Gov. Rick Scott mixes with the crowd after arriving for the Economic Club of Florida's luncheon at the Tucker Civic Center Tuesday | Credit: Jim Turner

Gov. Rick Scott said President Obama's pending jobs speech should give more autonomy to the states and focus on reducing taxes and regulations.

“Look, bigger government hasn’t worked, more taxes hasn’t worked, more regulation hasn’t worked, so we got to change course,” Scott responded Tuesday when asked about the president's upcoming address.

“If we want more business in America, we want more companies to come to America, we have to reduce our taxes," Scott said. "We have to have logical regulations, but we’re not going to regulate everything. We have to give more autonomy to the states and let them be the laboratories they were supposed to be.”

Obama is scheduled to deliver a speech on employment before Congress on Thursday.

The speech comes as separate polls by ABC News/Washington Post and NBC/Wall Street Journal place the president’s approval ratings at 43 percent and 44 percent respectively.

Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.