IN CASE YOU MISSED IT… Sen. Rick Scott, LIBRE Initiative President Garza in Orlando Sentinel: Don’t Use Taxpayer Dollars for State Bailouts

September 30, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In case you missed it, Senator Rick Scott and Daniel Garza, President of the LIBRE Initiative, wrote an op-ed for the Orlando Sentinel on why Congress should be focused on helping individuals impacted by the coronavirus by growing the economy, not spending trillions to bail out states that have been fiscally irresponsible for decades.

In the op-ed, Senator Rick Scott and LIBRE Initiative President Daniel Garza wrote, “As America continues to work to reopen the economy and end the coronavirus, Congress must focus on three things to help us recover stronger: suppressing the pandemic, getting people back to work safely, and preparing for the next potential crisis.

Unfortunately, many lawmakers are trying to use this crisis to push their irresponsible spending priorities that have nothing to do with the coronavirus, including a massive taxpayer bailout of poorly managed states.

That’s not fair to states like Florida, where we’ve made the tough choices to put our state on a financially secure path. Bailing out the bad budgets and pension plans of poorly run states would impose a huge burden on Florida taxpayers, and do severe damage to our economic recovery. We have worked too hard to give every family in Florida a chance to live their American dream and should not be bailing out states that have been fiscally irresponsible for decades.

American taxpayers must ultimately bear the cost of all this proposed new spending — quite possibly in the form of tax increases. And the tab is already intimidating. The national debt is currently at nearly $27 trillion — with the last $3 trillion coming in just the last few months. And even if no new federal bailouts are approved, the Treasury Department expects to add another $2 trillion to the debt in the second half of this year.

We know every American family has been impacted by the coronavirus. This virus was something none of us could control. As families try to figure out how to make ends meet and how to ensure their kids get the best education they can, the last thing they need is to worry about bigger tax increases down the road. No-growth policies and irresponsible spending is a virus Congress can control.”

Read the full op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel HERE.

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