WASHINGTON, D.C. – In case you missed it, Senator Rick Scott wrote an op-ed for Fox News about the growing national debt, the horribly reckless decision to give state and local government billions of taxpayer dollars as “COVID bailout” money and the need to pass the Pay Down the Debt Act.

In the op-ed, Senator Rick Scott wrote: ”As reckless government spending continues to fuel raging inflation, it’s time that we force Washington to face reality and stop giving our supposed ‘leaders’ the opportunity to ignore the debt hole they are digging.

One of the most egregious examples of reckless spending that’s fueled America’s inflation and debt crises are huge state bailouts using your tax dollars. The CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan together allocated more than $500 billion in direct aid to state and local governments.

In April 2020, just weeks after Congress passed the CARES Act, I joined a handful of my Republican colleagues in a letter urging President Trump to reject any funding for state bailouts in any future COVID-19 relief package. Even then, in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, I knew that writing blank checks to state and local government would do nothing but reward decades of fiscal mismanagement and incentivize an increased reliance on federal taxpayers. Unfortunately, after looking at the results of the $500 billion investment, it seems I was right.

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The lesson here is simple: no amount of government spending can save you from failed leadership. New Jersey, Illinois and New York – blue states run by Democrats - all face unfunded pensions, bloated budgets, large state debts and high taxes. They’re all failing. That’s why I opposed state bailouts from the very start and why I made fiscal responsibility and paying down the debt a major focus on my Plan to Rescue America. Now, Joe Biden is trying to send America down this same dangerous path and it’s up to us to stop him.

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From the time President Biden was elected, he has pushed for one massive spending package after another. What are the results of his socialist agenda? Our nation is falling into a recession and American families are suffering as they dealing with sky-high gas and food prices. Things look grim, but there is always hope. We can turn America around and fix the mess Joe Biden has created. I know we can do this because I did it as governor of Florida.

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It’s time we start holding our so-called ‘leaders’ in Washington and across the nation accountable. Here’s my challenge to state and local governments: balance your budgets, demand that my Pay Down the Debt Act becomes law and then SEND THE ‘COVID-RELIEF’ MONEY BACK.”

Read the full op-ed in Fox News HERE.

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