Sen. Marco Rubio Outlines Ideas to Help Working Americans  ... >
June 25, 2014 - In a major speech on "Finding Economic Security in an Insecure Time,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) discussed how proposals he has advanced in several recent policy speeches can benefit typical Americans who are struggling to get by in today's flat economy.  "To restore the American Dream, we need a policy agenda designed specifically for the 21st century, a limited government and free enterprise movement that applies the principles of our founding to the challenges and the opportunities facing Americans in their daily lives," Rubio stated.  Rubio tied together the "modern conservative reforms" he has introduced in recent months and explained how adopting these policies would help several representative working Floridians.

The speech provided a sharp counterpoint to the White House Summit on Working Families held a couple of days ago.  Rubio gave Obama credit for holding that event but said:

"...the ideas he offered are symbolic more than they are substantive.  They don't go far enough.  In fact up to this point in his presidency, his plan to restore the American Dream has been an old and familiar one: raise taxes, create more regulations, pour more money into government programs, and accuse anyone who doesn’t agree with him of not caring."

But Rubio devoted most of his speech to setting out his ideas.  He said the federal government is failing us:

"Instead of attracting jobs to our shores through simplifying taxes and regulations, our federal government is imposing higher taxes and more regulations that push investment and innovation to other countries.

"Instead of anti-poverty programs that promote work and education so our people can emerge from poverty, we are pumping more money into programs that have failed us now for over half a century.

"Instead of taking steps to make higher education more available and more affordable, we pour resources into a system that is expensive, inaccessible and quite frankly is graduating way too many people with unemployable degrees. 

"And instead of modernizing our retirement programs to make them accessible to everyone, we put more money into unsustainable programs that were designed in the 1930s. 

"The result is that a growing number of people feel completely alienated from our government and from our leaders. They feel that no one here in Washington understands what they are facing and no one here has answers to their challenges."

Rubio emphasized that the most important step we can take is to "unleash the prosperity that comes from a growing free enterprise economy;" this requires "policies that incentivize investment and innovation."  Rubio's speech, at Hillsdale College’s Kirby Center on Capitol Hill, was sponsored by YG Network, and the audience included many young people.  [prepared remarks]
After his speech Rubio took questions on subjects ranging from the ExIm Bank, to advice on running for office, to the surge in undocumented children crossing the southern border, to a more general question on illegal immigration.
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