Rick Scott hits back at Gov. Cuomo's comments on bailouts
Sen. Rick Scott claimed on Friday that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo “held a grudge” against him ever since they both got elected in 2011.
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Sen. Rick Scott claimed on Friday that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo “held a grudge” against him ever since they both got elected in 2011, following up on an ongoing feud with the Empire State's governor over whether states should help bail out others due to the costly coronavirus outbreak.
“In that eight years, people kept leaving New York so, in eight years, he couldn’t grow jobs, he couldn't balance the budget, he kept borrowing more money and he kept watching businesses keep moving,” the Florida Republican lawmaker told “Fox & Friends.”
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The back-and-forth between New York and Florida began during a Cuomo briefing earlier this week.
“New York state bails [Florida] out every year,” Cuomo said Wednesday. “We bail them out every year … $29 million more every year into the federal pot that we don’t get back.”
Cuomo was responding to an op-ed Scott penned for the Wall Street Journal entitled, “Don’t Reward States’ Bad Decisions.”
“How long are you going to play the American people and assume they’re stupid? They are not. And they can add. And they know facts,” Cuomo continued.
Scott said that Cuomo does not understand the difference between federal and state policy.
“Here is the deal, what people do in New York, they make some money, they pay into social security, they pay into Medicare and, guess what, they get sick and tired of all those taxes and they move to Florida and, eventually, they receive their Social Security and Medicare payments.”
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Cuomo before on Monday claimed New York had been bailing out southeastern states for decades.
“If you want to look at who gives, we are the No. 1 giver — no one puts more money into the pot,” Cuomo continued.
Cuomo said the state has paid $161 billion more than it received in federal spending since 2015, and for every $1 New York state gives to the federal government it receives 91 cents back.
Cuomo’s remarks come after President Trump earlier Monday asked why “taxpayers of America [should] be bailing out poorly run states,” in a signal he could be turning away from supporting funding for cash-strapped state and city governments in a new coronavirus relief bill.
Scott said that while New York state has two to three million less people than Florida, the Empire state’s budget is double the size than the Sunshine State.
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“He can’t balance the budget. He’s just mad he keeps losing,” Scott said.
“Think about the taxes those poor New Yorkers are having to pay. Beautiful state, wonderful people, but Cuomo has just taxed the living daylights out of them.”
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