Democrats who refuse to vote for a continuing resolution to reopen the government are more concerned about politics than about Americans missing paychecks, Sen. Rick Scott told Newsmax on Thursday.
“President [Donald] Trump is frustrated and so am I,” the Florida Republican said on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.” “He’s frustrated that the Democrats have just blocked everything.”
He said lawmakers should not be getting paid while federal workers and military families go without checks.
“Why don’t the Democrats care about making sure the military gets paid or FAA workers get paid?” Scott asked. “They get paid. You know, senators get paid. I have a bill that the Democrats have blocked, no budget, no pay.”
Scott said senators should live under the same conditions as the people affected by the shutdown.
“They said, ‘Oh, we have mortgages,'” he said. “You know what? So do people that need food stamps, so do people that are military, so do people that are keeping our planes safe in the sky.”
He said the solution is simple — reopen the government and then work on policy disputes. “Let’s open up government and have a conversation about how we fix this country,” Scott said.
Scott also said Republicans might have to consider changing Senate rules if Democrats keep blocking legislation and nominees.
“We have to have all options on the table,” he said. “It seems like at some point, we’re not going to have a choice.”
Turning to Florida’s population growth, Scott said people are leaving high-tax states like New York and New Jersey for better opportunities.
“When I got elected governor in 2010, New York had more citizens than Florida,” he said. “Now we have four or five million more people.”
He said many are moving for economic freedom and safety.
“People that want opportunity, people that want to have freedom, they’re coming here because socialism and communism don’t work,” Scott said, referring to Tuesday’s election of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City.
He warned that Jewish students are increasingly unsafe in northern cities.
“Jewish students are not going to be safe in New York City,” he said. “There will be more Jewish students who want to come to our great schools in Florida.”
Scott also criticized Verizon on Thursday for releasing Republican lawmakers’ phone data during the Arctic Frost investigation.
“Every American should be frustrated,” he said. “This is the third time it’s happened to me.”
He called the data release a violation of the law and part of a pattern of political targeting.
“During the Biden administration, they stole my tax records and gave them to ProPublica,” Scott said. “If they can go after people like that, they can go after you, and they will.”
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