US Senator Marco Rubio, in the Republican response to Tuesday’s State of the Union, challenged President Barack Obama to abandon his tax “obsession” and find a way to boost growth and cut the deficit.
The rising political star from Florida, who is regularly mentioned as a 2016 presidential candidate, laid out the framework of his party’s economic vision, in excerpts of his formal response released ahead of Obama’s address.
“The tax increases and the deficit spending you propose will hurt middle class families,” he said. “There’s no realistic tax increase that could lower our deficits by almost $4 trillion.
“That’s why I hope the president will abandon his obsession with raising taxes and instead work with us to achieve real growth in our economy.”
Rubio returned to a recurring Republican theme of the 2012 presidential campaign and beyond, that Democrats are fixated on raising new tax revenue as a means of paring back the swelling US deficit and debt.
The 41-year-old Cuban-American touched on his own immigrant roots to drive home the message that conservative politics can have broad appeal.
“Mr. President, I still live in the same working class neighborhood I grew up in. My neighbors aren’t millionaires,” said Rubio, who is to deliver his speech in both English and Spanish.
“They’re retirees who depend on Social Security and Medicare. They’re workers who have to get up early tomorrow morning and go to work to pay the bills,” he said.
“They’re immigrants, who came here because they were stuck in poverty in countries where the government dominated the economy,” he added.
“So Mr. President, I don’t oppose your plans because I want to protect the rich. I oppose your plans because I want to protect my neighbors.”
Obama, in excerpts released by the White House, is to propose re-igniting the US economic engine, while insisting “nothing I’m proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime.”
Rubio responds to Obama: end tax hike 'obsession'
