Florida Sens. Scott and Rubio vote against debt ceiling deal

By Eric Daugherty

Published Jun. 2, 2023, 12:01 p.m. ET | Updated Jun. 2, 2023

Republican Florida Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (FLV) – Both of Florida’s U.S. senators voted against the debt ceiling deal, which passed 63-36 late Thursday night.

Florida Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott voted down the measure after it cleared the U.S. House with around half of Florida’s Republican representatives.

In a press release, Scott’s office slammed the deal for allowing U.S. debt to eventually hit $35 trillion.

“I voted no today because this legislation will only bury us deeper in debt and does nothing to stop the rampant inflation Biden and the Democrats have caused with their addiction to reckless government spending,” Scott said.

“There will never come a day when the permanent political class in either party in Washington will stand up in favor of curtailing runaway spending and debt,” he continued. “The politicians in Washington will never accept that they are wrong, so we have to force change.”

“I have spent every day of my time in the Senate fighting to pass commonsense reforms that shake some sanity into this place and today made it even clearer that our work must continue. We won’t compromise on debt.”

Rubio indicated before the vote that he was “torn” about the deal and was concerned about the defense spending, worried the Pentagon’s budget will decrease overall because of inflation.

Under the deal, which is officially entitled “The Fiscal Responsibility Act,” spending for the 2024 fiscal year would remain relatively stable. Furthermore, for the year 2025, the agreement would enforce a cap on spending increases, limiting them to a maximum of 1%.

As per the agreement, medical care for veterans would receive full funding at the levels outlined in President Joe Biden’s proposed 2024 budget request.

Additionally, the deal includes provisions to pause the allocation of funds for hiring new Internal Revenue Service agents, while also reclaiming approximately $30 billion in unutilized COVID-19 relief funds previously approved by Congress.

However, some conservative members of Congress, including many representing Florida, vehemently oppose the deal for suspending the debt limit for two years rather than setting a new one as well as not making enough spending cuts.

The agreement reached between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., would temporarily suspend the government’s debt limit for a duration of two years, instead of establishing a new limit. This would mean that the issue of the debt ceiling would not arise again until after the 2024 presidential election.

Below are the U.S. representatives from Florida who voted for the deal: