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>>> as we continue to follow the blowback against scott walker, we’re keeping an eye on the other scott as well. the uber-conservative governor of florida, rick scott. this is the most ironic past you can imagine. just minutes ago, scott actually just finished laying out his extreme agenda in his state of the state address. corporate tax toss 3% and eliminate them completely by 2018. he wants to combine billion in corporate and property tax cuts, and in that same two years, he wants to eliminate 9,000 jobs from the state’s workforce. i wonder if there’s a connection. even though the state’s unemployment in florida is at a stunning 12%, that’s gigantic, and he’s cutting more jobs, he wants to private tide medicate and the prison system, saying the profit motive will make them more efficient. there’s great irony in that, which i’ll explain it a moment. he likes to say he wants to run the state like a business. the state’s republican legislators don’t like being bull dosed by a lone wolf governor, but here’s the irony about the so-called ceo governor. he was the ceo of the nation’s largest for-profit health care system. resigned in 1997 in the middle of an fbi investigation into massive fraud. the company pled guilty to 14 philosophies, most of which were committed on scott’s watch. le company was forced to pay $1.7 billion. which, by the way, means you the taxpayer. now req scott is bracking, when he was an actual ceo. here’s who he looked out for, rick scott. do you know how much he made while ceo of that company? in stock options alone over $300 million. he got to keep all of it. how is this guy governor? and how is he seriously bracking about his ceo credentials, and proposing to privatize essential state functions? to help me answer that question is former florida congressman alan grayson. great to have you here.
>> thank you.
>> i’m going to start with a simple question. how did that guy get elected governor when bragging about his experience where he defrauded the american taxpayers?
>> the last one was led away in chains and indicted, and put in prison, so the republican party reached out to the biggest crook in the state and then nominated him as governor. you didn’t mention the fact that he actually pled the nist 75 times in his deposition. that’s like pleading it is 375th, and that virtually his entire fortune comes from cheating sick people.
>> and i still can’t imagine how you could lose an election to that guy, but anyway, democrats, i know i’ve been advising democrats to get stronger this time. they could have use a stronger campaign if you ask me, but let’s talk about what’s happening now. okay? they’re saying in essence the teacher paycuts are over $2,300 he’s proposing. at the same time property owners are getting about a $45 a year tax cut let alone the huge corporate tax cuts as well. you think the people in florida are happy with that deal? hey, i get to keep $45 and we’re cutting this education, cutting the pay of the teachers dramatically? is that a deal they’re happy with?
>> i can make it simpler. he wants to eliminate the corporate income tax and cut corporation taxes in florida by $1.5 billion at the same time he wants to cut funding for the schools by $1.5 billion. you don’t get much simpler than that. he’s taking money out of our children’s money, because he thinks the fundamental problem is rick scott doesn’t have enough money. he wants a cut for rich people, a tax cut for corporations, because he wants a tax cut for rick scott. that’s his motivation here. he spent $78 million to get the office. he wants a return on his investment.
>> congressman grayson how dangerous an idea is it to privatize some of these functions where you give people motivation to put more people in prison?
>> it will simply never worked. we tried to privatize wars in iraq and afghanistan and ended up with massive war profit tiering, $8 billion simply missing. we have a public school system that dates back to colonial times in american. we were the first company in the world to have a universal free public school system. that’s what rick scott and the republicans wants everybody want to destroy.
>> former florida congressman alan grayson, we appreciate your time tonight.
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