{"id":13375,"date":"2013-01-29T18:07:49","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T18:07:49","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-01-29T18:07:49","modified_gmt":"2013-01-29T18:07:49","slug":"senator_rubio_makes_his_case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2013\/01\/29\/senator_rubio_makes_his_case\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator Rubio Makes His Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: We welcome to the program Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Senator, great to have you here on the EIB Network. I think it\u2019s your second or third time here. It\u2019s always great.<\/p>\n

RUBIO: Yeah, it is, being on the program. I\u2019ve been listening to it for a while. I don\u2019t want to tell you how long because then you\u2019ll feel older than you really are.<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, the longer the better. <\/p>\n

RUBIO: I remember the TV program. Do you remember your TV program?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

RUSH: That\u2019s way back. (laughing) That\u2019s twenty years. Anyway, I know your time is limited and I want to get straight to the immigration issue. The first question I have for you is, why are we doing this? It seems like Washington has a pattern, and that is, when the Democrats want to do something, the media gets behind it, the Democrats get behind it, and it becomes something that has to be done and therefore the Democrats set the stage, they start the ball in motion. The Republicans then react to it, say, “Okay, that\u2019s what you want to do, we\u2019ll do it, but here\u2019s our way of doing it.” Why are we doing this now?<\/p>\n

RUBIO: Well, actually, to avoid that problem, and, in fact, that\u2019s why I\u2019ve tried to do it in the reverse. You\u2019re absolutely right, but here\u2019s the key. The key is this was going to be an issue. The president clearly outlined that he was gonna push on this, the media was gonna focus on this, the Senate Democrats were gonna push on this issue, and I thought it was critically important that we outline the principles of what reform is about. Look, I think there\u2019s this false argument that\u2019s been advanced by the left that conservatism and Republicans are anti-immigrant and anti-immigration. And we\u2019re not. Never have been. <\/p>\n

On the contrary, we are pro-legal immigration. And we recognize that our legal immigration system needs to be reformed. We also recognize, because conservatism\u2019s always been about common sense, that we do have an existing problem that needs to be dealt with in the best way possible. Now, it was dealt with in 1986 in a way that was counterproductive. Well-intentioned, but counterproductive because, A, they granted a blanket amnesty to three million people at the time, or that was the estimate, and, B, they didn\u2019t do any of the enforcement mechanisms. And so our point is if we\u2019re gonna deal with this, let\u2019s deal with it once and for all and in a way that this never, ever, happens again.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right, but —<\/p>\n

RUBIO: In the absence of stepping forward with our own principles, the left and the president will tell people what we stand for, and it\u2019s not necessarily gonna be true.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, but, Senator, that\u2019s in a way the point, because, you\u2019re right, 1986, President Reagan agreed to outright amnesty, is called Simpson-Mazzoli. He was reluctant, by the way, but he did it, because he was promised border security. The border security never happened. And the same language is being used today as was used in 1986. You know, the president\u2019s gonna be out in Las Vegas today, I know for you border security is the first and last, if that doesn\u2019t happen, none of the rest does, right?<\/p>\n

RUBIO: Well, not just that. That alone is not enough. It has to be a combination. We need border security. We need workplace enforcement. We need a visa tracking system. You know, 40% of our illegal immigrants of our undocumented people that are in this country, they didn\u2019t cross the border, they came legally. Their visa expired and they stayed and we don\u2019t track people when they leave. We only track them when they come in. So all three of those things have to happen and, by the way, the language of the bill has not even been drafted yet. These are just principles. And I agree with you; this is gonna be a challenge. If, in fact, this bill does not have real triggers in there, if there is not language in this bill that guarantees that nothing else will happen unless these enforcement mechanisms are in place, I won\u2019t support it. But the principles clearly call for that. Now, obviously, we have to make sure the law does, too.<\/p>\n

RUSH: The fear that many people have is that the Democrats aren\u2019t interested in border security, that they want this influx. For example, if 70% of the Hispanic vote went Republican, do you think the Democrats would be for any part of this legislation?<\/p>\n

RUBIO: (laughing) Well, let me make an argument to you on that. People always say to me, “Well, aren\u2019t you worried about the political implications?” I am confident, I really am, maybe people don\u2019t share this confidence, I am confident that, given a fair chance, I can convince most Americans, including Americans of Hispanic descent, that limited government and free enterprise is better for them and better for their upward mobility than Big Government is. Because that\u2019s the reason why they came here. You look at people that come from Latin America. They come to get away from stale stagnant economies where the rich keep winning and everybody else keeps working for them because Big Government dominates those economies. I just wanted to say, to the point of them not wanting to do the security, look, all I can tell you is that that\u2019s a big issue for me and that\u2019s why I\u2019m involved in this process. I have no reason to believe it won\u2019t happen, but if it doesn\u2019t, then I\u2019ll come back to you and say, “Look, it didn\u2019t. We tried. They put that in the principles, but then they drafted a bill that didn\u2019t do it, and I couldn\u2019t support it.”<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, is that the reason that a majority of immigrants come to this country today? I know it used to be. They wanted to be Americans. They wanted to escape oppression. They wanted to become citizens of the greatest country on earth. I\u2019ve seen a number of research, scholarly research data, which says that a vast majority of arriving immigrants today come here because they believe that government is the source of prosperity, and that\u2019s what they support. It\u2019s not about conservative principles and so forth, not the way it used to be. Are the Republicans stuck in the past in misjudging why the country is attractive to immigrants today?<\/p>\n

RUBIO: You know, our argument about limited government is always harder to sell than a government program. It always has been. I mean, it\u2019s easier to sell cotton candy than it is to sell broccoli to somebody, but the broccoli is better for you, and the same thing with a limited government. Yeah, it\u2019s a lot easier for a politician to sell people on how a big government program is gonna make their life better, but I think ours, once we sell it, is more enduring and more permanent and better for the country. It is a challenge. And, by the way, it\u2019s not just a challenge for people that are immigrating here, it\u2019s a challenge for people that are born here. We have a real fight on our hands to convince the American people that limited government and free enterprise is the right thing for our future. I think that\u2019s a real challenge across the board given some things that have happened in our society. <\/line><\/p>\n

But look, I don\u2019t know. I haven\u2019t done a scholarly study on the makeup. I can only tell you about the people I interact with, and I can tell you the folks I interact with, once they get into this country and they start to work and they open up their own business, they start to understand the cost of Big Government. I see it every day firsthand from people that have been here about eight to ten years. All of a sudden, they have their own business, they have a bunch of permits that they have to comply with, a bunch of complicated laws. Their taxes just went up a couple of weeks ago even though President Obama has been saying it\u2019s only gonna go up on the rich, and the light bulb is going off that, in fact, Big Government, you know, rich means them even though they\u2019re middle class and Big Government means less opportunity for them. So we have work to do, there\u2019s no doubt about it.<\/p>\n