General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRick Scott says Americans would rather collect unemployment than go to work
Sen. Rick Scott wrote in a campaign fundraising email sent Thursday night that Americans thrown out of work because of the coronavirus pandemic would rather collect unemployment than go back to work.
Businesses looking to reopen are telling us their employees dont want to come back to work because they collect more on unemployment, Scotts email said. And who can blame them?
In the email, Scott railed against the $600-per-week unemployment benefits Congress allotted to out-of-work Americans, and he blamed Democrats for allowing it to go through. The benefits made up a part of a $2 trillion package called the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. It passed the U.S. Senate by a vote of 96-0 in late March.
One of those votes belonged to Scott, although at the time he had strong objections, including that some workers would receive benefits exceeding their former salaries.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/04/24/rick-scott-says-americans-would-rather-collect-unemployment-than-go-to-work/
They're all vile assholes, but Rick Scott is an especially vile asshole.
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)Or, was it another Florida physician? So many crooks down there, I get them mixed up.
leftieNanner
(15,084 posts)Medicare FRAUD! I don't think he's a physician though.
NCjack
(10,279 posts)to the point that they would give up trying to complete the process.
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)He isn't a physician? I gave him more credit than I meant to.
Victor_c3
(3,557 posts)Same thing with the word felony
I think we should use the term misunderstanding instead
Phoenix61
(17,003 posts)77 times. He designed Floridas unemployment system to fail and it has spectacularly.
Caliman73
(11,736 posts)He has a law degree and he is the Florida politician who engaged in an almost 2 billion dollar fraud against Medicare, the largest ever Medicare fraud in the nation's history.
iemitsu
(3,888 posts)Their employees more and actually pay them living wages.
Amishman
(5,557 posts)small businesses, particularly in high labor industries, can't afford to pay a lot more than they do now.
The money needs to come from the government, and needs to be drawn from the pockets of those who have excess (the rich and big businesses)
UBI is the real answer.
Politicub
(12,165 posts)It drives the GOP bananas when a working-class person isnt suffering.
Stuart G
(38,421 posts)lpbk2713
(42,757 posts)Scott is a thief and a liar.
Tom Kitten
(7,347 posts)Surely I don't have to post how this makes no sense, is just a pack of lies
Businesses looking to reopen are telling us their employees dont want to come back to work because they collect more on unemployment" Really. So what does he have to back such allegations. Anything?
atreides1
(16,077 posts)...but not vile enough to stop Floridians from electing him as their governor, twice...and then electing him to the US Senate!
It isn't just about Scott being a vile asshole, it's more about the vile asshole Floridians who keep voting for him...
csziggy
(34,136 posts)That never once in any of their campaigns against Rick Scott brought up his history of Medicare fraud. It would have been the perfect issue to nail him on, but they ignored it, not once, not twice but THREE fucking times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Scott#Columbia/HCA
This was a significant part of Scott's resume but was not important enough to educate the people of Florida about during our elections. FDP failed our state. This is why I will not work with them directly.
bluecollar2
(3,622 posts)I'll vote blue but I'll be damned if I aid the state party.
Doreen
(11,686 posts)there are some people who actually believe that way. My friends niece tried to get him to quit his job the other day because he would make more on unemployment.
His niece is not a good person so her saying that does not surprise me at all.
Polybius
(15,398 posts)If the choice was go back to work or stay on unemployment, I'm sorry but I must say the truth: stay on unemployment.
forthemiddle
(1,379 posts)But I cant wait to go back, Im so bored!
My caveat though, I work from home all of the time, I am just a victim to the hospitals furloughing staff because they had to cancel elective and routine care.
randr
(12,412 posts)Dirty Socialist
(3,252 posts)They stole the 2000 election for Dubya, and its been downhill since then.
Cha
(297,196 posts)HAVE TOLD THEM About the CV in January Instead of Wasting 70 Precious Days!
mitch96
(13,895 posts)His company paid MILLIONS in fines that made him MILLIONS. He bought the gov'nr ship in GOP Florida and he did the same, buying his senate seat.
Next up?? He will try to buy the presidency... uffda
m
Hobo
(757 posts)Just shut the fuck up you sniveling douche bag, no one want to hear from you go the fuck away and be quiet.
Hobo
ornotna
(10,800 posts)Except hardly anyone in Florida is actually collecting benefits.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/politics/florida-unemployment-benefits-processing/index.html
Beartracks
(12,809 posts)=========
csziggy
(34,136 posts)former9thward
(32,001 posts)No one is going back to work making that type money to a job that pays $15 to $20 a hour. They would be losing money. People are not stupid or insane. They will not go back to work until after the federal program ends July 31st. Anyone who believes differently is living in an alternate universe.
ornotna
(10,800 posts)The max state benefit is $275. And Florida is hardly keeping up with the people needing it. See post above.
former9thward
(32,001 posts)In Florida. That is equivalent to $21.88 a hour. In Florida.
ornotna
(10,800 posts)So you didn't read the part where most Floridians aren't actually getting anything right now. To misquote Billy Preston - Nuthin' plus nuthin' leaves nuthin'
That's about nuthin' per hour. In Florida.
MoonlitKnight
(1,584 posts)Max in Florida is $275 a week and people arent getting it because pRick Scott designed the system to fail. So max would be $875 a week. Even if someone got a grand a week they are now without insurance.
former9thward
(32,001 posts)In NY it is far higher. At $875, in Florida, a week, insurance can easily be Cobred. BS back at you. And many low wage service jobs have no insurance anyway, so nothing changes there.
MoonlitKnight
(1,584 posts)Are low wage service workers with no benefits. Your logic is seriously flawed.
Name a business that is hiring but is not getting applications. Better yet, name a job that is open that you would be willing to take right now.
Polybius
(15,398 posts)But I'll wait, because I'm not gonna get the $800+ a week there that I'm getting now on unemployment.
MoonlitKnight
(1,584 posts)Once unemployment runs out.
quaker bill
(8,224 posts)The max is $275 a week, which less than minimum wage and you had to be making many times that much to qualify, if you can, for the maximum benefit.
There is a real easy answer, pay the people you really want to hire more money. Alternately, since about 85% have not qualified at all, just hire one of them.
bdamomma
(63,848 posts)those repigs have such disdain for Americans, it is so evident. Vile bastards.
EarthFirst
(2,900 posts)26-30 million are out of work.
I can assure you that we are not setting the world on fire with her UI benefits after losing her job of twenty years.
We lost 60% of our income; our healthcare and retirement benefits.
Right. We absolutely love our new reality.
Prick.
GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)Ive spent 33 years with my company. Even if permanently laid off my retirement will be there for me as Ive been vested for 23 years.
Sorry about your situation.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,412 posts)that it has anything to do for health reasons?
malaise
(268,980 posts)<snip>
Here, well fact-check the Democratic counter-attack that Scott "oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the nations history."
Scotts tenure at Columbia/HCA
During Scotts 2010 race for governor, PolitiFact fact-checked multiple claims related to his tenure at Columbia/HCA. Now, well recap some of our earlier discussion of the investigation and fine.
Scott started what was first Columbia in 1987, purchasing two El Paso, Texas, hospitals. Over the next decade he would add hundreds of hospitals, surgery centers and home health locations. In 1994, Scotts Columbia purchased Tennessee-headquartered HCA and its 100 hospitals, and merged the companies.
In 1997, federal agents went public with an investigation into the company, first seizing records from four El Paso-area hospitals and then expanding across the country. The investigation focused on whether Columbia/HCA had committed Medicare and Medicaid fraud.
Scott resigned as CEO in July 1997, less than four months after the inquiry became public. Company executives said had Scott remained CEO, the entire chain could have been in jeopardy.
During his 2010 race, the Miami Herald reported that Scott had said he would have immediately stopped his company from committing fraud -- if only "somebody told me something was wrong." But there were such warnings in the companys annual public reports to stockholders -- which Scott had to sign as president and CEO.
Scott wanted to fight the accusations, but the corporate board of the publicly traded company wanted to settle.
In December 2000, the U.S. Justice Department announced that Columbia/HCA agreed to pay $840 million in criminal fines, civil damages and penalties.
Among the revelations from the 2000 settlement:
Columbia billed Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs for tests that were not necessary or had not been ordered by physicians;
FEATURED FACT-CHECK
The company attached false diagnosis codes to patient records to increase reimbursement to the hospitals;
The company illegally claimed non-reimbursable marketing and advertising costs as community education;
Columbia billed the government for home health care visits for patients who did not qualify to receive them.
The government settled a second series of similar claims with Columbia/HCA in 2002 for an additional $881 million. The total for the two fines was $1.7 billion.
On Scotts 2010 campaign website, he admitted to the $1.7 billion fine, though the link is no longer on the site.
What type of record was that fine?
The fine clearly set a record, though the Justice Department (and media reports at the time) were not always consistent in their terminology, sometimes describing it as the "largest government fraud settlement in U.S. History" and other times more specifically as the "largest health care fraud case in U.S. History."
A Justice Department spokeswoman said that officials refer to Columbia/HCA as "largest health care fraud" rather than the more narrow term "Medicare fraud" because it involved defrauding other government programs such as Medicaid rather than Medicare exclusively. The Justice Department described in detail the various ways the company defrauded Medicare and other government health programs here.
The Columbia/HCA case "still is the largest fraud settlement for a hospital corporation in U.S. history," since all the others involved pharmaceutical firms, added Zack Buck, a health care law professor at Mercer. "So I guess, the quote (by the Florida Democratic Party) is a little loose."
The Scott campaign did not respond to an inquiry for this fact-check. However in 2010, Scott told the Tampa Bay Times, "There's no question that mistakes were made and as CEO, I have to accept responsibility for those mistakes. I was focused on lowering costs and making the hospitals more efficient. I could have had more internal and external controls. I learned hard lessons, and I've taken that lesson and it's helped me become a better business person and a better leader."
Our ruling
The Florida Democratic Party said Scott "oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the nations history."
The Columbia/HCA settlement has since been surpassed in dollar value, though the bigger cases involved Medicare somewhat less directly. Because the Democratic Party could have been a bit more specific in its wording -- by saying that Scott oversaw the largest Medicare fraud at the time -- we rate the claim Mostly True.
----------------------
OK then
onethatcares
(16,168 posts)I'm going to c & p that in my next email to him. rubio and him are my senators and I get spam from them all the time.
malaise
(268,980 posts)struggle4progress
(118,282 posts)Takket
(21,564 posts)and then one day a crisis hits and the person ends up with 3 slices of bread, and wants to keep getting 3 slices of bread......... the problem isn't the 3 slices of bread. its the two slices.
Skittles
(153,160 posts)dontcha know
Drahthaardogs
(6,843 posts)Duh....
totodeinhere
(13,058 posts)virus that might kill me. I have some underlying conditions.
treestar
(82,383 posts)some of them voted for it and Dotard signed it! Stupid.
And they know unemployment is not going to last forever. So his claim is probably suspect.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,956 posts)Take a UV lamp and stick it up your ass.
quaker bill
(8,224 posts)offer more money.
Of course the maximum absurdity of the Scott comments lie in the fact that no non-essential business is even allowed to open in FL. Essential businesses never closed or laid anyone off. There is no issue at present, except for the fact that the Scott designed UI system is denying earned benefits from about a million people and all the food banks are over run with people who had jobs and the money to purchase food 6 weeks ago.
Matthew28
(1,798 posts)thinks anyone that isn't rich is property of the rich and believes that we should all slave for them.
GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)People are going to raise hell at going back to work at half that amount. Whoever got that amount in the bill was brilliantly devious. Nancy perhaps?!?
It will change the playing field when this is over.
McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)Except for MAGATs. Their idea of a quality life is to "supervise" people of color working.
bedazzled
(1,761 posts)You are off unemployment. No? Filed in.FL.on 3/25 and not a word
In It to Win It
(8,248 posts)So that working class people feel incentivized to go work for shit wages to build wealth for some wealthy person that also feels working class people should be grateful to the wealthy for giving them a job.
Maxheader
(4,373 posts)Absolutely dick, I mean rick...
when the alternative might be getting heavily sedated, having a tube stuck down my throat and still...
maybe dying...dick head, I mean rick...
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)He can't help being despicably unable to value individuals who aren't powerful. This is just him being him.
democrattotheend
(11,605 posts)For many low wage workers, unemployment with the $600 enhancements pays more than their regular hourly wage or salary. Plus, they get to stay home and don't have to put themselves at risk of getting the coronavirus. Who wouldn't want to stay safe at home for more money than they make on the job?
I feel for some small businesses put in a bad position by this, given that the PPP loan requires them to spend 75% on payroll to get forgiveness, but I also think workers whose employers have been good to them, especially union workers with health benefits, won't want to give up their jobs for a short term windfall. But if all a company is paying is minimum wage with no benefits and no union, I can't really blame its workers for preferring to make more money not working. The job has to be good enough to compete with unemployment. I recognize that some legit small businesses can't afford to do that and I feel for them, but for large companies I have no sympathy whatsoever. If they gave their workers jobs that were good enough that were worth making less temporarily to hold onto, they wouldn't have this problem.