In the primary election Aug. 20, four Democrats will vie for their party’s nomination in the U.S. Senate race in Florida. The nominee will likely go up against Republicans incumbent Rick Scott.
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a former U.S. congresswoman, discussed insurance, taxes, abortion and more on Friday with Tom Hudson on "The Florida Roundup."
“We have some great candidates here with us today that I'm supportive of, and we all know the work that has to be put in," said Mucarsel-Powell, who was born in Ecuador and raised in Miami. "But this is about Florida. This is about families. This is about electing a senator that's going to be working for every single Floridian, regardless of political affiliation."
Economy and taxes
Mucarsel-Powell, 53, said she’s not at all sold on increasing the top tax rate for people making over $400,000, as outlined in President Joe Biden’s 2025 budget.
“I can tell you that people here have been paying taxes for too long, and part of the problem is that we haven't had the appropriate oversight of how we're spending that money,” she said, pointing out how state taxes haven’t been used properly for things such as funding public schools and universities.
“For me, it's not about raising taxes. For me, it's about making sure that we are allocating the taxes that we're already paying to the programs that are meant to be funded.”
In 2017, former President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which included a state and local tax deduction capped at $10,000 for taxpayers. The act is set to expire at the end of 2025, but the Republican Party’s platform says the tax bill would be made permanent if the GOP wins the White House and majorities in Congress.
Mucarsel-Powell said she wasn’t sure where she stood on continuing or removing the $10,000 cap, or so-called SALT deduction.
“You know, that was an issue that when I was in Congress, it came up. That's when they placed that cap. And it does hurt certain areas in the country, and it affects the amount of funding that we can collect through tax collection there,” Mucarsel-Powell said.
However, she explained how allowing the bill to continue would give a tax cut to the ultra-wealthy.
“It's not helping middle-class families," she said. "It's not helping the average Floridian that is working 40, 60 hours a week and can't afford to live in the state of Florida.”
Insurance
Mucarsel-Powell said she supports a U.S. Senate committee investigation into Citizens Property Insurance, describing how high insurance rates are affecting all Floridians.
“Tom, everywhere I have been, it doesn't matter if I'm talking to students that go to (Florida A&M University) or seniors living in Orlando," Mucarsel-Powell said. "The affordability crisis is really crippling Floridians across our state, regardless of age, regardless of income level.
“I have had conversations with the senators that are doing that investigation, and part of the problem — and this is something that we don't talk about when we talk about the insurance crisis — is that the lack of investment on climate resiliency, the fact that we're facing higher sea levels, the fact that we're facing stronger and stronger storms, are directly linked to property insurance rates and the crisis that we're facing. And we're going to have to look at federally backed programs to protect our coastal communities.”
Abortion
Mucarsel-Powell said she supports efforts to prevent the state from restricting abortion before viability or when needed to protect the life of a patient, as described in a Florida amendment on the November ballot.
The married mother of three children also said she’s in favor of expanding Medicaid to support reproductive health care.
“The issue of reproductive health care is central to a woman's health care, and abortion bans disproportionately affect women of color, low-income women. We have seen it," she said. "It's directly tied to high levels of violence against women and also higher rates of maternal mortality that disproportionately affects Black women, Latina women; and so we have a problem here in the state of Florida with the lack of coverage.
“I mean, why would we discriminate against women that have Medicaid if they have an emergency in their reproductive health care, if they have to be forced to terminate a pregnancy, whether it's because of rape, incest, whether it's hurting the life of the mother, of the fetus; why would we discriminate against women because they have Medicaid and not regular insurance?”
Challenging Mucarsel-Powell in the Democrat primary are Stanley Campbell, Rod Joseph and Brian Rush.
Scott’s primary challengers are John Columbus and Keith Gross.
This report was compiled off an interview conducted by Tom Hudson for "The Florida Roundup."
