[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 194 (Friday, December 16, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8706-S8708]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONFRONTING THE ISSUES
Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I thank those who have listened to our e-
mails back in Florida that we just sent out alerting them I will be
speaking on the Senate floor, maybe the last time I will speak this
year.
I want to take a few minutes to update everyone on what this first
year in the Senate has been like. First of all, it has been a
tremendous privilege and honor. There is not a day goes by that I do
not come to this building early in the morning, when I can get to the
gym--I probably should do that more than I do--and see this building
lit up in the darkness. It takes my breath away that I actually get to
work here in this building on behalf of the people of the State of
Florida.
I recognize what an honor and privilege it is to have this position,
not just in this unique institution--which is different, perhaps, than
any legislative body in all of history--but this Republic that stands
out in the history of mankind. As Americans, we should always take a
moment to recognize that in America, on this floor, we debate and
sometimes solve issues other countries fight wars with each other
about. That is a real blessing and a real opportunity to be an example
for the world. I am grateful and feel blessed to be a part of it, and I
thank the people of Florida for the opportunity to do it.
I want to share two observations as this year comes to an end--and,
hopefully, today or tomorrow, sometime this week, we will wrap up our
work in this body for 2011--observations I have after my first year. I
think I am 3 weeks from having been sworn in for the first time. There
are a couple of things that concern me.
First is a real lack of urgency. There are some major issues that
confront America. These have to be confronted. We need look no further
than Europe to see what our future holds, unfortunately, if some of the
issues that now confront us are not confronted. That is not hyperbole,
it is not partisanship, it is reality--it is math. This country borrows
more money than it needs to or should. This is a country that is now
spending more money than it takes in at an alarming pace, and there is
no plan in place to prevent that.
That is not a partisan observation; that is not a Republican concern
or a Democratic concern; that is the concern of every person who is
grounded in
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reality, that we cannot continue doing what we are doing now.
There are specific programs that are in trouble that we should be
very concerned about. Medicare is one example. I have a very special
place in my heart for Medicare. No. 1, there are a lot of people in
Florida who are on Medicare; and, No. 2, in my own life, both in my
father's illness last year before he passed away and this year when my
mother suffered some setbacks in her health, I have seen firsthand how
important Medicare is.
There are two things that worry me about Medicare. The first is that
it will not be there when my generation and future generations retire.
The other is just as important: that somehow, if we fail to act in a
timely manner, people like my mother, who are currently on Medicare,
may at some point in their lifetime see their benefits change
dramatically or see the program and quality of access decline.
We need to do everything we can to save Medicare. We know for a fact,
and no one can dispute, if we leave Medicare the way it is right now,
that program is going to be in a lot of trouble. I hope there is a
sense of urgency about that. Also, the fact that our economy is now
smaller than our debt--$15 trillion is a lot of money we owe, that our
children and our grandchildren will owe. That is a lot of money. That
is a big deal. The national security threats we face are significant
and have to be confronted.
The sense that somehow the major issues can wait until another
election or another moment concern me because these issues have a
tendency to sneak up on us and a problem becomes a crisis. It is a lot
harder to solve a crisis than it is to solve a problem, so I hope we
have a sense of urgency with regard to these issues in the coming year.
There is another issue I would like to talk about, which is a
troubling emergence in the last year in politics. It is this rhetoric
that, in my opinion, seeks to divide Americans against each other,
basically pits Americans against each other.
The way the rhetoric basically goes is, there is a reason there are
Americans who are struggling, hurting; a reason that people have lost
their jobs; that people are working twice as hard and are making half
as much; that people have lost their homes, and people have graduated
from college but cannot find a job. And there is a theme by some,
including, frankly, many in our political leadership and from time to
time even the White House, saying to people the reason they are doing
worse is because there is a handful of people out there doing too well.
The reason they have lost their jobs is because someone else is being
too greedy. The reason they are losing their homes is because someone
else owns too many homes. The reason they are making less money is
because someone else is making too much money.
I am troubled by that rhetoric that pits people against each other
because the second part of that argument is give the government more
power; give us, government, more power so we can step in and right this
wrong, so we can take away from the people who have too much and give
to the people who do not have enough.
Let me tell you why I am troubled by that. The first reason I am
troubled by that is because it is absolutely not the kind of country we
have been for 220-some-odd years. It is not in our nature. Americans
have never been a people to drive through a nice neighborhood and say:
Oh, I hate the people who live in these nice houses. Americans are
people who drive through a nice neighborhood and say: Congratulations
on your nice house. Guess what. We will be joining you soon.
We have never been people who go around and confront people or look
at people who have been financially successful and say: We hate you. We
envy you because of how well you are doing. Americans have celebrated
their success, and they say: Guess what. We are going to be successful
soon as well.
I remember growing up, I always tell people I am a child of privilege
because I have the privilege and the honor of being born in the
greatest country in human history and of having a mother and a father
who were married, loved each other and lived in our home. These are two
of the most important benefits anyone could have. But my parents were
working-class folks. My dad was a bartender for most of his life. My
mom was a maid and cashier and stock clerk at K-Mart. We were not
people of financial means in terms of significant financial wealth.
I tell them I always had what I needed. I didn't always have what I
wanted, but I always had what I needed. My parents always provided
that. I don't remember them telling us or teaching us the only way we
could be more successful was if other people were less successful. They
never inculcated in us the belief that somehow in order for us to climb
the ladder, other people had to come down from the ladder.
On the contrary, they would hold up these examples of success to
inspire in us the hope that someday we could be there as well--
financially, in our careers, what have you. We are people who have
always celebrated other people's success so long as we always had the
opportunity to meet that success ourselves. That is the American
nature. That is the American character. That is what makes us different
from the rest of the world.
I am afraid we could lose that or are on the verge of losing that. I
am concerned that there are those in America's political leadership who
are advocating that we abandon that in favor of something else. I think
it is wrong because it does not work. That thought process that somehow
other people have to be worse off in order for us to be better off does
not work. People get on boats, people jump fences to get away from that
kind of thought process. People flee countries that do that because it
does not work. It never has.
It will not work here. The proof is in the numbers. Let's put aside
partisan political rhetoric for a moment and look at the numbers. In
January of 2009, when the President was sworn in, he inherited a very
bad economy. He inherited a bad economy. He inherited an economy, for
example, that had 12 million people out of a job, an economy where gas
was $1.85 a gallon, where the debt was at $10.6 trillion, where we were
39 million Americans living in poverty in January of 2009. He inherited
a bad economy.
But for the first years of his Presidency, at least one of the first
2 years, he had 60 votes in the Senate which I quickly learned is the
way everything seems to happen around here, by 60 votes. He had a
majority in the House. He could have anything he wanted, and he said:
This is what I want. This is what the President said: He wanted a
stimulus package, and he got it. He wanted his health care package, and
he got it. He wanted financial services reform, and he got it. So what
happened? Let's look at the numbers.
He became President, bad economy, got everything he wanted. What has
happened since? Now there are 13.3 million people unemployed, gas is
now at $3.27 a gallon on average, the debt is now up to $15 trillion,
and people in poverty--39 million when he took office, 46 million
people now.
Put aside the partisan rhetoric for a moment--just the numbers. He
became President, got everything he wanted, and everything got worse.
Those are the facts.
Is that because he is a bad person? Of course not. It is ridiculous.
It is because his view of government and politics is wrong and those
who share it are wrong. They are not un-American, they are not bad
people, but the proof is it doesn't work. It has not worked anywhere
else in the world to approach it this way, and it is not going to work
here. I hope in this new year we will reverse course on these things
and instead embrace and take up that which does work in America.
What makes America become more prosperous? It is not that
complicated. It is not Fortune 500 companies or big corporations. Every
country in the world has rich people. Every country in the world has
billionaires and millionaires. What makes us different is that here a
worker can become an owner, an employee can become an employer. It
happens all the time. You cannot walk two blocks anywhere in this
country and not bump into somebody who didn't start a business out of
the spare bedroom of their home, who didn't take their credit card or
their lifesavings and risked it all behind a great idea and today 20
people work for them. That is 20 families being fed, 20 families
sending kids to college because somebody had the audacity to take
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their lifesavings and pursue their dream. So they opened a business out
of the spare bedroom of their home; they opened a business out of a
corner in their garage; and nowadays you can start a business with a
laptop and an empty table at a Starbucks, and it works. We have to get
back to that.
What stands in the way of that are three things, above everything
else. The first is a Tax Code that is crazy. It is not complicated, it
is not burdensome, it is crazy. It is the craziest thing you have ever
seen in your life. First of all, it is full of loopholes and exemptions
built in. That doesn't hurt the big guys. It doesn't hurt billionaires
and millionaires and big corporations. These guys can handle this
stuff. They may not like it, but they can hire lawyers, accountants,
and lobbyists. They can figure this stuff out. You know who a
complicated Tax Code kills? The guy or gal trying to start a business
out of the spare bedroom of their home. We have to simplify our Tax
Code. It has to be reformed. If there is stuff in it that is the result
of good lobbying as opposed to good policy, take it out. I hope we will
work on that. Everybody here says they are for tax reform, so do it.
Let's have urgency. Let's have some urgency behind that.
The second is regulations. Look, we need to have regulations. Here is
a glass of water. I don't want this to have poison in it. I want our
air to be clean. Government has a role to play in those things. Let me
tell you what happens when regulations go too far, when they seem to
exist only for the purpose of justifying the existence of a regulator.
You don't hurt the guys who have made it; you don't hurt the big
corporations or the billionaires. These guys can hire lawyers to deal
with that stuff, and they can hire lobbyists to change all that stuff.
It kills the people trying to start a business out of the spare bedroom
of their home. So we have to simplify the regulatory system we have in
this country as well.
Finally, this debt. The debt is a problem. There is no plan in place
to do anything about it. People are afraid, concerned, worried--and
rightfully so--about investing money in an economy that doesn't have a
plan to pay its bills. I hope we reverse course on all of these issues.
If we do, it will lead to prosperity.
Let me tell you what prosperity will lead to. It will lead to more
jobs, more jobs will lead to more taxpayers, more taxpayers will lead
to more revenue, and more revenue means we will have money to pay down
our debt and do what government should do, such as our national
defense, invest in infrastructure and in our people, and provide a
safety net to help those who cannot help themselves.
To do that, it all starts with embracing the fundamental principle of
America's prosperity. We have never been a nation of haves and have-
nots. We are a nation of haves and soon-to-haves, of people who have
made it and people who will make it. That is who we need to remain if
we desire to provide our children with what we had, an American
century, which is what the 21st century can be, should be, and will be.
If in 2012 this body and our leadership reverse course from the
direction we are headed, it will place us on a path that is true to our
heritage as a people and embrace for our children and grandchildren a
future they deserve, a prosperous and growing America where all things
are possible, where anyone from anywhere can accomplish anything, where
the son of a bartender and a maid can be a U.S. Senator, and where
anyone watching, no matter where you start out in life, can accomplish
and be anything you want to accomplish if you are willing to work hard,
play by the rules and have the ability to do it.
With that, I want to wish all of my colleagues and the people of
Florida and the people of the United States a merry Christmas, a happy
Hanukkah, and a happy New Year. May God always bless our country and
may 2012 bring us the safety and prosperity for our Nation and for the
world.
I thank the Chair.
I note the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk called the roll.
Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak in
morning business for up to 15 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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