Rick Scott Voted For The Big Ugly Bill. Of Course He Did— He Made His Fortune Stealing From Medicare

From Medicare Fraud To Senate Votes, White Collar-Looter Rick Scott’s Still Cashing In On Our Pain

Did you really think Rick Scott would recuse himself from voting on the Big Ugly Bill— I sure he never did— just because it would personally enrich him and the donor class he belongs to? Please. That would require a functioning moral compass, or even the faintest trace of shame. Scott, after all, is not just a Florida senator; he’s a living monument to the kind of corporate corruption that the GOP has enshrined into law— now with even fewer restraints, thanks to this latest legislative obscenity.

Scott’s entire career has been one long con against the American people, especially seniors. Let’s not forget: he was the CEO of Columbia/HCA, the hospital chain responsible for the single biggest Medicare fraud in U.S. history. His company defrauded taxpayers of $1.7 billion— yes, billion with a “B”— by cooking the books, overbilling Medicare, and outright lying to the federal government. Scott didn’t just oversee this racket; he presided over it like a mob boss. And when the Feds came knocking, he walked away with a golden parachute worth over $300 million.

In a sane country, that would have disqualified him from public life forever. In today’s GOP— especially in Florida— it qualified him for the governors’ job and then for a Senate seat— and a front-row seat to vote on dismantling what’s left of the social safety net. He worked hard to make the Big Ugly Bill, a grotesque piece of legislation that robs ordinary Americans to fatten the portfolios of the ultra-rich, much worse but in the end it was so bad that he pulled his amendment (after it had been endorsed by Club for Growth). 

The amendment was never voted on because so many Republicans said they wouldn’t consider voting for it. It was meant to cut an additional $313 billion from Medicaid by limiting the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. This was on top of Señor TACO’s Big Ugly Bill’s existing $930 billion in Medicaid cuts, which were already projected to result in at least 12 million fewer people receiving Medicaid coverage by 2034. What made Scott’s amendment particularly odious was its potential to effectively dismantle the Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion in many states, especially Kentucky, Missouri, Alaska, North Carolina, Maine  and Ohio. The amendment targeted the enhanced federal matching funds for new enrollees in the Medicaid expansion population, set to take effect after 2030. This would have forced states to either cover the full cost of expansion or discontinue it entirely, kicking millions more off Medicaid in 40 states. Critics, including some Republicans, argued this went too far, risking destabilizing healthcare access for working class families and rural hospitals.

The opposition from Republicans, including relatively mainstream conservatives like Susan Collins and Thom Tillis, stemmed from concerns about the political and practical fallout— losing voter support in states dependent on Medicaid and further straining healthcare infrastructure.

The bill already slashes services, transfers wealth upwards, and deepens the gaping inequalities that Scott and his ilk thrive on. And once again, the targets include Medicaid and even Medicare— the very programs Rick Scott spent years looting. It’s like letting an arsonist vote on the fire code.

But don’t expect the media to bring this up. Most of them treat Scott like just another Republican senator— maybe a little creepy, maybe a little too slick— but not like the uncharged felon and taxpayer-robbing parasite he is. Never forget, this guy’s whole career was built on profiting from public pain. His voted and the discarded amendment were basically the blueprint of his political project, not just a conflict of interest.

Rick Scott has always bet that voters have short memories and even shorter attention spans. And under the Florida sun…  Outside of Florida, though, we remember the fraud, the raids, the silence as he pleaded the Fifth 75 times in a deposition. And we remember that instead of being held accountable, he climbed the ladder into the governors mansion and now the Senate— where he helps write the rules for the next big heist (Social Security). 1,936,421 Floridians were just sentenced by Scott and and Ashley Moody and their colleagues to lose their healthcare, second worst after California's 2,638,466 Californians.