In an exclusive interview with The Floridian, Florida Senator Rick Scott (R) shared some issues he would like to see the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) address come January 20th. DOGE, spearheaded by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, has committed itself to going after government waste. However, the Florida senator posits that it should also prioritize government regulations. Namely, Senator Scott believes that DOGE should target government regulations instituted by both the Biden Administration and the Obama Administration.
Senator Scott: "It’s what I’ve done along that’s exciting. I turned over failing businesses. What did I do? I got rid of the waste. Okay. I became governor of Florida and got rid of the 20% of the regulatory environment and streamlined the permitting. That did more to add jobs than any of the tax cuts we did, right?
Senator Scott: Up here, think about this, in the last five years: 2% increase in population. 53% increase in government spending. [pause] In the last 4 years, the regulatory costs under the Biden Administration has increased cost by 2.6 trillion dollars. We only have a 28 trillion dollar economy.
Senator Scott: I’ve been talking to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, and the first thing is go after all the new regulations. Go after the Biden regulations, and go after the Obama… you’ll have to go through Congress. It’s just with the agencies. You do it all just with the agencies. That’s trillions of dollars. Trillions of dollars. That’s what they’ve added the last four years, so that’s the first thing I would do.
Senator Scott: Then, the other thing is look at all the waste. Look at all the increase in spending over the last five years. So what’s happened? Why do we have to grow this much faster? Look at all the new spending in the last five years. There’s gonna be so much of it that they can eliminate, so I’m very optimistic that we’re gonna see a reduction in the size of the federal government, a reduction of the regulatory environment, streamline the permitting environment, and I’m hopeful at some point for a balanced budget.
Editor's note: this transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
