Republican leadership and any of the GOP presidential contenders, TAKE NOTE! Despite Marco Rubio’s repeated insistence that he will not run for the Top Spot in 2012, his latest WSJ op ed is PRECISELY what conservatives are looking for in their leaders: the COURAGE to say what needs to be said and act on it!
Americans have built the single greatest nation in all of human history. But America's exceptionalism was not preordained. Every generation has had to confront and solve serious challenges and, because they did, each has left the next better off. Until now.
Sen. Rubio goes on to address our generation’s challenges in an economy that isn’t growing, alongside a national debt that is, federal policies that make it harder for job creators to start and grow business, taxes that are set to rise in less than two years, with corporate taxes soon rising to the highest in the industrialized world, the endless string of rules and regulations that federal agencies torment job creators with…all of these dire issues piled on top of government’s endless spending spree with money that we don’t have! And now it’s coming down to the issue of raising the debt ceiling:
"Raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure." So said then-Sen. Obama in 2006, when he voted against raising the debt ceiling by less than $800 billion to a new limit of $8.965 trillion. As America's debt now approaches its current $14.29 trillion limit, we are witnessing leadership failure of epic proportions.
I will vote to defeat an increase in the debt limit unless it is the last one we ever authorize and is accompanied by a plan for fundamental tax reform, an overhaul of our regulatory structure, a cut to discretionary spending, a balanced-budget amendment, and reforms to save Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Reagan-esque proposals! Boehner, Cantor, McCarthy, McConnell, other GOP committee leaders, THIS is the ONLY type of ‘negotiations’ or ‘bargaining’ that should be pursued in our current run-away government! As Sen. Rubio states, “There is still time to accomplish all this,” as legislative proposals have been introduced or passed within the 112th Congress, from Rep. Dave Camp’s simplified tax rate proposal to Sen. Rand Paul’s regulatory reduction proposal to the House’s passage of a spending plan “that lowered discretionary spending by $862 billion over 10 years.”
Rubio continues discussing further reductions, including what many conservatives have proposed involving entitlement reform (Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Ron Johnson come to mind):
No changes should be made to Medicare and Social Security for people who are currently in the system, like my mother. But people decades away from retirement, like me, must accept that reforms are necessary if we want Social Security and Medicare to exist at all by the time we are eligible for them.
He also mentions something that Reagan spoke often of: a Constitutional balanced budget amendment!
Finally, instead of simply raising the debt limit, we should reassure job creators by setting a firm statutory cap on our public debt-to-GDP ratio. A comprehensive plan would wind down our debt to sustainable levels of approximately 60% within a decade and no more than half of the economy shortly thereafter.
But it is the manner in which Marco Rubio ends this message that is truly inspirational, showing conservative courage that we have not witnessed for far too long in our politicians:
I know that by writing this, I am inviting political attack. When I proposed reforms to Social Security during my campaign, my opponent spent millions on attack ads designed to frighten seniors. But demagoguery is the last refuge of the spineless politician willing to do anything to win the next election.
Whether they admit it or not, everyone in Washington knows how to solve these problems. What is missing is the political will to do it. I ran for the U.S. Senate because I want my children to inherit what I inherited: the greatest nation in human history. It's not too late. The 21st century can also be the American Century. Our people are ready. Now it's time for their leaders to join them.
No, this is not the mere words of a young politician; this is the message of a mature Statesman! A statesman of whom I’d hope would reconsider a not-so-distant future ‘promotion’!
