Unanimous Consent Request--S. 3608

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President.

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. State, local, and Tribal governments across our great country are working tirelessly during this difficult time and have received Federal funding through the CARES Act, specifically directed to aid in their efforts to keep families safe.

While I understand the spirit of my colleague's proposal, I am very concerned that removing the important limitations related to the appropriate uses of the Coronavirus Relief Fund in the CARES Act would siphon resources away from the coronavirus response efforts that desperately need these resources.

Further, I am unfortunately hearing that some States and localities would simply like to use Federal dollars to backfill their decades of fiscal mismanagement. Hard-working American taxpayers should not be on the hook to bail out poorly run States or to fund areas of State budget expenses that have nothing to do with coronavirus.

We see States like California, Illinois, and New York with big budgets, high taxes, and tons of debt. Contrast that with States like Florida, where we made the hard fiscal decisions to pay off debt and live within our means. Floridians should not be punished and forced to backfill the budgets of these States.

I have a chart here that shows what has happened as a result--I just picked out three States--of their fiscal mismanagement. From 1985 to 2018, you can see here that Florida gained significant population while these poorly managed States lost population. You can see that in Florida we watched our budget and didn't keep borrowing more money. We lived within our means. You can look at our debt--$27 billion. When you look at California, it is $155 billion; New York, $148 billion, and Illinois, $67 billion.

You see what people are doing. They are leaving these high-tax States. Look at the personal income taxes and look at their attitude toward business. These are the three worst States for business. The Tax Foundation shows how poorly they do with their tax policy.

If you look at what has happened, people have left these States and moved their income to Florida and other lower tax States and more business-oriented States. I am completely opposed to bailing out these States.

Now, the difficulty in my colleague's proposal is that it is very difficult how you decide what is going to be used for one expense in a State budget or another expense in a State budget. Let's not forget that this year's Federal budget deficit will be the largest in the history of our Nation--the largest in the history of our Nation--in excess of the cumulative deficits for the first 200 years of our country's existence.

As my colleague said, we will end the year with an excess of $25 trillion worth of Federal debt. More than ever, I think my colleague will agree with me that we have to be focused and very careful with our taxpayer dollars.

I am very supportive of continuing to get needed resources to the communities and first responders in need. That is why, when the Senate passed the CARES Act, we wisely placed limitations on how this money could be spent. We need to maintain those guardrails to ensure that the country can continue on a path to recovery.

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