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.
Scott is setting his sights on the vaccines to return us to a normal life.
“I’m optimistic about the vaccine. I get updates while I’m up here about where we are on the vaccine and it sounds pretty promising.”
The senator said he hopes that vaccines will be available for anyone who wants one.
“Hopefully in three to four to five months, most Americans that want to be vaccinated will have a vaccination and we’ll get our economy back to a normal economy.”
Forty million vaccines are being produced, so Scott wants answers on how Health and Human Services will distribute them.
“I know a lot if that’s going to be done through governors but I think we ought to do everything we can to set a national plan to try to make sure this happens quickly.”
He sent a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, asking for more transparency and information on the plan.
“I just want to make sure we’re very transparent with the public. This is what our plan is, this is how we’re going to implement it, this is how we’re going to measure success, because a lot of us, I think, are relying on this vaccine to help us get back to a normal life as quickly as we can.”
So as Southwest Floridians and the country face a holiday season overshadowed by a pandemic, Scott hopes it will be the last.
“My goal is we can pass this pandemic as quickly as we can and it’s testing information and having a vaccine plan that is robust and gets out there quickly.”
CBS News reports that as soon as the vaccines are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, they’re ready to be shipped.