Sen. Scott talks COVID-19, stimulus package

One Florida senator said he wants to be sure you benefit from the next coronavirus stimulus package.

Weeks after recovering from COVID-19 himself, Sen. Rick Scott said it’s all about you.

“What I’m not gonna support is having Florida taxpayers pay for the excess spending of California or Illinois or New York or New Jersey,” he told WINK News.

Scott said the reason you’re not seeing another stimulus is party politics.

After testing positive for the coronavirus and quarantining through Thanksgiving, with symptoms he described as “pretty mild,” he’s back on the job on Capitol Hill and working on COVID-19 relief and getting the economy back on track.

“We just went through a Thanksgiving; I think it was really tough on a lot of families. We are going to go through a Christmas that’s going to be pretty tough on a lot of families.”

Scott continues to work with his counterparts to help Americans struggling through the pandemic.

“We worked the month of August and, you know, we did daily phone calls with the administration and we work to come up with a bill that would be helpful,” he said.

“We’re up here for at least three weeks. And I know all of us would love to get a bill passed… it’s very targeted to help the people that should be helped.“

Right now, though: deadlock. Scott blames lawmakers for toeing the party line.

“Well, we, you know, Republican senators, we passed a bill twice.”

He hopes Southwest Floridians and businesses will see new aid soon and said we all need to do our part.

“I do hope everybody will wear their mask and social distance,” the senator said.

“What I think is really important is, you know, for all elected local, elected state and federal is to make sure you get people a lot of information, and so that’s what I’ve been saying all along, get people more information make sure they have access to tests.”

Scott feels blessed that his case of COVID-19 was mild.

“So I just hope everybody else has the same experience, that it’s not bad for them.”

But of the more than 1 million people in Florida who have tested positive, more than 18,000 didn’t survive.