WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Thursday criticized one among his personal Republican members, Sen. Rick Scott, over the Florida senator’s proposal to sunset all federal legislation in five years — a difficulty President Joe Biden skewered the GOP over in his State of the Union speech.
“That’s not a Republican plan. That was the Rick Scott plan,” McConnell mentioned in an interview with host Terry Meiners on a Kentucky radio station.
McConnell reiterated the purpose he made final 12 months: “There have been no plans to boost taxes on half the American folks or to sundown Medicare or Social Safety.”
The GOP Senate chief additionally mentioned that each he and Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., have mentioned that Social Safety and Medicare “are to not be touched.”
“I believe we’re in a extra authoritative place to state what the place of the social gathering is than any single senator,” McConnell continued. “It’s only a dangerous thought. I believe it is going to be a problem for him [Scott] to take care of this in his personal re-election in Florida, a state with extra aged folks than every other state in America.”
The intensifying feud between the 2 GOP senators got here after Biden challenged Republicans to oppose cuts to entitlement programs throughout his State of the Union tackle on Tuesday. He known as out GOP lawmakers, together with Scott, who’ve beforehand voiced assist for such plans in Wisconsin on Wednesday and in Florida on Thursday.
The 12-point plan he unveiled final 12 months as chairman of the Nationwide Republican Senatorial Committee says: “All federal laws sunsets each 5 years. If a legislation is price maintaining, Congress can cross it once more.”
Scott, who’s running for re-election next year, says Biden is mischaracterizing his proposal. The Florida senator is scheduled to carry a roundtable occasion with neighborhood leaders and senior residents about preserving and defending Social Safety and Medicare in Solar Metropolis Middle, Florida, on Friday morning.
