Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., will be running an ad in his home state of Florida on Wednesday accusing President Biden of cheating on taxes and calling for him to step down from office.
The ad begins by stating that Biden cut $280 billion from Medicare and plans to hire tens of thousands of IRS agents, then takes a personal turn.
“But what you don’t know is that Joe Biden also cheated on his taxes and got away with it. Biden improperly used a loophole to dodge half a million dollars in taxes that should have gone to Medicare,” Scott says in the ad. “Now that Biden has ripped off Medicare for half a million dollars, he wants to close the loophole and raise your taxes.”
Scott then says, “Biden should resign.”
The ad will be targeting the Tampa area, according to Punchbowl News, beginning the day before the president is set to make an appearance there.
Scott tweeted a video of the ad Tuesday night, along with a message stating that Biden “lies about Republicans trying to cut Social Security and Medicare,” a claim the president has repeated multiple times – including during Tuesday night’s State of the Union address.
Biden and other Democrats made a habit before the 2022 midterm elections of accusing Republicans of wanting to cut those programs. The basis for the claim – which Republicans have insisted are false – is a plan Scott put forward calling for all federal programs to sunset and require renewal every five years. Scott’s plan did not specifically mention Social Security or Medicare, but they are included given that they are federal programs. Biden’s accusation did not provide this context.
In a statement to Fox News, White House spokesman Andrew Bates acknowledged that Scott’s proposal was for putting all federal programs up for renewal, but claimed, “Senator Scott’s ad only cements that congressional Republicans are targeting Medicare.”
“Repealing the AARP-backed Inflation Reduction Act, as Scott’s now calling for, would impose the biggest cut to Medicare benefits in decades,” Bates continued. “Every time Rick Scott opens his mouth, he proves the President’s point. The man who got rich overseeing the biggest Medicare fraud in history is protesting too much – again.”
Scott’s claims that Biden wants to add 87,000 IRS agents and that the president cut Medicare by $280 billion have also been disputed. Biden did sign legislation providing the IRS with roughly $80 billion over 10 years that the Treasury Department estimated will go toward hiring nearly 87,000 new workers, it is unclear how many of them will be agents.
As far as Medicare, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget wrote in August that while the Inflation Reduction Act will result in nearly $300 billion in Medicare savings, it would not cut benefits. The same group, however, also blasted the White House earlier this week for a recent comment on Social Security and Medicare, after a spokesperson referred to a commission to save the programs as a “death panel.”
“This kind of heated rhetoric is dishonest, counterproductive, and totally unacceptable,” the group’s president said.
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