Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has spent much of the last year insisting that Republicans would not unveil a policy blueprint ahead of the 2022 elections, so as to deny Democrats a target. Sen. Rick Scott — the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee — ignored McConnell’s wishes and unveiled a 31-page plan last week.
It wasn’t long before Democrats proved the Kentucky Republican’s point accurate: The Florida senator’s plan included a proposed tax hike on tens of millions of lower-income Americans, and one day after Scott unveiled his ideas, Democrats started airing ads about his blueprint.
At a Capitol Hill press conference this week, McConnell smacked down Scott’s effort in no uncertain terms. “Let me tell you what would not be part of our agenda,” the minority leader told reporters, describing a scenario in which the GOP controls the Senate next year. “We will not have, as part of our agenda, a bill that raises taxes on half the American people and sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years. That will not be part of the Republican Senate majority agenda.”
In the process, McConnell checked several boxes at once. First, he denounced key elements of Scott’s plan. Second, he confirmed that Democrats are right about their criticisms of Scott’s plan. And third, he at least tried to put Scott in his place.
The NRSC chair apparently didn’t appreciate the rebuke. In fact, as Talking Points Memo noted, Scott penned an op-ed pushing back.
Scott opened the piece with a declaration: “I have committed heresy in Washington.” The NRSC chair went on to slam what he sees as McConnell’s ineffective 2022 strategy: refusing to campaign on an actual agenda or policies and to just focus on attacking Democrats…. He insisted that his tax plan was “common sense” because it would require “free-loaders” to “pay a small amount so we’re all in this together.”
The substance of the Florida Republican’s op-ed is a complete mess. Scott apparently sees a looming catastrophe, in which pillars of society are controlled by “the militant left,” which he believes wants to “end the American experiment and replace it with a woke socialist utopia.”
He also condemned President Joe Biden for “paying people not to work.” That, oddly enough, is a common conservative criticism of the Covid-relief package known as the Cares Act, which was signed into law by Donald Trump — and which Rick Scott voted for.
But the bulk of the op-ed was devoted to the senator presenting himself as some kind of victim. The poor Floridian “committed heresy.” He’s gone unappreciated for pushing “bold action.” Other Republicans “live in fear of speaking the truth,” but Scott wants us to know how very brave he is for ignoring the “unwritten rules in Washington.”
The senator concluded, “There will be many more attacks on me and this plan from careerists in Washington, who personally profit while ruining this country. Bring it on.”
By all appearances, Scott wasn’t referring to Democrats; he was referring to his own party’s leadership, which is irritated by his willingness to endorse tax hikes on millions of lower-income Americans.
Indeed, the op-ed doubles down on the underlying point of concern. “I went out and made a statement that got me in trouble,” Scott wrote. “I said that all Americans need to have some skin in the game. Even if it is just a few bucks, everyone needs to know what it is like to pay some taxes. It hit a nerve.” Well, yes, that’s kind of inevitable when a leader of a party preoccupied with tax cuts for the wealthy suddenly calls for roughly half the country to start paying higher taxes. As we discussed the other day, conflicts between congressional leaders of the same party are uncommon, though they happen from time to time. When John Boehner and Eric Cantor were the top two House Republicans, for example, it wasn’t a secret that the two were often at odds. But the GOP leaders’ disagreements were largely kept out of view, and the party prioritized maintaining a united front in public. Mitch McConnell and Rick Scott, on the other hand, are feuding through the media. Is it any wonder the Democratic National Committee seems to love the Floridian’s op-ed and is encouraging people to read it?
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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