The day before voting in the New Hampshire Primary, GOP presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio joined Chris Ryan at the Barley House in Concord, NH for an extended policy conversation. At Saturday’s debate, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie criticized Marco Rubio’s responses to questions as being scripted sound bites. In the Pints and Politics interview, Rubio gave detailed answers to a wide range of questions even the jabs thrown by Governor Christie. Rubio fired back that Christie has to create a side narrative because he can’t run on his liberal record of making personal contributions to Planned Parenthood, supporting gun control, being a proponent of Common Core, and advocating the appointment of liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Senator Rubio also tried to dispel the criticism that he lacks experience by listing many of his accomplishments in the Florida legislature and his work as its Speaker of the House. Rubio also points to several bills which he was able to sponsor or cosponsor as a US Senator. He contends that he has more foreign policy experience than anyone else in the Republican field. To prove it, Senator Rubio gave detailed explanations of the many missteps made in the Obama administration’s handling of situations in Syria and Libya.
Marco Rubio also showed his understanding of our economic problems and how to go about encouraging private sector job growth. He has a five step program for stimulating the economy: 1) make our tax code more competitive; 2) design regulations which will keep us safe but not impede economic growth; 3) eliminate Obamacare; 4) fully utilize our energy resources; and 5) get our National Debt under control. Senator Rubio described the chilling fact within 5 years, 83% of the budget will be devoted to mandatory spending for Social Security, Medicare, and paying the interest on the debt. Unless something is done to reform Social Security and Medicare, we will have a debt crisis within 10 years. At that point, we won’t be able to borrow any more money because lenders will assume that we won’t have the ability to pay back the loan–insolvency.
Senator Rubio also stated unequivocally that he truly believes that President Obama has tried to redefine the role of government in our lives and the role of the United States in the world. By listing some of the policies and actions of Barack Obama, Rubio tried to dispel the argument that he was only repeating this in the heat of the debate because he was falling back on a memorized talking point.
At the end, Senator Rubio discussed how the New Hampshire Primary has reinvigorated his optimism about America.
Watch a clip of the interview:
