Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) on Friday announced a new bill that would increase funding for Social Security and Medicare.
The new bill is a response to President Biden’s recent accusations that Scott had suggested the two entitlement programs should sunset. Scott has argued that he has always been the biggest proponent of protecting the two programs. He added that the Protect Our Seniors Act was going to help protect the benefits that are provided by these entitlement programs.
The legislation would ask for the $80 billion in funding that has been directed to the Internal Revenue Service which was approved by the Inflation Reduction Act to be redirected to the Social Security and Medicare entitlement programs. Many Republicans have criticized the IRS funding noting that it was only going to be used for the creation of an “army of 87,000 IRS agents.”
The new bill would also stop any cuts to Social Security and Medicare unless they were approved by a two-thirds vote in Congress. It would also block all Medicare savings from being redirected to other spending initiatives. It is also not clear how this new proposal would work in the context of Scott’s previous 11-point plan which would require all federal legislation to sunset and then be renewed by Congress every five years.
Biden was heavily criticized during his State of the Union annual speech for suggesting that certain GOP members wanted to sunset the two entitlement programs. Biden during his address did not speak about which specific individuals he was referring to.
