Gov. Rick Scott has unveiled an ambitious agenda, but much of it is already in jeopardy.

What looked possible just six weeks when he was sworn in for his second term as governor is looking less likely by the day.

Rocked by scandals at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Department of Corrections, Scott's popularity has taken a hit, and lawmakers are taking note.

From the governor's calls to cut taxes for businesses and households to making graduate school more affordable and expanding Medicaid, the Florida Legislature's majority Republicans are pushing back, not quite telling the governor "no" but certainly not saying "yes."

For Scott, it was never supposed to be this way. Winning re-election typically means winning a new storehouse of political capital, but now with that capital drying up and Republicans revolting, Scott may find strange bedfellows in the Capitol's Democrats.

House Minority Leader Mark Pafford said Scott's only hope of salvaging his 2015 agenda may lie in working with Democrats. Not so much with the tax cuts, but when it comes to Medicaid and water policy, there's room for the kind of cooperation Scott may no longer have with his own GOP.

"You've got two chambers that are, in each chamber's mind, very, very important," Pafford said. "You've got a Cabinet who is reeling from this Gerald Bailey issue at FDLE, and so, I think, generally speaking, it's going to be a tough two and a half months for the governor."

And potentially, a tough three and a half more years if Scott can't claim victory by the time lawmakers head home.

The legislature's Republican leaders deny their skepticism about the governor's agenda has anything to do with the scandals. They say the state only has so much money to spend, and the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax cuts that Scott's proposing could be a heavy hit.



