Watch Rick Scott’s CNN Implosion (Video)

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When not looking for national security news, I like to check in on Florida politics, which are a great bellwether for the nation at large. Specifically, I like to track tea party Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who lives just a couple blocks from me, and who’s setting records for unpopularity, just months into his tenure.

Scott’s latest crusade is to argue against any rise in the federal debt ceiling—an issue in which he has no official say, and whose basic economic consequences he seems to grasp not one jot. (This week, Scott said Florida would see no effects from a US default; his opponent in last year’s gubernatorial race, former state CFO Alex Sink, called his statement “clueless…That’s Florida Budgeting 101.”) The beleaguered guv took his case to CNN today, and managed to get himself yelled at by two anchors. At one point, Ali Velshi gave up. “Why is this difficult for you to understand, governor?”

A failure to articulate basic principles of macroeconomics is all the more disturbing when you consider all of Scott’s corporate work before taking over the Sunshine State. That MBA really paid off.

In any case, more on Scott’s political plans later…especially his budding plans to “improve” higher education. Until then, watch the beatdown:

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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