Last week, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., spoke at Heritage Action’s Sentinel Summit and said the following:
“Hello conservatives!
Let’s give another round of applause for Jessica Anderson and Kevin Roberts.
Jessica and Kevin are such fighters, and we are lucky to have them leading Heritage Action and the Heritage Foundation.
Let me start with a simple statement: We will fight like hell to win Georgia and Republicans will have a new majority in both the House and Senate!
Herschel Walker knows how important this fight is for the future of our country and he’s going to give it everything he has, but he needs our help.
We cannot be complacent. I am confident we can get there, but we need you to keep showing up and keep working hard.
We have this opportunity because of the relentless fight of dedicated conservatives like you. We can’t let our foot off the gas now.
We will win but we have to fight every day from now until this runoff to make sure we finish the job and elect Herschel Walker to the United States Senate.
But, winning alone is not enough.
Do you think we should just go back to the status quo in Washington, back to regular order, back to business as usual?
I agree. The people in this room are proof that the Republican Party is alive and well across this country…it’s about time we had a Republican Party in Washington, D.C. too.
We have to offer ideas. It’s not enough to just talk about how terrible Joe Biden’s agenda is or call the Democrats radical, which they are.
We have to be bold. We have to lead and tell the American people every day what we are fighting for and what we are accomplishing.
The status quo in Washington is broken. We cannot afford to keep doing the same thing and thinking anything will change. That is the definition of insanity.
It will never be enough to simply be a speed bump for the Biden administration. We must stop being a speed bump, it’s time to be a brick wall.
We must get back to being the party of ideas. We must put forward ideas to reduce inflation, improve our schools, reduce crime, secure our border and make our military more lethal.
Put another way, we need to stop working to protect the interests of Washington and start doing our real job of working for you!
I am a business guy. When I raised money, investors and lenders always expected a plan from me and expected a return on their investment. Those I worked with wanted to know where our companies were headed.
The establishment in Washington thinks what I’m going to say next is crazy, but I think it is important we have an agreed upon legislative agenda for the upcoming Congress so we know where we are going and know what we should be doing every day.
If not, why vote for us in 2024? The Democrats are radical, but we will be in charge of the House and the Senate for the next two years.
We need to debate ideas, put forward an agenda and then govern to achieve our goals.
That starts with a plan to get our finances in order and stop the reckless government spending that is fueling Joe Biden’s raging inflation crisis.
The only thing Congress is really good at right now is wasting your tax dollars on unfunded programs that sound good but have no accountability. It is killing our country.
Republicans need a plan to balance the budget, cut taxes, fully fund Medicare, Social Security and our military.
I am not naive enough to believe it is easy. I took office in 2011 as Governor of Florida with a significant budget deficit and horrible economy.
But we got to work and balanced the budget in Florida for eight straight years, cut taxes 100 times, paid off a third of the state debt, made record investments in priorities like education, transportation and the environment, preserved safety net programs and grew the budget slower than our population growth every year for eight years.
Is that possible in Washington? Of course it is.
But to get there we need to demand the passage of real spending reform before we do anything with the debt ceiling and stop passing large spending bills we have never read full of earmarks.
That is the exact type of Washington dysfunction that Republicans campaign against. Our candidates just ran saying they would fight against inflation.
So it’s time to govern in Washington like we campaign at home.
That’s what the voters expect and that’s what American families deserve.
It would be a massive mistake to have no agenda and return to the status quo.
Republicans need to be out front every day telling you what we plan to accomplish and how we are securing wins and protecting conservative values.
We work for you and that should be clear in everything we do in Washington if we want to get things done and save this country.
Voters expect Republicans to get serious about ending reckless government spending and the devastating inflation it’s caused… We must deliver bold policy that ends reckless spending and brings prices down.
Voters expect Republicans to hold government accountable from the FBI to the IRS… That starts with reversing the democrats’ insane plan to add 87,000 IRS agents and end Biden’s attempts to weaponize the FBI with non-stop oversight.
Voters expect Republicans to rid radical woke indoctrination from our society, especially our schools… We must stand strongly against this destructive, divisive ideology and protect our children.
Voters expect Republicans to fight against the extreme danger posed by Communist China… We must end America’s dependence on communist regimes and put our values and interests first with strong policy that supports domestic manufacturing and American jobs.
Voters expect Republicans refocus our military on lethal defense instead of woke nonsense… We must use our power in congress to ensure military leadership is focused on stopping the enemy, not stupid sensitivity trainings.
We have a huge opportunity before us to save this country and put America back on the path to prosperity.
It’s not enough to be against Biden and the Democrats, which we are, or call them radical, which is true.
We must stand up, fight every day and win on the conservative issues that will make the difference between American greatness and a fall into socialism.
It’s time to bring up Republican priorities whether Democrats vote with us or against us and whether the White House threatens to veto our Republican priorities or not.
It’s time to work every day to provide a positive, aspirational message to the public about what Republicans stand for.
It’s time to make sure we have promoted Republican priorities which gives all Republicans tangible items to run on and win.
It’s time to stop compromising our principles and make the Democrats compromise theirs.
We cannot ever cave to the woke demands of the radical left who are destroying our country with debt, indoctrination and socialism.
And the best way to make sure we can rescue America and deliver for voters is to win in Georgia, send Herschel Walker to the United States Senate and govern on conservative principles.
I believe our country is in real trouble and it’s time that Republicans embrace and aggressively work a plan to fix the problems before us.
It is time to save America from forty-year high inflation, woke schools and a woke military, open borders, crime, and 31 trillion in debt.
So, tonight I am asking you to fight like hell so we can make sure we have a majority.
I’m asking you to fight alongside me to make sure we win in Georgia and take back the Senate.
It’s time to be bold and stop compromising our principles, before there’s nothing left of this country.
Thank you again for all you do to support conservatives and the American ideals we hold so dear.
May God bless you. May God bless the work of Heritage Action, and may God bless the United States of America.”
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