Hello, I’m Marco
Rubio, a Senator from Florida. Right now all eyes are focused on my home state
ahead of next week’s Republican presidential primary. It’s an exciting contest
and I know that passions are high. So I wanted to take a moment to explain to
the rest of the country why Republicans in Florida are so excited about this
primary: Because we believe our country is in big trouble.
As you know,
earlier this week, President Obama delivered his fourth annual address to
Congress. It was an opportunity for the President to talk about his
accomplishments over the last three years and to lay out his plans for the year
ahead.
And he missed on
both counts.
You didn’t hear
much talk about the success of his Administration—and that’s because there isn’t
much.
Yes, this
President inherited a significant national debt, but over the last three years
he’s made it worse. Our national debt has grown by nearly 50 percent since he
took over, and now, for the first time since World War II, our national debt is
larger than our country’s economy.
Yes, this
President inherited an economy where unemployment was too high, but over the
last three years he’s made it worse. Today our unemployment rate is higher than
the day he took office. In fact, since he took over, it’s been stuck over 8
percent every single month.
This President
didn’t talk about his record for one simple reason; he doesn’t want you to know
about it. But you do know about it, because you feel the failure of his
leadership every single day of your life.
The bottom line
is this President inherited a country with serious problems. He asked the
Congress to give him the stimulus and Obamacare to fix it. The Democrats in
Congress gave it to him. And not only did it not work, it made everything worse.
President Obama
has a year left in the White House. So what are his plans now to make things
better? What does he plan to do now, that he didn’t do before? Well we got our
answer Tuesday night. He plans to divide us against each other. To pit Americans
against other Americans in the hopes of generating enough votes to get
re-elected.
He tells
Americans worried about their jobs that the way to help them is to raise their
bosses’ taxes.
He tells those
who are hurting that the only way they can be better off, is for others to be
worse off.
He tells all of
us that the only way for some of us to climb up the economic ladder is for
others to be pulled down.
This divisive
rhetoric, this effort to gain political support by convincing some that they
will be better off if we punish others, this stuff has never worked anywhere
it’s been tried.
People end up
fleeing countries who adopt economic policies based on these flawed principles.
And more often than not, they come here.
They come here
because this is not who we are.
Americans have
always believed that all of us can succeed.
That those who
have made it fairly, can stay there. And those who are trying to make it will
have a real chance to join them.
This is what has
made us different. This is what has made us prosperous. This is what makes us
exceptional.
And now, for the
first time in my adult life, we have a President who’s asking us to abandon our
economic heritage.
To become like
the countries people come here to get away from.
To become like
everybody else.
Yes, people are
hurting. Yes, there is a growing gap between the rich and the poor.
But the way to
solve it is not to embrace the ‘trickle up poverty’ economics of other nations.
The way to solve
it is to embrace the American Free Enterprise system.
No economic
system is perfect. But the American Free Enterprise system has empowered
millions of people in the past. I know, because I saw it with my own eyes.
My father was a
bartender. And I thank God every night that there was someone willing to risk
their money to build a hotel on Miami Beach and later in Las Vegas where he
could work.
I thank God that
there was enough prosperity in America so people could go on vacation to Miami
or Las Vegas. Where people felt prosperous enough to have weddings or Bar
Mitzvahs and, by the way, could leave tips in my Dad’s little tip jar. Because
with that money he raised us. And he gave me the opportunity to do things he
never had a chance to do.
Now, we had help
along the way. I had student loans and grants from the government to help me get
my education. And I went to our public school system.
That’s an
important role for government to play. And so I also thank God that we had an
economy prosperous enough to afford to pay for these things as well.
So, I’ll just
close by saying, I hope this year will be the beginning of our work towards a
new and prosperous American century.
Because I know
that this idea of a nation where anyone from anywhere can accomplish anything,
it’s not just something I read about in history books. I’ve seen it in my own
life. And there’s no reason why we cannot continue it here, if only we do the
right things.