Sen. Scott says U.S. should balance budget but also 'demolish' Iran's nuclear ability

Geoff Bennett:

Last night, we spoke with Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut about the war with Iran.

Tonight, we get a Republican perspective.

Our congressional correspondent, Lisa Desjardins, picks it up from here.

Lisa Desjardins:

As the war with Iran nears the end of its third week, the Pentagon is considering asking Congress to approve $200 billion to fund the ongoing military operation.

To discuss this and more, I'm joined by Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida, who serves on the Armed Services Committee.

Senator, thank you for joining us.

Yesterday, we heard from your Democratic colleague Chris Murphy. He said the Iranian regime is still intact and that he has not seen a plan from the president for ending this war. Is there a plan? How do you see this?

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL):

Well, first off, I don't think the commander in chief of our armed forces ought to be telling the enemy, which is the Iranian government here, what our plan is.

So I don't think it's appropriate for our commander in chief to be telling anybody what the plan is. But the plan is, when do we have -- make sure that their nuclear capabilities are destroyed, and when can we make sure that they don't have a ballistic missile that they can kill either our troops in the Middle East or Americans here in the United States?

So I think the plan will be -- it will be finished when that happens. So...

Lisa Desjardins:

There are many people raising the Iraq War, which was intended to be a short-term U.S. operation, but went much longer than the Bush administration planned for.

Are you thinking about that? Are you concerned that could happen?

Sen. Rick Scott:

Well, this is a president that doesn't like forever wars. He's talked about that. I think the American public is not happy about forever wars. So I don't think there's a much of a chance that we will have a forever war here.

And, on top of that, there's a president that hates war and hates putting troops on the ground. So I think what he's doing is trying to fulfill his mission of destroying their capability of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

Lisa Desjardins:

I mentioned that $200 billion figure. We will see what the Pentagon ultimately requests. That's what they're considering.

But I did the math on that. That's about $1,200 per taxpayer. Going back to this first question, though, that amount of money was enough to fund two years of the Iraq War. Can we take away that they're expecting money to need to last for a long time for this operation?

Sen. Rick Scott:

Well, we don't have any detail.

I think, like in my case, I want to watch how we spend our money. So I want to see the detail of what they're asking for. At the same time, I do not want Iran to have nuclear weapons or the ability to use ballistic missiles to kill our troops or Americans.

And so we have got to figure out, what do we need to do this? We have got to make sure we demolish their ability to do this. And we have got to watch our money. We have got to do all of those things.

Lisa Desjardins:

What about the national debt, though? Is there a limit to what we should be spending here?

Sen. Rick Scott:

Oh, absolutely. We have $39 trillion worth of debt. We're borrowing money that our kids and our grandkids are going to have to pay off. It causes inflation.

This is -- we have to balance our budget. Our families balance our budget. When I was governor of Florida, Florida had not balanced the budget but once in 40 years. I balanced it every year. We all know we have to do this. It's the thing that's going to get inflation under control.

At the federal level, what we ought to be spending our resources on is protect our liberty, which means our military, and make sure we have a great economy. Most of the other things, other than some of our safety nets, we could be doing at the state and local level.

Lisa Desjardins:

I want to talk about the DHS shutdown that we're also in the middle of right now.

Now, Democrats have done this to -- they say over ICE conduct that they would like to change. They're blocking DHS funding. But they have made an offer. They say they're willing to fund TSA and some other subagencies. Do you consider that a serious offer and why not take it?

Sen. Rick Scott:

Well, they don't have a serious offer.

And, by the way, I'm not going to do anything to defunds police. I mean, what they're saying is that they're OK with open borders and they're saying with they're OK with criminals robbing our country and killing people like Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray and Rachel Morin.

I mean, this is -- you can't do this. Look, I want to make sure that everybody gets paid. Here's what makes me mad. I have had a bill since I got up here called No Budget No Pay. That means if we don't pass our budgets, senators and congress just shouldn't get paid.

But guess what? Everybody up here wants to get paid. I'm -- and the Democrats are sitting here saying, oh, they want to get paid, but there's 260,000 people I think part of Homeland Security. TSA agents aren't getting paid. Just in Florida, 200 TSA agents have already quit. They're tired of this. They didn't get paid last fall.

This is not fair. Secret Service is not getting paid. It just makes sense. It's so unfair to Americans. And so if Democrats don't want to pay these people, then they should say they didn't get paid either. I mean, it's just completely unfair.

Lisa Desjardins:

But why not support funding TSA, as Democrats say they would do?

Sen. Rick Scott:

I support funding TSA, but I'm not going to -- I'm not going to as part of that never fund ICE. I mean, they're never going to -- look, for whatever reason, right, Democrats don't want ICE to do its job.

I want a secure border, right? I don't want criminals in this country. I have got grandkids. I have got daughters. I have got a wife. I want them to be safe. I mean, the fact that they're OK with criminals roaming our country and they don't care, ICE is trying to do its job. Are there reasonable things? Sure. The White House has proposed some things.

But the Democrats, they -- this -- for whatever reason, they do not want ICE to be able to get rid of criminals and other people that might rape or kill our daughters or our granddaughters.

Lisa Desjardins:

Senator, I have to push back a little bit. You said Democrats are OK with criminals roaming around the country.

What I hear from Democrats is that they too want safe borders and that they are OK with detaining criminals who are in the country illegally, and that they're concerned -- you may have seen these videos as well -- is about aggressive tactics by ICE and CBP against including American citizens.

Sen. Rick Scott:

This is the same group of people that were completely OK with completely open borders under Biden, completely open borders, criminals flocking across. They never said a word. They never pushed back on what Biden was doing.

So when they come now and say, oh, they want to have a secure border, where were they in those four years? When they say they're worried about criminals, where were they those four years?

Lisa Desjardins:

I want to also ask you about the SAVE America Act, which is on the Senate floor right now. You're a co-sponsor of that. That is about election I.D.s.

Now critics, however, I know you have heard this, they insist it's a suppressive law. For example, to register to vote, you need a passport, a birth certificate, or maybe an affidavit. It would make it harder to register for some people. But how do you explain how it would work? Do you disagree?

Sen. Rick Scott:

Well, first off, here's what's crazy. Chuck Schumer and the Democrats supported Real ID. That does the same thing.

You had to show you're an American citizen to be able to get a Real ID. So I don't know what the deal is. You have to have an I.D. to go to the doctor or get on an airplane or buy a six-pack of beer. Don't you think the sacred right to vote is important?

Lisa Desjardins:

If I may, my understanding is the concern that you would need a passport or original birth certificate specifically, and not every American has it.

Sen. Rick Scott:

No, there's a whole list. Listen, there's a whole list of things. You can have Real ID. You can have a passport. You can have a birth certificate. And if you don't have those, you can do it an affidavit.

So that's not true at all. If people would read the bill, we have tried to make sure that no one gets disenfranchised. We want people to vote. Vote. I want people to vote. I have run for election. I want people to be able to vote, all right?

But I don't want people -- I don't want fraud. I don't want people that don't have a right to vote. I don't get to vote in France or England or Canada or anyplace else. If you're not an American citizen, you don't get to vote here. It's so simple.

Lisa Desjardins:

Senator Rick Scott of Florida, thank you so much for your time.

Sen. Rick Scott:

All right, take care. Bye-bye.