Sen. Scott: How To Rescue America From the Spread of Socialism | Opinion - Newsweek

Zohran Mamdani is right that our political system has failed the American people. The rise of his brand of socialism in America is terrifying, but it shouldn’t shock anyone who has watched Washington catastrophically fail to lead with policies that work for the American people.

Every two years, establishment politicians beg for votes with the same empty promises: to hold government accountable, lower prices and fight for the American Dream. We have watched this cycle repeat for decades, and things have only gotten worse.

Instead of holding government accountable, politicians in Washington have dug Americans into a $40 trillion debt grave by massively expanding the federal government.

While promising to lower prices, Congress has approved massive government spending, causing prices and interest rates to skyrocket.

In the name of protecting the American people, the federal government has crept into every part of our lives, crushed opportunity and choked the American Dream nearly to death with countless regulations.

We have all seen this play out and are furious about it, but young Americans are understandably on the verge of revolt. The American Dream that existed for their parents and grandparents is out of reach for them. Washington’s failures have left them feeling cheated and disillusioned with our political system, and stuck in a world where they can’t afford to buy a house, have decent health care or start a family. Their anger is real, but socialism will not solve any of their problems.

Socialists promise steady wages and health care, but they end up controlling where you work, how much money you make and where you can travel. The government becomes the one that can decide if you live in a house or a one-bedroom apartment, how much food your children need or whether your elderly mother can have surgery. If you think I'm exaggerating, there are plenty of Cuban and Venezuelan socialism survivors in my state of Florida who would beg to differ.

So, if socialism isn’t the answer, how do we reignite the American Dream? Simple: listen to the American people and make government work for the things that are most important to them. In other words, blow up the status quo in Washington to lower prices, fuel private sector job creation, and return to the American freedom that gave me and the generations before me the chance to succeed.

That means doing three things: drastically reduce government spending to balance the federal budget, shred the massive regulatory regime that has grown out of control in Washington, and make job creation the number one priority through tax cuts, smart investment and good policy.

Washington’s obsession with spending has become so reckless that we are now running muti-trillion-dollar annual deficits. These deficits are fueling a $40 trillion debt that costs more than a trillion dollars in interest annually. That’s a trillion dollars that provides zero return for American families. It cannot be spent on national security, Social Security, roads, or Medicare.

To save the programs Americans depend on most, we must reduce government spending in all the places it doesn’t provide a real return for taxpayers and finally balance the federal budget. We cannot tax our way out of this problem. If Congress doesn’t end its spending addiction, critical programs will soon see enormous cuts or cease to exist entirely, interest rates will remain high—and so will prices.

To make sure that workers keep more of their paychecks and can afford loans for cars, homes and businesses, we must balance the budget.

Next, Congress must take a sledgehammer to federal government’s regulations. As governor of Florida, I slashed 5,000 burdensome regulations, taking permitting times from months to days, eliminating stupid regulatory hurdles that had no impact on safety, and cutting costs to start and grow a business. Our economy boomed and businesses created 1.7 million new private sector jobs in just eight years.

Finally, if we cut spending and balance the budget, while slashing back the regulatory burden of the federal government, we can fuel the economic boom needed to grow private sector jobs, revitalize our great nation and save the American Dream.

Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. That should be the number one priority of the federal government.

The dream we know today is broken, but it’s not dead yet. That’s why I’ve launched a project to rescue the American Dream. It starts with pointing out all the ways that big government and bad policy have betrayed the average American. From there, we can map the way back to the kind of country that made it possible for a poor kid like me who grew up in public housing to become a CEO, a governor and a senator.

If we want to spare the next generation the misery of socialism, we need to show them the opportunities freedom offers when Washington actually works for them and lets them live the American Dream.

Rick Scott is a Republican U.S. senator from Florida and a former two-term governor of the state.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.