GOP senators slammed Rick Scott for creating needless problems with his controversial tax plan: report

• GOP senators complained to leadership about Rick Scott's policy plan, The Washington Post reported.
• Several senators said they were being attacked over the tax and term limit proposals.

After Sen. Rick Scott released his conservative "Rescue America" policy plan, fellow Republican senators grumbled to GOP leadership about the attacks they were facing because of the proposal, according to The Washington Post.

The 11-point plan — which immediately attracted attention due to its controversial tax proposals — drew Republicans into a debate that they didn't want to have in a year when they feel confident that they can retake one or both chambers of Congress this fall. And those members let their feelings be known during a late February meeting in the office of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who had already distanced himself from the Florida Republican's plan.

According to The Post, Scott's Senate colleagues brought forward articles that showed members being attacked for certain provisions of the plan, especially the proposal about taxes and another on implementing term limits. Several members reportedly "chastised" the senator "in round-robin fashion" for the unneeded problems that he was creating for members, according to individuals with knowledge of the meeting who spoke to The Post.

Congressional Democrats quickly seized on the proposal and have attacked the Scott plan as a tax increase on American families, which the senator has firmly rejected.

The Biden White House on Monday issued a Tax Day "fact sheet" that poked at Scott's plan.

"The difference in approach between the President and Congressional Republicans couldn't be clearer," the statement read. "The President is fighting for tax cuts for the middle class and to ensure that the super wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share, while Congressional Republicans, led by Senator Scott, are proposing big tax increases on middle-class families."

"Democrats are lying about the plan, and Republicans are parroting what they're saying," Scott said at a recent event at the Heritage Foundation. "I'm not going to raise taxes on anybody."

However, the "Rescue America" plan aims to get every American to pay some form of federal income tax "to have skin in the game." That would represent a tax increase to the roughly 50 percent of Americans who currently pay no federal income taxes because they either don't make enough to have income tax liability or they receive various tax credits.

Scott — who was first elected to the Senate in 2018 and currently serves as the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee — steadfastly rejected the criticism of his plan.

"My whole life has been people telling me that, you know, you're doing it the wrong way. You can't, you shouldn't be doing this," he told The Post.

In his capacity as NRSC chairman, Scott is tasked with leading the party's Senate fundraising arm, but he has also received some blowback from his efforts on that front, especially as the upper chamber is split 50-50 and the GOP is eager to regain the majority that they lost last year after the dual Georgia runoff elections.

According to The Post, some Republicans have privately complained that Scott has turned the NRSC into the "National Rick Scott Committee" and joked that he was laying out his plans "for four percent in Iowa," a reference to the first-in-the-nation presidential caucus.

While Scott has committed to running for reelection in 2024 — amid prior speculation that he sought to mount a presidential bid — he will also have to navigate McConnell's firm grip in mapping out the Republican agenda.

McConnell in February dismissed any talk of tax changes associated with Scott's proposal, with the GOP leader reportedly not keen on not releasing any details of the party's legislative goals before the November midterms.

"If we're fortunate enough to have the majority next year, I'll be the majority leader, I'll decide in consultation with my members what to put on the floor," he told reporters at the time.

He continued: "And let me tell you what would not be part of our agenda. We will not have as part of our agenda a bill that raises taxes on half the American people, and sunsets social security and Medicare within five years."