Rick Scott has a beef with Joe Biden’s attacks on the meat industry

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott stood up for the meat industry Monday, reacting to President Joe Biden‘s plans to take action on high meat prices.

“I’m thankful that people want to go produce meat,” Scott said on Mornings with Maria on the Fox Business Network.

Biden plans to crack down on what a fact sheet from the White House calls a “lack of competition hurting consumers, producers, and our economy” in the meat industry. Scott rejects this premise.

“I’ve got a grandson who does more than Joe Biden does to solve problems,” Scott quipped. “I mean, Joe Biden takes no responsibility. Joe Biden and the Democrats are causing this.”

“I mean, look, companies want to service their customers. And they’re competing. And they’re competing for price, quality, service. Stop beating up companies. Start reducing taxes, regulation,” Scott said, before going on to discuss his record of tax and regulation cuts as Florida Governor last decade.

Scott went on to say “we need to make it easier for people to get into business so we have more competition.”

“That’s what’s going to drive prices down, not government trying to make somebody feel bad by attacking somebody,” Scott said.

The White House position is that aggressive industry consolidation has been a detriment, and a main driver behind rising food costs.

“Four large meat-packing companies control 85 percent of the beef market. In poultry, the top four processing firms control 54 percent of the market. And in pork, the top four processing firms control about 70 percent of the market. The meatpackers and processors buy from farmers and sell to retailers like grocery stores, making them a key bottleneck in the food supply chain,” the White House fact sheet asserts.

Biden plans to announce some policy moves Monday, including slotting $1 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act for processing capacity expansion.

The administration also plans to clarify “Product of USA” claims on meat packaging to ensure product is actually culled and produced stateside, as well as implement “new, stronger rules under the Packers and Stockyards Act — the law designed to combat abuses by the meatpackers and processors.”

Monday’s policy rollout follows up on Biden’s July Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, intended to create a “fairer, more resilient, and more dynamic economy.”