SOTU 2013: Marco Rubios Response
Rubio is attacking the President for, "an obsession with tax increases." This is a false attack. President Obama's 2013 budget is online. It reaches 4.87 trillion in deficit reduction mostly through spending cuts, with a small amount of tax increases as part of the overall mix.
Federal lands for energy exploration. There are fewer permits to drill on federal lands today because of President Obama. He revoked premits for companies that sat on them for decades. Then, he gave permits to companies that would develop the resources right away. So, with fewer permits the number of oil rigs is growing extraordinarily rapidly.
Attack on the debt. The real cause of the debt is all programs that Republicans wrote and signed in the past decade. Those programs were not allowed to be trimmed. Three trillion in tax cuts were not allowed to be repealed. Two wars that were launched cost trillions, this is the source of the debt. Marco Rubio is making another false claim. A huge portion of the problem was the economic collapse, which dropped tax revenues to 51 year lows and triggered automatic stabilizers. No laws were passed by Obama to payout unemployment insurance, or food stamps for people starving through the crisis.
Check out the budget offices data here:
Medicare. President Obama's Medicare reforms already increased the length of President Obama's medicare financial security for another 8 years. It would have been broke by 2016. Rubio attacks are false. A report released today stated that budgets were being redone for the 2012 financial year because medicare costs plummeted 15% more than expected. This was reported on Forbes here:
Rubio called for growing the economy rather than raising taxes. Republicans have blocked all debate on any jobs measures since 2010. They won't even talk about jobs measures including programs to match the troops coming home from war with employers who would use their skills.
Read my coverage as this took place here:
Marco Rubio setup a similar goal about helping Americans reach the middle class, but had a very different approach. His speech was very aggressive and attacked the President in ways that were contorted and not consistent with reality on the ground. If Republicans were serious about job growth would they have blocked 20 jobs measures in the past year and a half?
On debt, Paul Ryan single handled blocked the Simpson-Bowles commission plan that required unanimous consent from the committee. Remarks were recorded with Ryan saying, "It would help the President's re-election." Paul Ryan then spent the election attacking the President for the deficit.
The Republican party does not have a messaging problem it has an honesty problem. Marco Rubio was a good speaker, his ideas were okay. His attacks on the President signaled that the Republican party wants to fight. They aren't as interested in solving problems as they are in attacking the President.
