Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., updated his Rescue America plan to exclude Social Security, Medicare, and the U.S. Navy from his proposal to sunset all federal legislation in five years.
Scott's changes come after his sunset proposal was blasted by President Joe Biden, Democrats, and some Republicans.
"Here's the truth about my Rescue America plan: I proposed that we sunset federal programs every five years so that Congress is forced to review ridiculous spending programs, analyze whether they're working or not, and reauthorize the ones that are," Scott wrote in a Washington Examiner opinion column on Friday.
"It's common sense to every single person in the country except the politicians, bureaucrats, and lobbyists who get rich off the government gravy train that's led to $32 trillion in debt."
Scott wrote that his sunset proposal "was obviously not intended to include entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security — programs that hard-working people have paid into their entire lives — or the funds dedicated to our national security.
"I have never supported cutting Social Security or Medicare, ever. To say otherwise is a disingenuous Democrat lie from a very confused president. And Sen. Mitch McConnell is also well aware of that. It's shallow 'gotcha' politics, which is what Washington does."
Scott further said that Americans outside of Washington knew what he intended when he first released his Rescue America plan.
"Everyone outside of Washington perfectly understood what my plan was trying to accomplish, but that hasn't stopped Washington politicians from doing what they do best — lying to you every chance they get," Scott wrote.
"So, since the folks up here are clearly too confused and disingenuous to get it, I'll put it down in black and white so they can read it, or have someone read it to them."
Scott released his 31-page plan in February 2022 for Republicans to use as a blueprint should they take control of the Senate and House in the midterm elections. They won the House, but Democrats retained control of the Senate.
Biden has used Scott's plan to try to scare voters into not supporting GOP candidates. The president last summer released a video in which he said Scott wants to put Medicare "on the chopping block."
In his recent State of the Union speech, Biden said some Republicans want to end federal programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
Even former President Donald Trump, who's running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, used Truth Social on Thursday to warn Scott not to support funding cuts for Social Security or Medicare.
In his opinion column, Scott also accused the GOP establishment of helping the federal government amass a huge debt.
"One more inconvenient truth: Washington Republicans are as responsible for the massive increase in our national debt as Joe Biden and the Democrats," Scott wrote. "Too many Republicans have caved to the Democrats too many times, and the result is a $32 trillion bill that's about to come due."
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