ORLANDO — Offered a timely platform at one of the largest annual gatherings for conservatives, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott spared no efforts to tout his policy agenda at CPAC.
He used much of his 18-minute keynote speech to pitch the main parts of his “11-Point Plan to Rescue America,” stopping for the crowd’s roaring applause. He gloated over criticism from Democrats and “Washington insiders.”
And his team devoted significant resources to make sure his plan was visible throughout the three-day Conservative Political Action Conference: They booked a booth spot, solely to distribute copies of his agenda and plastic wine tumblers that said, “America is worth fighting for. Read my plan at rescueamerica.com.”
“If the Republicans return to Washington’s business as usual, if we have no bigger plan than to be a speed-bump on the road to America’s collapse, we actually don’t deserve the government,” said Scott during a speech on Saturday afternoon.
“In Washington, we need new majorities in the House and the Senate, and we need a new plan,” added Scott, who is the current chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Republicans’ campaign arm in the Senate.
Scott was promoting his plan, a document he released this week delineating Republicans’ priorities ahead of the 2022 midterm elections as they seek to retake the Senate. The plan calls for acts of patriotism in schools, like reciting the Pledge of Allegiance; declares men and women biologically different and proposes raising taxes on low-income earners.
Some political observers say the release of the plan may be foreshadowing a potential challenge to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Politico reported this week that former President Donald Trump tried to recruit Scott to challenge McConnell in a recent meeting in Mar-a-Lago, a story Scott has tried to downplay.
“What I talk to President Trump about is his help in trying to make sure we get the Senate back, and that’s what I’m focused on,” Scott told a Herald reporter during a roundtable in Miami on Friday, adding that he doesn’t talk about his private conversations.
Trump is scheduled to address CPAC on Saturday evening.
Speaking to a different Herald reporter on Saturday, Scott denied his plan was meant to foreshadow a challenge to McConnell. “I have no plans to run against McConnell,” he said. “That is not my plan.”
Scott’s policy agenda would be an alternative blueprint for Republicans, as Scott is expected to weigh a potential presidential run in 2024, and McConnell declined to release a broader agenda for the GOP conference. The part of his proposal that would require millions of low-income Americans to pay federal income tax has drawn criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike. On Friday, Scott defended his plan and said that portion was targeting “billionaires and woke left who are able to work and don’t want to work.”
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“I’ve never supported tax hikes. What I’m focused on is the fact that we need to make sure the tax system is a fair system. We’ve got billionaires who don’t pay taxes. We’ve got people who’ve figured out how to become part of the woke left that just take government money. And they’re expecting other people to pay,” Scott told reporters.
In his CPAC speech, Scott acknowledged that not all Republicans may agree with what he is proposing.
“This is not the time to be timid. This is the time to be bold. Our nation’s future can be bright, but we need a plan to take this country back. I warn you before you read it, though. This plan is not for the faint of heart, it will trigger a lot of the people,” Scott said. “Based on how Democrats are attacking me this week, I’d say we’ve hit the bullseye.”
Scott said Republicans needed to take stock of the institutions that Democrats run and called the militant left “the modern-day version of book burners.”
“In their new socialist America, everyone will obey and no one will be allowed to complain. if you do speak up, boom: you will be canceled,” he said. “It’s time to take our country back. and I’m here to tell you the American people are going to give a complete butt-kicking to the Democrats this November.”
Miami Herald staff writer Joey Flechas and Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau staff writer Ana Ceballos contributed to this story.
