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Sen. Rubio: Obamacare Is Killing Our Economy
RONALD REAGAN: I became a Republican not because the parties were the same but precisely because they were different. More than half of those who didn't vote have been polled and say it no longer makes any difference which party wins. Now, some have taken another course. There are some among us and I respect their views, who suggests that that means the end to the Republican Party and we should form a new third party. May I suggest an alternative to that? Let’s have a new first party, the Republican Party, raising a banner of bold colors, no pale pastels standing for certain values which will not be compromised.
HANNITY: So will the Republican Party be remembered for bold colors or pale pastels? Joining me now, Senator Marco Rubio. Welcome.
RUBIO: Thanks for having me.
HANNITY: Is this the moment that Reagan described back then?
RUBIO: It is. It is because if we're not willing to draw the line in the sand on Obamacare, what issue are we willing to do it on? I can't think of a single thing that's affecting our economy negatively more than Obamacare is right now. This is not about shutting down the government as our opponents say. This is very simple. This is about whether we're going to continue to pour money into a program that is basically eviscerating the American economy. It’s forcing people to go from full-time work to part-time work, costing people health insurance they're happy with, costing them their existing relationship with their doctor they've been seeing them for years, hurting businesses that have been growing. It’s so damaging that even the employees union of the IRS, the very people tasked with enforcing this law, are begging to be let out from under this law. This is a critical moment. If we're not willing to fight on this issue, what issue are we willing to fight on?
HANNITY: I kind of feel the same way as you do about it, Senator. Senator Coburn says it's not an achievable strategy. It just wouldn't work. Part of his remarks were dealing with the continuing resolution. Some of the spending would be mandatory. As a matter of fact, a significant portion. And only a small percentage of Obamacare funding would be discretionary. Is there a way around that?
RUBIO: There is. The House needs to pass a short-term budget that has a bill attached to it, a bill to defund Obamacare in its totality. Now, the argument he would make and others is that Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats will never go for that. But the reality of it is that once that bill comes over, we shouldn't go for any budget that doesn't defund Obamacare, and the only budget out there for us to consider would be the one that came over from the House. Beyond that I would say to you that as part of our continuing resolution we can defund, for example, setting up the exchanges. We can defund the additional IRS workers. There’s a lot we can do, but at the end of the day, how can I go back to Florida and my fellow colleagues go back to their home states and look at people with a straight face and say we did everything we could to keep this law from hurting you? How can we say that to them if we vote for a budget that funds this? And that's the fundamental choice that's before us.
HANNITY: Mike Lee described it on this very program. He said this is not about a government shutdown, because our debt, our obligations, social security, our military, everything would be funded except this.
RUBIO: That's right.
HANNITY: So at that point if there's a government shutdown, who would be responsible?
RUBIO: Well, the one who's threatening to shut down the government is the president and his Democratic allies. What they're basically saying is unless the budget funds Obamacare, they won't support it. They are basically saying that unless we fund Obamacare, they are willing to shut down the government. I would submit to you that Obamacare is not more important than our country. Obamacare is not more important than our economy and it's their insistence on continuing to pour money into this broken, failed experiment, that is threatening a government shutdown not us.
HANNITY: Karl Rove was on the program last night and he said it was the worst law that we’ve seen in our lifetime. Meaning the Obamacare law. It’s something I've mentioned a lot. It's predicated on lies, but he talked about this strategy versus he would rather use an alternative strategy. What is your reaction to that because I don't know what the alternative strategy could be.
RUBIO: Look, we’re always open to alternative strategies that might work better, but right now there isn't any. Right now the only strategy I know of with regard to Obamacare is ours in terms of confronting this and using the opportunity in September to defund this horrible law and the impact its gonna have. I would say this, Sean. This is not about Republicans versus Democrats anymore. This is hurting all Americans. When you have labor unions coming out against this, when you have the union of the IRS workers coming out against this, when you have the White House sending briefers up to Capitol Hill to calm down nervous Democrats, you realize how much it's already hurting our country and how much more its going to hurt our country after October 1. For me this is the last best chance. We have to do this. If we don't at least try to do this, the impact its going have on our economy, some of it is going to be irreversible.
HANNITY: And it's costing billions. The president already got rid of the employer mandate, or delayed it for a year, that's costing $12 billion.
RUBIO: Think about the people who have health insurance now and they're happy with it. They’re going to lose that health insurance. They have a doctor they've been seeing for the last 15 or 20 years. They won't be able to keep going to that doctor. Think of working-class Americans who are right now working 40 hours a week that because of Obamacare are going to be cut back to 29 hours a week. Think about the small businesses that want to expand and grow but are afraid to do so because it would trigger the Obamacare mandate. I’ve met and talked to these people. They’re hard-working-class Americans who are on the verge of being punished because as you said this law was built on broken promises and promises they continue to break every single day.
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