Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott grumbled about the national debt on “Fox News Sunday” — but then repeatedly dodged questions by Chris Wallace about rescinding the Trump administration’s massive corporate tax cut to help pay it off.
Finally, he flatly answered: “I’m not raising anybody’s taxes.”
“I am not going to bankrupt this country,” Scott railed about the Biden administration’s infrastructure plan.
“This country has almost $30 trillion worth of debt and [the infrastructure] bill by itself was a quarter of a trillion dollars of debt. This has got to end,” he added, demanding that the federal government “live within our means.”
But Wallace reminded Scott of the Trump administration’s massive 40% corporate tax cut, slashing rates from 35% to 21%. It was the most significant change to the tax code in three decades. After the law was amended, twice as many companies — at least 60 — paid no tax at all.
“You talk about living within your means, you talk about debt, you talk about deficits, the Trump tax cuts — which were passed in 2017, the year before you were elected to the Senate — is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office that it will increase the budget deficit by over $2 trillion,” Wallace shot back. “So should the Trump tax cuts be repealed?”
Scott at first dodged the question, boasting about what a great job he thought he did with the Florida budget when he was governor.
But Wallace pressed again: “Sir, respectfully, when Donald Trump was president, you had this tax cut which added $2 trillion to the deficit according to the CBO and you didn’t have the commensurate spending cuts. So the question is, if you are not going to have the spending cuts, should you repeal the tax cuts if the debt and deficit are so vital?”
Scott’s final answer: “I’m not raising anybody’s taxes,” adding, “I want to lower taxes.”
Check out the full interview in the video clip up top. Wallace holds Scott’s feet to the fire about GOP’s massive corporate tax cut beginning at about 3:40.
