Rick Scott's central campaign promise seemed pretty simple: His economic plan would create 700,000 additional jobs on top of normal job growth over seven years. In the past month, Scott has been flip-flopping wildly on that promise, and this morning on a conservative radio show, he said, "I could argue that I don't have to create any jobs."
At the rate he's going, he's almost guaranteed to create a job for a Democrat in 2014.
Asked in a gubernatorial debate whether his plan would add 700,000 jobs in addition to the 1 million new jobs state economists predicted Florida would produce regardless of who was governor, Scott simply affirmed it would.
Now he's trying to fuzz up some math to question the predictions of those economists, many of whom remain on the state's payroll under Scott.
"I could argue that I don't have to create any jobs," Scott told radio host Bud Hedinger this morning. "I just have to make sure we don't lose jobs."
Hedinger is a Maitland, Florida conservative radio host, and while most conservative journos are more than happy to let Republicans go full force on spin, Hedinger pushed Scott on his evolving stance.
Earlier this month it seemed Scott was promising only 700,000 jobs total in seven years -- 300,000 fewer than expected plus the 700,000 he promised to add. Then Scott released a letter trying to clarify the statement by questioning the economists' predictions.
It seems funny that he is questioning economists' predictions when he was more than happy to wildly predict that his plan would create 700,000 jobs in the first place.
"No economist can tell us where the economy is going," Scott reiterated to Hedinger. "And look at what's happened nationally: unbelievable slow job growth."
It would have been nice of Scott to clarify this point during the campaign. He made no effort to counter the notion that his plan would add 1,700,000 jobs total. Now he's arguing that his plan doesn't actually have to create any jobs. That's a giant flip-flop if we ever saw one, and believe us, we've seen NBA players hanging out on South Beach.
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