SCOTT: You get — you know you want to you know expend rail service all across the state. How are you going to pay for that? You know there is nothing that you want to cut. Look, the papers have said the $12.5 billion is right. You’re just relying on the federal government for paying for it. I don’t believe that.
SINK: Excuse me. You are reinventing history.
SCOTT: No I’m not.
SINK: I think that — I think that you have spent a lifetime reinventing the truth, Rick.
SINK: Let me say this. There is nothing in my plan that calls for this number, this 12.5 billion number that you keep throwing out and you know what? You started —
SCOTT: So what is it? If it’s not $12.5 billion, is it $9 billion? Is it —
SINK: I am not raising taxes. Look, I grew up on a family farm, and I learned how to balance the checkbook. You heard me say the other night, I’m a math major. I know how to do numbers. We are not raising taxes. I — my plan calls for cutting taxes.
SINK: Let’s go back — let’s go back to your plan —
SCOTT: No —
SINK: — in which —
SCOTT: Your plan calls for raising — how much we spend on school — over $2 billion. That’s what your plan does. OK, tell me how you’re going to pay for it.
SINK: I don’t know where you got the number from.
SINK: You know what — you have spent this campaign, ever since the beginning, making up numbers.
SCOTT: No. That’s not true.
SINK: Just like you made up Medicare fraud in your company.
SCOTT: You have all these — Alex, Alex, you have — you have — look, you want to talk about fraud. Let’s talk about your job at nations Bank. Your tellers were paid kickbacks, your tellers in your bank were paid kickbacks for directing elderly consumers from — smile about it. You don’t care about seniors. Is that the deal?
SCOTT: You want to smile about it. Your bank —
SINK: Am I going to have an opportunity to respond?
KING: (INAUDIBLE)
SCOTT: Let me finish and make sure you understand what the issue is. Your tellers were paid kickbacks — OK. Your tellers were paid kickbacks for — OK, you think it’s funny for these seniors that you sent from safe deposits to risky ones. All right, you were sued — your bank was sued and you paid fines. That’s called fraud. So I have a whole list — you want to talk about fraud, I can give you a list of them.
SINK: Is it my opportunity to respond?
SINK: Good. I’d be glad to. You can’t lecture me about fraud.
(LAUGHTER)
SCOTT: Oh no, Alex —
SINK: Let me respond.
SCOTT: No, you want to joke about this. I can give you some others. You want to talk about Sykes. You want to talk about your county fraud there? You know look I’m proud — oh, yes, let’s laugh about it because only — shareholders only lost over $500 million. OK, you want to just laugh about these things. Look in contrast, I’m proud of the company I built.
SINK: (INAUDIBLE).
SCOTT: All right. I started my life in public housing. OK. I’ve worked since I was in the second grade. I started that company with $150,000 — yes, $125,000. I built it over nine years to take care of 100,000 patients a day. I focused on three things. I wanted better patient satisfaction, better outcome, and better price. I did all three.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.
KING: I’m going to call a time-out here because I promised both of you we’re going to spend extended time trying to get some answers about both of your companies. Your company — your bank and your health care company. I want to ask one more question on another issue before we take our first break of the debate. You have said Mr. Scott that you think Florida should essentially copy Arizona. Look at the Arizona immigration law and come up with some version that fits Florida, and you have said you oppose amnesty.
Amnesty is a buzzword in our politics and it can mean different things to different people. So I want you to explain as clearly as you can to the people of Florida, a state with an estimated 675,000 undocumented immigrants right now as we speak tonight, what does amnesty mean? Does amnesty mean as governor of Florida, not only would you not welcome anymore illegal immigrants in, but you would use state resources, state money, make it a priority, take that money from elsewhere, find them, round them up and try to get rid of them?
SCOTT: Here is what I believe in. I believe in legal immigration. My lieutenant governor is a legal immigrant. She came here when she was 8 years old. Her name is Jennifer Carroll. But, Adam, everybody hasn’t heard about — my lieutenant governor is a legal immigrant. She came here when she was 8. She’s lived the American dream. She was legal. She joined the service after high school as enlisted. Retired 20 years later as lieutenant commander. All right?
We need to need to policy — our federal government needs to secure our borders. We need to know who’s in our country. However, if you’re in our country illegally and you’re doing something wrong, and you’re stopped by law enforcement, just like you get asked, I get asked for my I.D., you should be able to ask if you’re legal or not.
SMITH: So would you advocate proactively looking for those illegals?
SCOTT: Absolutely not. Absolutely not.
KING: Absolutely not.
SCOTT: No. Absolutely not.
KING: So that’s not a form of amnesty for those who are here. They’re all breaking the law. I know that’s going to be the answer back when I say this. But for those who are here who — except for breaking the law to enter the country and to enter the state or law-abiding citizens, many are working. Roughly 5 percent of your state workforce. Are they welcome in a Rick Scott Florida?
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