In his interview with Rush, Sen. Marco Rubio submitted his common sense approach to the debt limit debate and thoughts on the insuing battle heating up on Capitol Hill:
"The debt limit is a symptom. It's not our problem. The core problem is our debt and the fact that our government borrows 40¢ out of every dollar and has no idea how it's gonna pay it back; and that's a combination of spending -- we just spend way too much as government -- and loss of revenues.
Again, not loss of revenues 'cause our taxes aren't high enough. Loss of revenues because we have too many people that are out of work that are not paying taxes. So the solution seems to me to be a combination of fiscal discipline on the spending side -- which you have to enforce through spending caps and a Balanced Budget Amendment and cuts starting right now -- and, at the same time, some sort of pro-growth measures that get people back at work that create not new taxes but new taxpayers: People that are working, paying their taxes, adding revenue to government so that government can use that revenue not to grow government, but to pay down the debt and put us on a sustainable path.
That just seems to me to be the common sense approach to this, and, instead, we've got this President's obsession with raising taxes -- and what bothers me the most about it is not just that it will kill jobs and is bad for our economy. What bothers me the most is there isn't a single tax package out there that's reasonable and realistic that would even put a dent on this debt crisis. I mean, people have no idea what you'd have to raise in taxes in this country to just to begin to make a difference. Of course you never can raise it to that level because you won't be able to collect them because, you know, people aren't dumb enough to work for free. I mean, if you're gonna tax all their money, they're not gonna keep working."
Responding to Obama's attempt to scare our most vulnerable, along with instilling fear in Republicans on Capitol Hill, by announcing that he can't guarantee checks will go out after the August 2nd deadline imposed to raise the debt ceiling, Sen. Rubio explained how this was by design from the beginning, as the administration picked this date because of their knowledge that the majority of benefit checks will be issued on August 3rd, showing that "It's as much a political ploy as anything else and that's the leverage they're gonna use -- and, again, the American people are being held hostage." Rush accurately coined this hostage-taking of our seniors and military as "economic terrorism," and further clarified with the Senator that "we will only go into default if Obama makes us default." But Sen. Rubio suggested that Obama "can stop it right now by basically saying, "You know what, we need to do something to grow our economy. Let's pass tax reform. Let's pass regulatory reform." He can stop this by also starting to implement some of the spending measures we think are necessary. He can also stop it by basically prioritizing spending on certain things if it comes to that."
Rubio also expanded on a previous discussion concerning those supposed lockboxes: "But let me tell you one thing, Rush, that no one said yet or maybe they have, the fact that payments on Social Security and Medicare may stop is a stinging indictment and a wake-up call. What Americans should realize, "Hold on a second, my Social Security check and my Medicare benefits are borrowed? The money that you're using to pay for my Social Security are borrowed? I thought I paid into a trust fund. I thought I worked my whole life to pay into some system and now you're paying my money back and you're claiming that the money is being borrowed?" That's what they're basically conceding when they're saying this." So much for those lockboxes. He continued, "The point is if that comes to pass or he's threatening to do that, then the wake-up call and the message to Americans is, hey, your Social Security benefits, your Medicare benefits, what we're paying soldiers in the field, all these things that are being cut off, this is borrowed money. This is not money we have or money we saved for you. This is money we are borrowing from your children and your grandchildren, and we have no way of paying it back, and that alone should send a chill up the spine of millions of Americans." It's time for Americans to transition from adolescence to responsible adults and understand that government cannot, nor realistically should not, take responsibility over every nook and cranny of our lives; likewise, it's time for government to start acting like a responsible and nurturing Father instead of an irresponsibly controlling Big Daddy.
When delving into Obama's failed presidency, Rubio unabashedly stated, "By every measure that you can measure a president by, things have gotten worse, and significantly worse, and that's what he has to be measured by, and part of it I think is a flawed ideology. His view of government and the people in his administration is a flawed view that takes us away from the things that have made America exceptional and part of it is, quite frankly, incompetence. I honestly believe, and I don't say this with any disrespect, I really don't know him, I have nothing personal against him but I honestly think there's a lack of competence in terms of being able to do the job and the ability to lead on some of these critical issues and the result is being paid by, you know, millions of Americans who can't find a job or are working twice as hard to make half as much, who see their country being bankrupted and no serious solutions being offered."
