If you didn’t know who rising GOP star Marco Rubio was before last night, now you know.
VIDEO: The Thirst! Marco Rubio Awkwardly Grabs Bottle Of Water During SOTU Rebuttal
Thanks to a bottle of Poland Springs water, Rubio’s status as the “Republican Savior” might have been bolstered by laughter, but what’s really noteworthy was his rebuttal last night after President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.
In his speech, the Florida Senator ripped Obama for promoting big government agenda, touched on education and spending cuts and also drove home the idea that the Republican agenda wasn’t geared towards the wealthy.
If you haven’t heard, Rubio’s calling card is his modest upbringing and his immigrant parents. He began his speech talking about his parents’ classic immigrant tale of moving to the United States and working hard to provide their children with a middle class upbringing.
He’s considered the anomaly; a young, slightly progressive but classic Republican, with immigrant parents and a harrowing story (that’s aruguably fake). Expected to run for president in 2016, Rubio is dubbed the Republican that will save the party.
Last night he started his speech with his now expected personal testimony.
“This opportunity–to make it to the middle class or beyond no matter where you start out in life – it isn’t bestowed on us from Washington,” he said. “It comes from a vibrant free economy where people can risk their own money to open a business.”
In a counter argument to Obama’s call to grow the economy from the middle class out, Rubio said, “Hard-working middle class Americans who don’t need us to come up with a plan to grow the government. They want a plan to grow the middle class.”
VIDEO: Watch Now: State Of The Union Address
But what else did we learn from Rubio’s rebuttal? Take a look and see.
He’s not a millionaire:
“Mr. President, I still live in the same working class neighborhood I grew up in,” Mr. Rubio said. “My neighbors aren’t millionaires. 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.”
(It must be noted that the median price for a home in Rubio’s neighborhood is over $500,000. That, my friends, is not middle class).
He reminded us that Republicans don’t like taxes…duh:
“Raising taxes won’t create private sector jobs, and 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.”
He supports immigration reform:
“We can also help our economy grow if we have a legal immigration system that allows us to attract and assimilate the world’s best and brightest. We need a responsible, permanent solution to the problem of those who are here illegally. But first, we must follow through on the broken promises of the past to secure our borders and enforce our laws.”
He also recorded a response to the president in Spanish. Because yes, that will influence Hispanics to vote Republican.
He wants to change Medicare:
“I would never support any changes to Medicare that would hurt seniors like my mother. But anyone who is in favor of leaving Medicare exactly the way it is right now, is in favor of bankrupting it.”
Another personal testimony. His ability to evoke pathos is impressive. But his statement on Medicare is confusing…President Obama also believes that Medicare can’t stay the way it is…so that wasn’t exactly a good rebuttal comment.
Rubio is not about clean energy:
“Instead of wasting more taxpayer money on so-called “clean energy” companies like Solyndra, let’s open up more federal lands for safe and responsible exploration.”
Not so green Rubio.
BONUS – Rubio is human and gets thirsty too:
Hmm, weird but endearing.
What did you think about Rubio’s rebuttal?
SOURCE: NY Times
