Sen. Rick Scott defended Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency's recommendations for federal job cuts, telling CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that Americans are "fed up" with government spending and waste.
The Florida Republican said when it was pointed out to him that Musk was neither elected nor confirmed by the Senate, "Musk does not have the power to fire people.
"The president of the United States is Donald Trump, and the agency heads are the one who manage each of their departments, so they have got the decision. That's what Elon Musk has told me time and time again."
Scott added, "The president of the United States was elected ... by the American people to basically rein in government, rein in this waste, to bring some accountability, some transparency, some common sense to government. And that's exactly what Donald Trump is doing.
"People are fed up with wasteful government spending. And we have had a 2% increase in population in five years and a 53% increase in spending."
He added, "We will not get interest rates down, we will not get inflation under control until we balance the budget. That's what we have to do. And Elon Musk is part of the process of balancing the budget."
When asked about accusations that some of the firings have been done in a chaotic way, only to be rescinded a short while later, Scott said, "You do your best you can every day. What they're trying to do is rein in government ... are they going to be perfect? No. No one's perfect.
"Are they, when they make a mistake, are they going to fix it? Yes. We have a big problem. We have $36.5 trillion for the debt. We have got to be very aggressive at figuring out how to do this."
The senator added, "I'm very comfortable that Donald Trump, Elon Musk, our agency heads, they're going to do the best they can. And if they make a mistake, they will fix their mistake. These are smart people. They're willing to work really hard to do the right thing."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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