February 25, 2025 • 20 mins
In this conversation, Senator Rick Scott discusses the recent accountability measures in the Trump administration, the challenges of balancing the federal budget, and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. He emphasizes the need for transparency and accountability in government, critiques Mitch McConnell's leadership, and shares his optimism about the upcoming midterm elections and legislative strategies, including the reconciliation bill. The Truth with Lisa Boothe is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Accountability that it's probably the.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Best word to describe these past few weeks of the
Trump administration. Federal workers have to show up at work,
Federal budgets are being audited. Finally, some accountability on behalf
of the American taxpayers. And recently, Elon Musk sent an
email out to federal workers from the Office of Personal
Management with the subject line saying.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
This what did you do last week?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
It instructed recipients to reply with five examples of what
they got done. So we'll ask our next guest, what
did you do last week? His name is Senator Rick Scott.
He lives in Florida. He represents Florida. Of course you
know him, but he's also my senator, so I'm looking
forward to having him on the show. We're also going
to cover a bunch of different issues. I'll get into
(00:52):
He had some choice words for the news about Senator
Mitch McConnell's retirement. I'll ask him about him about Mitch McConnell.
We'll also get into you as President Trump is trying
to end the war there, what does that look like?
A former governor of Florida, Rick Scott? How to balance
the budget? Is it possible to balance the federal budget.
How do you go about it? What do you do? Lastly,
(01:13):
we'll ask him, as the former chairman of the NSC,
what does the Senate map look like for Republicans in
the midterms. So we've got a lot to cover with
a guy who has done a lot. Also, Di mensied
he's a former businessman, very successful at that. So we've
got a lot to cover with a guy who's done
a lot in his career. I'm honored to have this
conversation with my Senator Rick Scott. Well, Senator Rick Scott,
(01:38):
it is an honor to have you on the show.
We were just talking before we got started, and you're
my senator, so I really appreciate you making the time
and looking forward to There's a lot happening, so looking
forward to digging into it all with you.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
So I appreciate your time, sir.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, I'm glad you're in Florida.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
By the way, I do have my five checklist things
I did this week. I just want to make sure
everybody knows I'm doing my job. Put out a newsletter
every week. I'm a business guy, so I expect everybody
to have their five things a week. So twelve thousand
phone calls to my offices that we responded to pass
a reconciliation bill, voted for Cash Bettel, Howard Lutnik, and
(02:14):
I filed a merit based hiring bill, so you start
hiring people based on merit. So that's just my first five.
So if you want more, I can give you some more.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, you know, of course this has become you know,
I mean, but this is how government should work, right, Like,
it's what a novel concept to have a government that's
accountable to the people, that's.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Actually doing our work. But like, for far too long,
you know, all these.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Bureaucrats have just skated by, and now they've been hit
with the reality of Okay, you actually have to show
up and do your job. You you know, there's audits,
you have to be accountable for the money spend.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
And they're not used to it.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So I guess what would you make of sort of
this collective freak out to this newfound accountability.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
You know, I hope, I hope.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
It's just there's just a few people and it's not real.
Sky build all these different businesses in healthcare and manufacturing
in my life and then I became governor of Florida
back in January twenty eleventh. What Elon Musk is doing
I did. I mean, everybody had a written plan. Every
line on the budget had had a written purpose. If
(03:17):
you didn't meet your purpose, I vetoed the money the
next year. If you didn't do your job, you decided
to leave. I mean, you're there.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
So if you think.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
About how business works, you give people their job description,
and if they decide not to do the job description,
they fired themselves.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
That's the same thought.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Process that I created when I was governor Florida, and
the same process that should be done as part of
your federal government. If you don't want to do the
job that you're being paid to do, then leave you
shouldn't be paid.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
It's pretty simple.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, and you were a great governor, and of course
you in. Florida is a challenging state in the sense
of just you know, there's a lot of people, and
then we also tend to have a lot of natural disasters,
so the response to that is obviously very important.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Kind of mentioned. You know, to be a governor of Florida,
we require.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
A balanced budget each year, you know, and when you
look at the totality of the federal government and our
federal budget.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Is it possible to balance? You know, how do you
even go about it?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
You know, what should this administration do to try to
start to tackle that job.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
It's easy to balance a budget, Lisa, You do it.
You do it every day. You say, uh, this is
what I'm going to make. I'm not going to spend
more than that. So these states say they balance their budget,
you know how they bounce their budget.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
They do exactly the same thing the federal government does.
They borrow money.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
So Florida had not balanced its budget in twenty years,
had to increase the state debt every year by over
billion dollars for twenty straight years. It only balance its
budget once in forty years, and we are going into
fault in our debt. So what did I do? I
did something really controversial. I said, how much are we
going to take it in revenues? We're not spending more
than that. Gosh, that's hard. It seemed like what you
probably do, and that's what every business has to do
(04:54):
other be out of business. So yeah, so our federal
government has got to do the same thing.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
We right now.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Anticipate we're going to collect about five point five train
dollars the revenue, right, so guess what we should spend
with them?
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Five point five.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Our job in Congress should be we we're the ones
that pass the budget. We should allocate the dollars. So
in the last five years, the population of the United
States has gone up two percent, how much do you
think spending is done? Fifty three fifty three percent?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Right?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
You think there's a little bit of waste there, probably,
So how do we get by with less spending?
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Right?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
So that all we have to do is we have
to say to ourselves, you know what we're going to
collect five point five.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Our job in Congress is to say, how do we
allocate that?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Well, we're going to make sure Medicare is covered, We're
going to make sure the SOBD security is covered, We're
going to make sure we can defend ourselves. Right, so
those things, and then we have the debt, so we're
gonna have to pay that interest. But after that, whatever
is left, we're going to allocate it based on the
most important things. That's what you do with your personal life,
when you say what's important now win? What's important now?
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Win?
Speaker 4 (05:56):
And so you say what's important and for the budget,
this hopefully we can solve that problem, so we don't have.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
To spend that money next year.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
But the way the government works is if you don't
spend more money than you don't care about.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
It and you look at you know, part of that
spending is, you know, we've given I think it's something
like close to two hundred billion dollars to Ukraine tomorrow
so far. The President right now is in talks to
try to end the war in Ukraine, also in talks
of wanting to sign a deal with Ukraine over earth
minerals and other natural resources. Will there be a conclusion
to this war in the near future? You know, what
(06:28):
do you think that looks like? And then sort of
what do you make of this desire to strike a
deal over these earth minerals and other natural resources?
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Well, I think all of us would like to have peace,
and all of us, I think, would love to have
Russia lose in Ukraine win, have Ukraine remain as democracy
in the position that they don't have to worry about
Russia Invadan. Again, that's what our goal is and I
think we've got to We've got it. Can't be a
free ride. If you want the United States to come
support you, then you need to one do your part.
(07:00):
And you know, if if you know, if you have
something that's important to us, then you ought to share
with us. So if they have, if they have you know,
important minerals, then they clearly ought to support it with
us because we've spent you know, two hundred billion dollars
to try to, you know, prevent them from being taken
over by Russia. So I think that if there's one
(07:21):
guy that can probably figure this out, it's Donald Trump
because he he will force everybody into a real conversation
about what should happen. But Russia should lose, U Crane
should win, We should get a return on our two
hundred billion dollar investment.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I wonder do the big do the business guys in
politics have like sort of like a mutual respect towards
one another, because you know, I think if you look
at President Trump and the way that he governs it,
it's very clear that he came from outside of DC,
that he came from outside of politics, that he was
a business guy, like even wanting to strike this deal
on earth minerals and other natural resources like, but Bien
(07:56):
administration would have never even thought of that in a
million years, or even little looking at Greenland or even
looking at the Panama Canal.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
You know, those are foreign policy.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Issues that he's looking at of you know, wanting to
thwart Russia and wanting to thwart China's influence in those
regions and areas and so like.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
It's just a totally different way of thinking.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
So I imagine, yeah, it's a logical way of thinking. Every
everything we do are to be how do we make
life better for American citizens? How do we make the
world a safer place? Okay, any money we're going to spend,
we get a return on investment. When you build a company,
nobody wants to investor in your company and say, you know,
(08:36):
I'm going to have a whole bunch of non essential
workers or all I'm going to not require my workers
to come to work, or I don't care if my
product or service is very good, nobody will invest in
that business. So if I'm going to take your tax dollars,
which we do. We confiscate American taxpayers money. We confiscate it,
we take it. It's forced to give it to us,
(08:56):
then we ought to make sure we one give you
a return.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
And we tell you what I like.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
About Donald Trump's nominees is a if you listen every
one of them, they're talking about two things. There's going
to be transparency and there's going to be accountability.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
I've been up here six years.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
There's been no transparency and there's been no accountability. And
so I think with Donald Trump that is clearly changing.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
You know.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
But you mentioned that it's logic, and it is, you know,
it's common sense.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
But for whatever reason, that seems.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
To be like devoid like probably it doesn't seem to
be a part of the political equation very often on
Capitol hills. So I guess you know why is logic
often left out of the conversation or out of policy making.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Well, there's a first off, it's our fault is as voters,
we elect people that make us feel good rather than
do good.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Right.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
We oh, I'm gonna I'm gonna make you feel really
good about voting for me. But I'm really I don't
have any background. I've never done anything before, and so
this is like an on the job training. And uh
so I think it's it's our fault as voters. We
don't we don't require people now we require think about it.
You require it when you go out to a restaurant,
(10:07):
you say, I'm not going back to that restaurant if
they have if they don't have a great, great food
and great service right at the price that's fair. You
require it when you buy a car. You're required for everything,
everything but your government.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Right.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
So what's happening under Donald Trump is now people are
fed up. This election was about requiring your government to
be held accountable.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
It makes sense, and I think, you know, I hope
people are.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Waking up to that.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I mean, I think this election, you know, we we
would hope that that that, you know, as part of
why President Trump won of people just wanting to kind
of return to logic, return to common sense, because you know,
we obviously became so lost over the past four years.
You got some choice words to say about.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Mitch McConnell and his retirement news.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
You know, what does that mean for the Senate him
stepping down, and you know, what do you make of
some of these votes that he has taken with some
of the President Trump's nominees.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Well, as you know, I ran against him two years
ago to be the leader, and then I ran again
to be the leader in November, and I ran on
a platform of accountability, and transparency, the fact that we're
going to start representing Republicans, we're going to start acting
like Republicans sou and clearly the Senate changed as a result.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Of the election.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
We now have we now have accountability, we have transparency,
We are trying to work as a team.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
If you look at the people that.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Trump is finding, they're they're they're outside that the box.
Because we've got to have people that think differently. We
can't have the exact same process that we've had. So
but you know, I'm I'm glad that I ran against McConnell.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
I'm glad that the Senator has changed.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
We have got to represent we have a great Republican
party across the country. We've got to have a Republican
party in Washington, d C.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Too.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Do you think he's allowed his personal animosity for Trump
to sort of trump good judgment here?
Speaker 4 (12:02):
I don't think, as far as I can tell, I
don't know why he's doing it. No one, no one knows,
no one knows why. But I mean, he clearly is
anti Trump, and he clearly is against the Trump agenda.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
So I don't know why he's doing what he's doing.
It doesn't make any sense to me.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
But we unfortunately, we have fifty three Republicans and we've
been able to get all of Trump's cabinet members.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Through so far.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
We so we just have we you know, we just
have to keep working out. We got a lot of
work to do. We've got more nominations to get done.
We've got we've got to get a reconciliation done, which
will extend the Trump tax cuts, get more and more
money for the border, the military, balance, a budget we've
got to deal with March fourteenth, which if we don't
pass something, then government will get shut down.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
What's interesting is the Democrats always want to blame us.
They say they want to shut down government.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
I mean there's I mean, like Andy Kim has gone
out there and said, I want to shut down government.
So I mean, I I mean, so I don't I
don't know why anbody wouldn't want shut down government.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
I want to make it accountable.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
We've got more, Senator Rick Scott.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
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(14:12):
do you think the reconciliation bill is looking so far?
Because I know there's been some disagreement about approach. You know,
do you do one big reconciliation bill with the tax.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Issues you know, energy and border or do you kind
of break it up? So I guess what's your thought process.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
On that, and how do you think things are shaping
up about what that might ultimately look like.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
The positivists we're having both in the sidate and the House.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
We're passing legislation to move up process down the negative.
It hasn't gotten done yet, right, I'm optimistic. I think
we're going to get money for the border. I think
we'll get money for the military. I think we'll what
we do spending the So I'm optimistic now. I think
we'll extend the Trump tax cuts. You know, if you
(14:55):
if you look right now, I would. I would anticipate
we'll have more than one bill.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
But we'll see if.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Right now the House is committed to one bill. The
Senate we're committing into more than one bill. But I'm
okay with it. Ever, however we do it. As long
as we get it done, that's the only thing that
matters to me.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
How do you think Senator Thun's doing so far as
majority leader? Obviously this is his first rodeo with the job.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Well, he's doing the things I ran on. We're having
Amendment votes. We are.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
We're having more, way, more conversation. When I came up here,
I tell I tell all the new Sentats. When I
came up here, if you ask Mitch McConell question at lunch,
then you got attack to the Wall Street jeneral the
next day.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
So that's not happening now. The we're trying to work
as a unit.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
We you know, we're clearly getting We're staying here to
get the nominations done. So I think you have to
you have to say, right now we're heading the right direction.
And you know, I think I'm optimistic that that's going
to continue. So but look, I'm gonna I'm gonna work
hard to get the nominations done. I'm going to get
work hard to balance a budget, and work hard to
make sure we get the Trump tax cuts extended, Uh,
(15:58):
simplify the tax code, make sure we secure the border,
make sure we have a strong military. So and you know,
all my Republican colleagues that I an'm talking to are
in the same position.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
It's just hard to do. It's just it's hard to do.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
We have fifty three Republicans, we need sixty to pass it.
Most legislation in the Senate. The House doesn't have a
big majority, so you know, it's a lot of work,
but I'm optimistic.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
You know, you previously served as the chairman of the TERSC. Obviously,
we've got midterms coming up here. How do you think
the Senate map is looking for us? And you know,
kind of how are you feeling about the midterms coming up?
Speaker 3 (16:34):
I'm optimistic.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
I think I'm optimistic that Trump's agenda will be a
very positive agenda. I'm optimistic that will pass meaningful Republican
generated legislation. I think we can we have a good
chance to pick up a few places.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Georgia.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
I think we can beat us off in Georgia. I
think we have an open seat now. Gary Peters is
not running in Michigan. I think that's that gives us
an opportunity there. Maybe we have an opportunity in Minnesota.
I think I think Trump showed us that people agree
with us if we have good candidates running.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
You look at his significant win.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
So there's a lot of places that we should be
competitive and have a chance to win. Got to have
a good candidate, got to run a good race, and
you know, we got to make sure that what Republics
have been doing for the two years before the next
election cycle. Are things that people feel comfortable that we've
been busting our about to help them?
Speaker 2 (17:30):
You know, you look at sort of the breakneck pace
that this administration is moving in. You know, I've been
on Fox before during you know, one of the press conferences,
and you know, he's been out. He gets asked a
hundred different questions, a hundred different topics, and then they
go to you and they're like, oh, we're going to
be covering what was just said, and I'm like, well, stopping,
you know what I mean, Like, there's literally like one
hundred different things being discussed here. How has that impacted
(17:54):
the Senate? And you know, kind of aligning those two
things with sort of just the movement from the trumpet
instruation and then also trying to you know, mirror that
in the Senate.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
It's been exciting the I'll tell you something. So in
the Senate, I'm in the heart building. So let's say
I go over to you know, go to the Capitol
four or five times a day to vote. The media
is down the basement of the Capitol, so they'll ask
me about something. And it just happened three minutes before,
and that happens all the time now Trump because he's
getting stuff done. So uh So with Biden, they could
(18:26):
ask me something because it only happened.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Like every two years.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
So that's that's uh that's changed. But Trump's getting stuff done.
People are optimistic. I was back and Florida this weekend
and I just tell you people, I went to the
grocery store.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
People everybody to stop me. They say, boy, isn't it exciting?
What's going on?
Speaker 4 (18:42):
Everybody's got in, you know, is exciting. The businesses are excited.
So I think people feel like we you know, we're
we're heading the right direction. Now.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
We've got a lot of work to do.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
We got it's hard to balance the budget, but we're
you know, I'm gonna bust my about to do it.
And Trump has talked about balancing the budget, so uh
so I'm excited about what it is, knowing that it's
still hard to get it done.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
You know, here in Borda, Florida, we we will have
a good notatorial race coming up.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Are you weighing in on that right now?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Do you have a candidate in the race or do
you see yourself getting involved with an endorsement.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
So so the i've generally I've gotten involved in primaries
Byron Donalds is my congressman. I think he's been a
great person to work with. I know Trump endorsed him
on Thursday or Friday.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
So yeah, we're going to.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Have a competitive governor's race, turned gentlemen's race, cfo's race,
acommissioner race.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
It looks like and we and actually moved will be up.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
They got appointed by DeSantis, so it's it's going to
be it's going to be exciting twenty twenty six in Florida,
but it always is in Florida.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Well, Senator Rick Scott, I appreciate the work you're doing
on behalf of Floridians, and I appreciate your time today.
All right, have a great day. That was Senator Rick
Scott of Florida. Really appreciate his time. Appreciate you guys
at home for listening every Tuesday and Thursday, but of
course you can listen throughout the week. I also want
to thank John Cassio and my producer for putting the
show together.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Until next time,
Accountability that it's probably the.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Best word to describe these past few weeks of the
Trump administration. Federal workers have to show up at work,
Federal budgets are being audited. Finally, some accountability on behalf
of the American taxpayers. And recently, Elon Musk sent an
email out to federal workers from the Office of Personal
Management with the subject line saying.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
This what did you do last week?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
It instructed recipients to reply with five examples of what
they got done. So we'll ask our next guest, what
did you do last week? His name is Senator Rick Scott.
He lives in Florida. He represents Florida. Of course you
know him, but he's also my senator, so I'm looking
forward to having him on the show. We're also going
to cover a bunch of different issues. I'll get into
(00:52):
He had some choice words for the news about Senator
Mitch McConnell's retirement. I'll ask him about him about Mitch McConnell.
We'll also get into you as President Trump is trying
to end the war there, what does that look like?
A former governor of Florida, Rick Scott? How to balance
the budget? Is it possible to balance the federal budget.
How do you go about it? What do you do? Lastly,
(01:13):
we'll ask him, as the former chairman of the NSC,
what does the Senate map look like for Republicans in
the midterms. So we've got a lot to cover with
a guy who has done a lot. Also, Di mensied
he's a former businessman, very successful at that. So we've
got a lot to cover with a guy who's done
a lot in his career. I'm honored to have this
conversation with my Senator Rick Scott. Well, Senator Rick Scott,
(01:38):
it is an honor to have you on the show.
We were just talking before we got started, and you're
my senator, so I really appreciate you making the time
and looking forward to There's a lot happening, so looking
forward to digging into it all with you.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
So I appreciate your time, sir.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, I'm glad you're in Florida.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
By the way, I do have my five checklist things
I did this week. I just want to make sure
everybody knows I'm doing my job. Put out a newsletter
every week. I'm a business guy, so I expect everybody
to have their five things a week. So twelve thousand
phone calls to my offices that we responded to pass
a reconciliation bill, voted for Cash Bettel, Howard Lutnik, and
(02:14):
I filed a merit based hiring bill, so you start
hiring people based on merit. So that's just my first five.
So if you want more, I can give you some more.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, you know, of course this has become you know,
I mean, but this is how government should work, right, Like,
it's what a novel concept to have a government that's
accountable to the people, that's.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Actually doing our work. But like, for far too long,
you know, all these.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Bureaucrats have just skated by, and now they've been hit
with the reality of Okay, you actually have to show
up and do your job. You you know, there's audits,
you have to be accountable for the money spend.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
And they're not used to it.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So I guess what would you make of sort of
this collective freak out to this newfound accountability.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
You know, I hope, I hope.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
It's just there's just a few people and it's not real.
Sky build all these different businesses in healthcare and manufacturing
in my life and then I became governor of Florida
back in January twenty eleventh. What Elon Musk is doing
I did. I mean, everybody had a written plan. Every
line on the budget had had a written purpose. If
(03:17):
you didn't meet your purpose, I vetoed the money the
next year. If you didn't do your job, you decided
to leave. I mean, you're there.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
So if you think.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
About how business works, you give people their job description,
and if they decide not to do the job description,
they fired themselves.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
That's the same thought.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Process that I created when I was governor Florida, and
the same process that should be done as part of
your federal government. If you don't want to do the
job that you're being paid to do, then leave you
shouldn't be paid.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
It's pretty simple.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, and you were a great governor, and of course
you in. Florida is a challenging state in the sense
of just you know, there's a lot of people, and
then we also tend to have a lot of natural disasters,
so the response to that is obviously very important.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Kind of mentioned. You know, to be a governor of Florida,
we require.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
A balanced budget each year, you know, and when you
look at the totality of the federal government and our
federal budget.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Is it possible to balance? You know, how do you
even go about it?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
You know, what should this administration do to try to
start to tackle that job.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
It's easy to balance a budget, Lisa, You do it.
You do it every day. You say, uh, this is
what I'm going to make. I'm not going to spend
more than that. So these states say they balance their budget,
you know how they bounce their budget.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
They do exactly the same thing the federal government does.
They borrow money.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
So Florida had not balanced its budget in twenty years,
had to increase the state debt every year by over
billion dollars for twenty straight years. It only balance its
budget once in forty years, and we are going into
fault in our debt. So what did I do? I
did something really controversial. I said, how much are we
going to take it in revenues? We're not spending more
than that. Gosh, that's hard. It seemed like what you
probably do, and that's what every business has to do
(04:54):
other be out of business. So yeah, so our federal
government has got to do the same thing.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
We right now.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Anticipate we're going to collect about five point five train
dollars the revenue, right, so guess what we should spend
with them?
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Five point five.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Our job in Congress should be we we're the ones
that pass the budget. We should allocate the dollars. So
in the last five years, the population of the United
States has gone up two percent, how much do you
think spending is done? Fifty three fifty three percent?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Right?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
You think there's a little bit of waste there, probably,
So how do we get by with less spending?
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Right?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
So that all we have to do is we have
to say to ourselves, you know what we're going to
collect five point five.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Our job in Congress is to say, how do we
allocate that?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Well, we're going to make sure Medicare is covered, We're
going to make sure the SOBD security is covered, We're
going to make sure we can defend ourselves. Right, so
those things, and then we have the debt, so we're
gonna have to pay that interest. But after that, whatever
is left, we're going to allocate it based on the
most important things. That's what you do with your personal life,
when you say what's important now win? What's important now?
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Win?
Speaker 4 (05:56):
And so you say what's important and for the budget,
this hopefully we can solve that problem, so we don't have.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
To spend that money next year.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
But the way the government works is if you don't
spend more money than you don't care about.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
It and you look at you know, part of that
spending is, you know, we've given I think it's something
like close to two hundred billion dollars to Ukraine tomorrow
so far. The President right now is in talks to
try to end the war in Ukraine, also in talks
of wanting to sign a deal with Ukraine over earth
minerals and other natural resources. Will there be a conclusion
to this war in the near future? You know, what
(06:28):
do you think that looks like? And then sort of
what do you make of this desire to strike a
deal over these earth minerals and other natural resources?
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Well, I think all of us would like to have peace,
and all of us, I think, would love to have
Russia lose in Ukraine win, have Ukraine remain as democracy
in the position that they don't have to worry about
Russia Invadan. Again, that's what our goal is and I
think we've got to We've got it. Can't be a
free ride. If you want the United States to come
support you, then you need to one do your part.
(07:00):
And you know, if if you know, if you have
something that's important to us, then you ought to share
with us. So if they have, if they have you know,
important minerals, then they clearly ought to support it with
us because we've spent you know, two hundred billion dollars
to try to, you know, prevent them from being taken
over by Russia. So I think that if there's one
(07:21):
guy that can probably figure this out, it's Donald Trump
because he he will force everybody into a real conversation
about what should happen. But Russia should lose, U Crane
should win, We should get a return on our two
hundred billion dollar investment.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I wonder do the big do the business guys in
politics have like sort of like a mutual respect towards
one another, because you know, I think if you look
at President Trump and the way that he governs it,
it's very clear that he came from outside of DC,
that he came from outside of politics, that he was
a business guy, like even wanting to strike this deal
on earth minerals and other natural resources like, but Bien
(07:56):
administration would have never even thought of that in a
million years, or even little looking at Greenland or even
looking at the Panama Canal.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
You know, those are foreign policy.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Issues that he's looking at of you know, wanting to
thwart Russia and wanting to thwart China's influence in those
regions and areas and so like.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
It's just a totally different way of thinking.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
So I imagine, yeah, it's a logical way of thinking. Every
everything we do are to be how do we make
life better for American citizens? How do we make the
world a safer place? Okay, any money we're going to spend,
we get a return on investment. When you build a company,
nobody wants to investor in your company and say, you know,
(08:36):
I'm going to have a whole bunch of non essential
workers or all I'm going to not require my workers
to come to work, or I don't care if my
product or service is very good, nobody will invest in
that business. So if I'm going to take your tax dollars,
which we do. We confiscate American taxpayers money. We confiscate it,
we take it. It's forced to give it to us,
(08:56):
then we ought to make sure we one give you
a return.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
And we tell you what I like.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
About Donald Trump's nominees is a if you listen every
one of them, they're talking about two things. There's going
to be transparency and there's going to be accountability.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
I've been up here six years.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
There's been no transparency and there's been no accountability. And
so I think with Donald Trump that is clearly changing.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
You know.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
But you mentioned that it's logic, and it is, you know,
it's common sense.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
But for whatever reason, that seems.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
To be like devoid like probably it doesn't seem to
be a part of the political equation very often on
Capitol hills. So I guess you know why is logic
often left out of the conversation or out of policy making.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Well, there's a first off, it's our fault is as voters,
we elect people that make us feel good rather than
do good.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Right.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
We oh, I'm gonna I'm gonna make you feel really
good about voting for me. But I'm really I don't
have any background. I've never done anything before, and so
this is like an on the job training. And uh
so I think it's it's our fault as voters. We
don't we don't require people now we require think about it.
You require it when you go out to a restaurant,
(10:07):
you say, I'm not going back to that restaurant if
they have if they don't have a great, great food
and great service right at the price that's fair. You
require it when you buy a car. You're required for everything,
everything but your government.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Right.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
So what's happening under Donald Trump is now people are
fed up. This election was about requiring your government to
be held accountable.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
It makes sense, and I think, you know, I hope
people are.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Waking up to that.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I mean, I think this election, you know, we we
would hope that that that, you know, as part of
why President Trump won of people just wanting to kind
of return to logic, return to common sense, because you know,
we obviously became so lost over the past four years.
You got some choice words to say about.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Mitch McConnell and his retirement news.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
You know, what does that mean for the Senate him
stepping down, and you know, what do you make of
some of these votes that he has taken with some
of the President Trump's nominees.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Well, as you know, I ran against him two years
ago to be the leader, and then I ran again
to be the leader in November, and I ran on
a platform of accountability, and transparency, the fact that we're
going to start representing Republicans, we're going to start acting
like Republicans sou and clearly the Senate changed as a result.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Of the election.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
We now have we now have accountability, we have transparency,
We are trying to work as a team.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
If you look at the people that.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Trump is finding, they're they're they're outside that the box.
Because we've got to have people that think differently. We
can't have the exact same process that we've had. So
but you know, I'm I'm glad that I ran against McConnell.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
I'm glad that the Senator has changed.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
We have got to represent we have a great Republican
party across the country. We've got to have a Republican
party in Washington, d C.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Too.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Do you think he's allowed his personal animosity for Trump
to sort of trump good judgment here?
Speaker 4 (12:02):
I don't think, as far as I can tell, I
don't know why he's doing it. No one, no one knows,
no one knows why. But I mean, he clearly is
anti Trump, and he clearly is against the Trump agenda.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
So I don't know why he's doing what he's doing.
It doesn't make any sense to me.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
But we unfortunately, we have fifty three Republicans and we've
been able to get all of Trump's cabinet members.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Through so far.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
We so we just have we you know, we just
have to keep working out. We got a lot of
work to do. We've got more nominations to get done.
We've got we've got to get a reconciliation done, which
will extend the Trump tax cuts, get more and more
money for the border, the military, balance, a budget we've
got to deal with March fourteenth, which if we don't
pass something, then government will get shut down.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
What's interesting is the Democrats always want to blame us.
They say they want to shut down government.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
I mean there's I mean, like Andy Kim has gone
out there and said, I want to shut down government.
So I mean, I I mean, so I don't I
don't know why anbody wouldn't want shut down government.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
I want to make it accountable.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
We've got more, Senator Rick Scott.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
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(14:12):
do you think the reconciliation bill is looking so far?
Because I know there's been some disagreement about approach. You know,
do you do one big reconciliation bill with the tax.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Issues you know, energy and border or do you kind
of break it up? So I guess what's your thought process.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
On that, and how do you think things are shaping
up about what that might ultimately look like.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
The positivists we're having both in the sidate and the House.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
We're passing legislation to move up process down the negative.
It hasn't gotten done yet, right, I'm optimistic. I think
we're going to get money for the border. I think
we'll get money for the military. I think we'll what
we do spending the So I'm optimistic now. I think
we'll extend the Trump tax cuts. You know, if you
(14:55):
if you look right now, I would. I would anticipate
we'll have more than one bill.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
But we'll see if.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Right now the House is committed to one bill. The
Senate we're committing into more than one bill. But I'm
okay with it. Ever, however we do it. As long
as we get it done, that's the only thing that
matters to me.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
How do you think Senator Thun's doing so far as
majority leader? Obviously this is his first rodeo with the job.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Well, he's doing the things I ran on. We're having
Amendment votes. We are.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
We're having more, way, more conversation. When I came up here,
I tell I tell all the new Sentats. When I
came up here, if you ask Mitch McConell question at lunch,
then you got attack to the Wall Street jeneral the
next day.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
So that's not happening now. The we're trying to work
as a unit.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
We you know, we're clearly getting We're staying here to
get the nominations done. So I think you have to
you have to say, right now we're heading the right direction.
And you know, I think I'm optimistic that that's going
to continue. So but look, I'm gonna I'm gonna work
hard to get the nominations done. I'm going to get
work hard to balance a budget, and work hard to
make sure we get the Trump tax cuts extended, Uh,
(15:58):
simplify the tax code, make sure we secure the border,
make sure we have a strong military. So and you know,
all my Republican colleagues that I an'm talking to are
in the same position.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
It's just hard to do. It's just it's hard to do.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
We have fifty three Republicans, we need sixty to pass it.
Most legislation in the Senate. The House doesn't have a
big majority, so you know, it's a lot of work,
but I'm optimistic.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
You know, you previously served as the chairman of the TERSC. Obviously,
we've got midterms coming up here. How do you think
the Senate map is looking for us? And you know,
kind of how are you feeling about the midterms coming up?
Speaker 3 (16:34):
I'm optimistic.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
I think I'm optimistic that Trump's agenda will be a
very positive agenda. I'm optimistic that will pass meaningful Republican
generated legislation. I think we can we have a good
chance to pick up a few places.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Georgia.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
I think we can beat us off in Georgia. I
think we have an open seat now. Gary Peters is
not running in Michigan. I think that's that gives us
an opportunity there. Maybe we have an opportunity in Minnesota.
I think I think Trump showed us that people agree
with us if we have good candidates running.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
You look at his significant win.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
So there's a lot of places that we should be
competitive and have a chance to win. Got to have
a good candidate, got to run a good race, and
you know, we got to make sure that what Republics
have been doing for the two years before the next
election cycle. Are things that people feel comfortable that we've
been busting our about to help them?
Speaker 2 (17:30):
You know, you look at sort of the breakneck pace
that this administration is moving in. You know, I've been
on Fox before during you know, one of the press conferences,
and you know, he's been out. He gets asked a
hundred different questions, a hundred different topics, and then they
go to you and they're like, oh, we're going to
be covering what was just said, and I'm like, well, stopping,
you know what I mean, Like, there's literally like one
hundred different things being discussed here. How has that impacted
(17:54):
the Senate? And you know, kind of aligning those two
things with sort of just the movement from the trumpet
instruation and then also trying to you know, mirror that
in the Senate.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
It's been exciting the I'll tell you something. So in
the Senate, I'm in the heart building. So let's say
I go over to you know, go to the Capitol
four or five times a day to vote. The media
is down the basement of the Capitol, so they'll ask
me about something. And it just happened three minutes before,
and that happens all the time now Trump because he's
getting stuff done. So uh So with Biden, they could
(18:26):
ask me something because it only happened.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Like every two years.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
So that's that's uh that's changed. But Trump's getting stuff done.
People are optimistic. I was back and Florida this weekend
and I just tell you people, I went to the
grocery store.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
People everybody to stop me. They say, boy, isn't it exciting?
What's going on?
Speaker 4 (18:42):
Everybody's got in, you know, is exciting. The businesses are excited.
So I think people feel like we you know, we're
we're heading the right direction. Now.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
We've got a lot of work to do.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
We got it's hard to balance the budget, but we're
you know, I'm gonna bust my about to do it.
And Trump has talked about balancing the budget, so uh
so I'm excited about what it is, knowing that it's
still hard to get it done.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
You know, here in Borda, Florida, we we will have
a good notatorial race coming up.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Are you weighing in on that right now?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Do you have a candidate in the race or do
you see yourself getting involved with an endorsement.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
So so the i've generally I've gotten involved in primaries
Byron Donalds is my congressman. I think he's been a
great person to work with. I know Trump endorsed him
on Thursday or Friday.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
So yeah, we're going to.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Have a competitive governor's race, turned gentlemen's race, cfo's race,
acommissioner race.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
It looks like and we and actually moved will be up.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
They got appointed by DeSantis, so it's it's going to
be it's going to be exciting twenty twenty six in Florida,
but it always is in Florida.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Well, Senator Rick Scott, I appreciate the work you're doing
on behalf of Floridians, and I appreciate your time today.
All right, have a great day. That was Senator Rick
Scott of Florida. Really appreciate his time. Appreciate you guys
at home for listening every Tuesday and Thursday, but of
course you can listen throughout the week. I also want
to thank John Cassio and my producer for putting the
show together.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Until next time,
Host
Lisa Boothe
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