By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

Gov. Rick Scott Saturday said he is running for the U.S. Senate on his track record of rapid economic and job growth over the past eight years.

Speaking to Republicans at the annual Lincoln-Reagan Memorial Dinner at Bronson Middle High School cafeteria, Scott said when he took office in 2010 he was looking at a $4 billion state deficit.

“More people were leaving the state than moving in the state since the 1940’s, so I ran on a campaign of creating 700,000 jobs in seven years. We walked in and said we’re going to figure out how to do this,” Scott said. “We started by cutting taxes. We cut $10 billion in taxes and our revenues are up $20 billion. The state had not reduced debt in 20 years. We have now paid off $10 billion in state debt, and 1,539,000 jobs were added by companies around the state.”

“In 2010 companies were worried about earning enough revenues. Now they’re worried about finding enough employees. It’s a much better problem for everyone who really needs a job. We’re kicking everybody else in the rear, but we have to keep getting better and keep getting better.”

The Republican governor was invited to speak at the dinner by Levy County Sheriff Bobby McCallum, a longtime friend, who said Scott has the support of 57 to 58 of the state’s sheriff’s. The dinner was sponsored by the Levy County Republican Executive Committee, which is nearing its 50th birthday. Soon after being elected, McCallum said he met the governor who gave him his personal cell phone and told him to call anytime. McCallum said the governor has honored his promise to take his calls, regardless of the time of day or night. He said Scott is a friend of law enforcement and all the sheriffs.

CONGRESSIONAL TERM LIMITS

Scott, who is running against longtime U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat, said the problem in Washington is partisan politics. He said too many of the nation’s leaders remain in office for decades without achieving anything. He said being a leader in Washington shouldn’t be about political parties. It should be about “everyone working together.”

“We have term limits in Florida. We have term limits in the House. We have term limits in the Senate. We have term limits for governor. We should have term limits for Congress. We shouldn’t have the same people staying there for 20 or 40 years that have no record of getting anything done,” he said, drawing applause.

Scott said he came from a very poor family, but he a great mother who influenced how he lived his life. He never met his biological father. His mother was getting divorced about the time he was born. He said she was a tough mother who set the bar high for him. She said he would be an Eagle Scout. He would earn straight A’s. He would attend church every week and twice on Sundays. He pleaded his case with his Mom, saying no one else was doing those things. She told him it was her house, and those were the rules. And if he wanted money, get a job. He got a job selling things door to door.

“I had a great life. I grew up in a very poor family but I had two things going for me. I had a Mom that cared about me and she was committed that I was going to be a success, and I grew up in the greatest nation in the world,” Scott said. “We all grew up with a silver spoon in our mouth because we grew up in the greatest nation in the world where anything is possible no matter where you started, no matter the color of your skin or the zip code you started in or how much money your parents had – anything is possible,” Scott said.

NAVY, LAW SCHOOL, COLUMBIA HOSPITAL CORP.

After attending high school and community college, Scott enlisted in the United States Navy, where he served on active duty aboard the USS Glover as a radar man. The G.I. Bill enabled him to attend college and law school. While enrolled at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and working full-time at a grocery store, he and his wife Ann made their first foray into the business world by purchasing two Kansas City donut shops for his mother to manage. Following graduation from UMKC, Scott earned a law degree from Southern Methodist University.

Following law school, he stayed in Dallas, working for the city’s largest law firm, Johnson and Swanson, primarily representing companies in the healthcare, oil and gas and communications industries. In 1987 while still practicing law, Scott made an offer to purchase HCA, Inc. When the offer was rejected, Scott started Columbia Hospital Corporation with his and his wife’s entire $125,000 savings. He also started Conservatives for Patient’s Rights, which advocated for free-market principles of choice, competition, accountability and personal responsibility in health care. He wanted to prevent further encroachment on the rights of his parents, according to his biography printed in the Lincoln-Reagan Memorial Dinner brochure.

When Scott left Columbia in 1997 at age 44, it had grown to become the world’s largest healthcare company with more than 340 hospitals, 135 surgery centers and 550 home health locations in 37 states and two foreign countries, employing more than 250,000 people. It was the 7th largest employer in the U.S. and the 12th largest employer worldwide, according to his biography.

Scott told his Republican audience in Bronson that they were probably as sick as he was about people “trashing the country.” He said the United States has an immigration problem because “everyone wants to come here.”

“I mean this is a chance to live the dream of the world. The American dream is the dream of the world. I ran in 2010 because I believe in that dream. I believe that dream should be true for everyone in this state, not just a few, but for everybody,” he said.

LIMITING GOVERNMENT TAXATION

Scott said his campaign platform not only advocates for term limits in Congress but he believes Congress shouldn’t be allowed to enact increases in taxes or fees at the federal level without the consent of two-thirds of the Congress. An Amendment on the Florida ballot in November, which was placed there by the Florida Legislature, would enact the same two-thirds requirement in the state legislature before taxes or fees could be raised.

He also believes that the President of the United States should be empowered with a line item veto. Scott had the line item veto as governor. Most governors have authority to veto anything in the state budget. Scott said the line-item veto would give the President of the United States the power to review all expenditures to determine if the taxpayer was getting a return on those dollars.

“It’s somebody’s money. We all pay taxes,” he said.
Scott said Florida has the best tax system in the country. He said tourists pay 25 percent of the sales taxes, which make up a big part of the state budget. He said every time people see a tourist they should thank them for spending their money in Florida. Whenever he talks to outside groups coming to visit Florida, he encourages them to “spend every dime you got.”

He said Florida is also one of the best managed states in the country with one of highest credit ratings in the nation.

“There are five or six states that have the highest credit rating in the nation and we’re one of them,” he said.

He said he recently was invited to participate in discussions at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank for free-market ideas. He said he was the only governor in attendance and the only participant who started by saying tax cuts will grow the economy. He said others in attendance didn’t think revenues would grow enough to cover the tax cuts. He pointed out Florida cut taxes by $10 billion and saw annualized revenue grow by $20 billion.

He said his counterparts at the conference said they didn’t believe they would ever see more than a 2 percent growth in the national economy. Scott said he countered by pointing out that Florida’s economy has grown by 30 percent over the past seven years, “and if we didn’t have the drag of the federal government we’d grow even faster.”

EARLY RISER, AGGRESSIVE REPRESENTATION

Scott said he loves to work, rising at 5 a.m. each day.
“I will not stop working. This has been a ball doing this. I usually get up at 5. I do morning TV from 6 to 7 in the morning. We have a meeting with the press, announce jobs, news at 10, then drive to another city with TV and do it all over again,” he said. “I’ll shake hands with a half million people in the state. It’s fun and I’ll do it in D.C. I’m not going to forget my job. My job is to represent you aggressively and there’s no reason all the things we all believe in can’t be done.”

Photos by Terry Witt:

1. Gov. Rick Scott speaks to the annual Lincoln-Reagan Memorial Dinner.

2. Levy County Sheriff Bobby McCallum greets Gov. Rick Scott after introducing him.

3. Levy County Republican Executive Committee Vice President Stoney Smith greets visitors as the event begins.

4. Congressman Neal Dunn tells dinner guests about the accomplishments of the Republican Party.

Lincoln-Regan Memorial Dinner June 23, 2018
Posted June 24, 2018