'Just a bad idea': McConnell pins plan to 'sunset' Social Security, Medicare solely on Rick Scott
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is not pleased with Sen. Rick Scott's (R-Fla.) proposalto re-evaluate popular Social Security and Medicare programs every five years.
According to The Washington Post, McConnell recently expressed his disapproval and concerns about what such action could mean for Social Security and Medicare over time.
On Thursday, February 9, the top-ranking Republican lawmaker appeared on a Kentucky radio station where he also said he believes Scott's plan could impact his chances of re-election next year.
“That’s not a Republican plan. That was the Rick Scott plan,” McConnell told radio host Terry Meiners.
The Kentucky lawmaker went on to further explain his stance as he criticized the plan which he believes would potentially "sunset" the programs.
“The Republican plan, as I pointed out last fall, if we were to [become] the majority, there were no plans to raise taxes on half the American people or to sunset Medicare or Social Security,” McConnell said. “So it’s clearly the Rick Scott plan. It is not the Republican plan. And that’s the view of the speaker of the House as well.”
Per the news outlet, McConnell's remarks alluded "to another provision in Scott’s broader 12-point plan that would require all Americans to 'pay some income tax to have skin in the game.'”
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Putting his opinion in more blunt terms, McConnell said, “I mean, it’s just a bad idea. I think it will be a challenge for [Scott] to deal with this in his own reelection in Florida, a state with more elderly people than any state in America.”
McConnell's remarks come just days after Scott's recent CNN appearance where he offered insight on the proposal.
“He completely opposed me putting out a plan,” Scott said on Feb. 2. “I believe that everybody up here — this is not a Republican-Democrat issue — we all ought to be putting out our ideas and fight over ideas up here.”
He added, “He didn’t like that I opposed him because I believe we have to have ideas — fight over ideas. And so, he took Mike Lee and I off the committee."
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