Taxpayers shouldn't have to bail out the "ridiculous budgets" of states like California, Illinois, or New York when they "don't want to live within their means," Sen. Rick Scott argued Tuesday.
"They just want to keep burning up in debt," the Florida Republican and former governor told CNBC's "Squawk Box" of demands coming from the nation's coronavirus hotspots for more funding. "They get behind in their pension plans and then they expect us to bail them out and that's not going to happen."
Scott pointed out that the money that has been allocated already through relief bills, while the United States will end the year being $25 trillion or more in debt, and he wants to make sure the existing money is well spent.
"If we need to do more to help those that have lost their jobs, help the small businesses, I want to do that," said Scott. "We have to get liability protection for first responders and our small businesses, because they're going to be concerns."
Show co-anchor Becky Quick argued that many states have faced massive shutdowns and hit hard, and pointed out that people from blue states have not called on his state to forget about financial help to recover from hurricanes.
"We've already given them access to over a trillion dollars," said Scott. "If somebody wants to come back and tell me that they need help to make sure those who don't have a job or help their small businesses I'm completely open to it...you just can't believe what they're asking for. I mean, we've given them over a trillion dollars."
"You have insurance companies who come in and help those businesses because insurance contracts are written to make sure that if a business is interrupted they get protection," Quick told him about hurricanes. "The losses here are phenomenal and I'm not saying that every bill needs to get covered but I also don't think it's fair to say that you have covered the losses directly related to COVID 19."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.