At the end of last week, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., sent a letter to President Donald Trump amid ongoing coronavirus relief negotiations urging him to “reject bailouts for liberal states that want to use taxpayer money intended for coronavirus response to backfill their poorly-managed budgets and pension plans.” The Florida Republican is “calling on Congress to stop laundering taxpayer money intended for coronavirus relief through inefficient federal agencies, state governments or bloated bureaucracies and instead help the families and businesses that have been directly impacted by this crisis.”
Scott’s letter is below.
Dear Mr. President:
As our nation continues to be impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, I appreciate your leadership in taking important steps to support American families and break the logjam of inaction while the Democrats in Congress, led by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, are refusing to compromise or negotiate in good faith.
I know we share the same goal to help individuals that lost their jobs due to the coronavirus, as well as support struggling small businesses across the nation. My focus is on how we get the help to families and businesses that have been directly impacted, instead of laundering taxpayer money intended for coronavirus relief through inefficient federal agencies, state governments or bloated bureaucracies.
State and local governments have only spent about 25 percent of what they received in the CARES Act. Yet Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are holding up funding for Americans in need because they want to give their poorly-run states $1 trillion more to spend on liberal programs unrelated to the coronavirus.
We know Pelosi and Schumer are just focused on the 2020 election and are demanding Congress use this crisis to enact their liberal agenda with policies that have nothing to do with the coronavirus. As I told your White House team earlier this week, if Pelosi, Schumer and the Democrats refuse to negotiate in good faith, then we shouldn’t negotiate on their terms. They continue to play politics with Americans’ livelihoods and have made it clear they don’t want to get anything done unless it advances their liberal agenda.
There are things Congress can do to help Americans and small businesses that are struggling. But we shouldn’t bankrupt our country. We must reject bailouts for liberal states that want to use taxpayer money intended for coronavirus response to backfill their poorly-managed budgets and pension plans. This includes allowing states flexibility to use CARES Act money to fund unrelated programs. We can’t let that happen.
This year’s federal budget deficit will be the largest in the history of our nation, in excess of the cumulative deficits for the first 200 years of our country’s existence. We will end the year with more than $25 trillion in federal debt. I appreciate you standing strong to protect the future of our nation as negotiations continue.
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