plan. That's not a Republican plan."
- Biden also called out Scott during a Tampa event, pledging to veto the plan should it ever come to his desk.
Social Security and Medicare have been taking center stage in debt limit debates, but the Senate minority leader wants to be clear that cutting those programs is not the Republican priority.
With Republicans holding a slim majority over the House, they've chosen to use raising the debt limit, which keeps the US on top of paying its bills, as leverage to achieve their own priorities — particularly in the form of spending cuts. At this point, the GOP has not made clear what exactly those cuts would be, but Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and the rest of his party insisted Social Security and Medicare are off the table in negotiations.
However, Florida Sen. Rick Scott has complicated matters by continuing to double down on a 12-point plan he introduced last year that included a proposal to sunset all federal legislation, including Social Security and Medicare, after five years, meaning Congress would have to repeatedly approve the programs.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Kentucky radio host Terry Meiners on Thursday that the GOP does not back Scott's ideas.
"That was the Scott plan. That's not a Republican plan. That was the Rick Scott plan. The Republican plan, as I pointed out last fall, if we were to come the majority, there were no plans to raise taxes on half the American people or to sunset Medicare or Social Security," McConnell said, likely referring to a section in Scott's plan that proposes new income taxes on most Americans.
"I mean it's just a bad idea," McConnell added. "I think it will be a challenge for him to deal with this in his own reelection in Florida, a state with more elderly people than any state in America."
During Thursday remarks in Tampa on strengthening Social Security and Medicare, Biden even distributed pamphlets of Scott's plan, saying that "the very idea the senator from Florida wants to put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block every five years I find to be somewhat outrageous, so outrageous that you might not even believe it."
"I guarantee you, it will not happen," Biden added. "I will veto it. I'll defend Social Security and Medicare."
Scott has continued to defend his plan, telling Insider on Thursday that Biden is a "hypocrite and a liar."
"I've never ever said I would reduce Medicare or Social Security benefits. I've only said I wanted to preserve them and save them," Scott told reporters. He even invited the president to debate him on the issue, but Biden hasn't taken him up on that offer.
—Rick Scott (@ScottforFlorida) February 9, 2023
While the GOP has not taken up Scott's plan, the public is still waiting to see what exactly they want to cut for a debt limit agreement. The GOP House Budget Committee on Wednesday released a list of ten proposed areas they would support cutting, which included blocking Biden's student-debt cancellation plan, ending the student-loan payment pause, and cutting "woke" programs like those for gender inclusivity.
McCarthy said earlier this week he will continue negotiating with Biden on the issue, but Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen previously warned that Republicans have to reach an agreement before the US runs out of "extraordinary measures" to avoid default by sometime this summer.