Senate Republican leaders held their latest Capitol Hill press conference yesterday afternoon, and reporters heard Sen. Rick Scott talk about inflation. That wasn’t surprising: This is clearly an issue the GOP hopes to use in the 2022 midterm elections, even if the party doesn’t have a credible plan of its own.
But the Florida Republican went a little further than most when taking a rhetorical shot yesterday at President Joe Biden:
“This is all because Biden doesn’t care about poor people in this country. He doesn’t care about people on fixed incomes. He has caused all of this.”
In context, “this” referred to higher prices for consumers, most notably at gas pumps. The Floridian said the solution is more oil drilling, and he accused the White House of standing in the way.
Let’s quickly review some of the most basic elements of such a pitch. First, Scott’s belief that more drilling will offer consumers some kind of short-term relief is plainly wrong. Second, the idea that the president is standing in the way of increased energy production has been thoroughly discredited.
Second, the idea that Biden “caused” the current conditions is bizarre. Inflation is obviously real, but so are the variety of factors contributing to the recent trend — including, of course, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — many of which the president has no control over.
But what was especially notable about the senator’s comments was the fact that Scott is a poor messenger for this message.
The Republican wants to pick a fight over who “cares about poor people”? This is the same Scott who rejected Medicaid expansion and denied health coverage to hundreds of thousands of low-income Floridians.
This is also the same Scott who celebrated inflation late last year: The senator, who leads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told The Wall Street Journal in November, “This is a gold mine for us.”
But perhaps most importantly, Scott, who now wants to be seen as some kind of champion of Americans on fixed incomes, recently proposed tax increases on roughly half the country.
“All Americans should pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount,” the GOP senator wrote. “Currently over half of Americans pay no income tax.”
As we’ve discussed, millions of American adults currently don’t pay federal income taxes because they don’t make enough money to qualify. Scott proposes changing that: He envisions a tax system in which those who don’t make enough money would have to pay more than they pay now.
This is the guy who wants to accuse Biden of not caring enough about the interests of the working poor? Isn’t there some other GOP leader who might have a bit more credibility on the subject?
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