While Senate Republican leaders have so far followed a hands-off policy plan for the midterms, Sen. Rick Scott is forging ahead with his own platform for the GOP if they retake Congress next year.
The first-term Florida Republican and chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee released an 11-point plan through Politico on Tuesday. ‘Americans deserve to know what we will do when given the chance to govern,’ he said.
The agenda includes a mix of classic Republican priorities – shrinking the federal government and enacting national voter ID laws – and culture war measures, such as declaring that there are ‘two genders,’ completing the border wall and naming it after Donald Trump and limiting most federal workers, including members of Congress, to 12 years of service.
It is a clear break from Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has held off on releasing a GOP agenda in hopes that Democrats will run themselves into the ground.
In January, asked what the party’s plan was if it came back to power, the Kentucky Republican quipped: ‘I’ll let you know when we take it back.’
McConnell believes that the best way for Republicans to pick up the one Senate seat they need to take back the majority is to turn the election into a referendum on President Biden. With inflation, spending, the Afghanistan evacuation and now the Ukraine-Russia crisis, the president’s meager poll numbers are showing no signs of improvement.
So far 30 House Democrats have called it quits in a show of low expectations for the midterm elections, compared to 13 Republicans.
But other priorities in Scott’s plan include requiring students to say the Pledge of Allegiance every day, banning government from asking race on application documents and to ‘refund’ law enforcement.
‘Hopefully, by doing this, we’ll have more of a conversation about what Republicans are going to get done. Because when we get the majority, I want to get something done,’ Scott said in an interview with Politico. ‘There’s things that people would rather not talk about. I’m willing to say exactly what I’m going to do. I think it’s fair to the voter.’
Scott acknowledged, however, that his plan may ‘strike fear in the heart of some Republicans,’ as the conservative priorities could turn off some Democrat and Independent voters.
However, he argues that his priorities are in line with those of American families. ‘This is what people think, by the way,’ he said. ‘If you talk to a normal, non-woke family, this is what they think.’
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is expected to release his own agenda in the coming weeks.
Scott did not criticize McConnell’s approach, and insisted that he has a ‘good working relationship’ with the GOP leader.
‘As a general rule, you know, probably this year’s election is going to be a lot about the Biden agenda. But I do believe we’re going to win,’ Scott said. ‘We ought to have a plan and what we’re trying to get done when we get the majority.’
And Democrats have seized on Republicans’ lack of an agenda.
‘We’re running right now against the Republican Party. And I think Mitch McConnell is quoted saying they aren’t running on any agenda whatsoever,’ said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Gary Peters (D-Mich.) in a recent interview. ‘So, if you’re not running on an agenda, you’re not offering anything for the future, for the people in the country.’
This is an excerpt from Daily Mail.
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