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Washington D.C. — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Pensacola’s Channel 3 to discuss domestic oil production, American manufacturing, the border crisis, and more.  See below for highlights and listen to the full interview here. 

On the Biden Administration’s restriction of American energy: 
 
“What they don’t tell you about the permits is some of those are tied up in long litigation. The administration has led efforts to ask banks to not provide funding to oil companies. They don’t tell you that just because someone has a permit, doesn’t mean that the land they have has enough oil to produce. You need to have hundreds of these just to be able to hit on a couple that makes sense. 
 
“The bottom line is there isn’t a lot of production and there isn’t a lot of investment in American oil and natural gas right now because this administration is openly hostile to it. They’re openly hostile to fossil fuels. They’ve talked about wanting to get rid of it. We have a transportation secretary, Secretary Buttigieg, who said that the answer to this problem is for every American to buy an electric car. We have two problems with that. 
 
“The first is most Americans can’t afford an electric car. It’s a very elitist thing for him to say. The other is, how do you produce the electricity that you need to power the car? You’re going to have to produce that electricity in many cases using natural gas, which they’ve made very difficult. They’re not being honest about it, and they’re going around the world begging other countries to produce more oil, including Iran at this point. But they won’t let Americans do it, producing over a million barrels less a day than 2019 under Donald Trump.”
 
On how the Biden Administration’s spending bills are contributing to inflation: 
 
“We warned that this was going to lead to inflation. The first major piece of legislation that Joe Biden passed [and] that I voted against was in March 2021, when they passed over a trillion dollars’ worth of government spending. 
 
“It’s a very simple equation. It’s supply and demand. There is less supply because we rely on China [and] because we don’t make it ourselves. There is more demand because they have pumped a bunch of government money into the economy and that money is being spent. It’s not money that was created through work. It’s money that the federal government has dished out. You have more money chasing less goods and the result is inflation. 
 
“We warned about it. The Biden Administration ignored it for over a year, told us that we were exaggerating it, it wasn’t real. Now we’re seeing the consequences. Then you add to that the [rising] fuel prices, which add to the cost of everything. 
 
“We have an inflation crisis now that’s going to lead to things like much higher interest rates and potentially a recession. This is an economic disaster caused by the Biden Administration and their negligence.”
 
On how to fight inflation: 
 
“The first thing is to recognize that once inflation starts, the government has very limited tools to quickly end it. That’s why you’re going to see the Fed take very aggressive action, one of the few things they can do. 
 
“I would start immediately by making it as easy as possible to produce American oil and natural gas. The cost of fuel is embedded in everything because everything you buy at a store had to be driven there by truck. That truck is paying more for diesel fuel, that’s embedded in the price that’s being delivered to consumers. I would…just announce that we’re going to have pro-energy policies that could dramatically lower the cost of energy, because these are future markets and they begin to anticipate that. 
 
“We need to stop any future efforts from injecting more government money into the economy. At this point, we have to allow the economy to recover, not allow the government to juice it up. Again, these guys are talking about coming back with a third package of multibillion dollar spending, which is going to drive up everybody’s prices…. 
 
“We have to make a decision in this country that we are going to make things again, that there are certain things that you have to be able to make in America, that the Chinese make now. The reason why they make it is not because of capitalism, but because they’re cheap. They subsidize those businesses, and we depend on them for our medicine [and] we depend on them now for rare earth minerals that are needed for technology. We depend on them now for many of our consumer goods. 
 
“We have to have the ability to make some of these things, either in America or somewhere closer to America, like in the Western Hemisphere, and [depend] less on China, because we’re going to see supply disruptions coming up here again, because they’re having a COVID outbreak and factory shutdowns over in China. These three things, I think will begin to help us turn the corner, but it begins by doing no harm. Stop spending crazy amounts of money.”
 
On the ongoing supply chain crisis: 
 
“Ports are backlogged for a lot of different reasons, many of [the reasons are] government created. So much of the Asian commerce, the stuff that came over from China in containers, went into ports in California. California has all kinds of labor union rules that make it very difficult for truckers to work there. For example, if you’re a nonunion trucker, you can’t work in the state of California unless you join a company. You can’t do it as an independent contractor. A lot of truckers are saying, ‘Why am I going to drive into California and subject myself to the crazy rules? I just won’t do it.’ That created the backlog. 
 
“I think the COVID shutdowns that didn’t allow us to have people in place in some of these states created that backlog…. There’s a container shortage now…. [If] there’s a container at sea and stuck on a boat somewhere, and it can’t get in to dislodge to unload that container, they’re counting on that container being empty so it can redeploy somewhere else and then bring that back and bring new products. The longer that container stays out at sea, unable to unload, the longer it’s going to take for that container to go back and get more product. 
 
“We made a terrible mistake in America when we decided that we didn’t have to have manufacturing here anymore. If you’re not industrial power, you’re not going to be a great world power. America needs to be an industrial power.”
 
On federal legalization of marjiuana: 
 
“If doctors are saying to people that this is a medicine or this is a product that we think will help certain people, and they want to write prescriptions for it, I’m always open to figuring out how the FDA can approve the use of certain substances that doctors and medical experts have determined…have a chance to help. That’s not what people are talking about here…. There’s a way to carve that out and specifically target that, without getting to the stage that they’re talking about, which is, ‘Let’s decriminalize marijuana.’ 
 
“Here’s the problem with that. When you decriminalize something, the message you’re basically sending people is it must not be that bad. We already have a substance abuse problem in America, where we already lose thousands of lives every year to alcohol and alcohol-related incidents and the like. That’s legal. Now you’re going to add one additional substance to what’s approved. You’re an 18 or 17-year-old saying, ‘Well, I know [people] will tell me not to smoke [marijuana], but you know what? It can’t be that bad because the federal government made it legal.’ All of a sudden now you’re going to have a problem in this country because that becomes a gateway. 
 
“We know that marijuana use is often the first thing that people use before they move on to something else. We’ve also seen, by the way, marijuana being purchased off the streets that’s laced with fentanyl and other drugs, and it’s killing people. It’s just a terrible idea. 
 
“At a time when we’re facing inflation, we’re facing record gas prices, we’re facing a border that’s being overrun and about to be overrun even worse, for the House of Representatives to decide in the midst of all of this, we think the priority should be marijuana legalization, it just tells you how crazy these people are.”
 
On the border crisis and the end of Title 42:  
 
“It’s already an open border. It’s going to get worse. We’re going to have…maybe 20,000 people a day illegally entering the United States. What this functionally means is you can cross the border illegally, you turn yourself over, you’ll be processed by border agents. As long as you say the magic words, and everyone’s trained on those words, they have to release you. They turn you over to a charity organization that, by the way, receives government money. That charity organization will give you cash to resettle, they’ll fly you anywhere, wherever it is in the country you want to move to. The federal government will give you a phone that they say is a monitoring program so you can stay in touch with them. 
 
“Those people will come in and legally, within 48 hours, they’ll be flown somewhere in the country with money in their pocket. Then they’re going to call back to their country of origin and report, ‘We made it, this is how we did it,’ and more people are going to come and do it. 
 
“As I speak to you now, there are probably 200-something thousand people within miles of the U.S. border ready to cross at a moment’s notice. This change is coming. We are about to experience a cataclysmic and historic migratory crisis on our southern border. It is as close as this nation has ever come to a fully open border, and this administration knows it, has no plan to deal with it, and is actually encouraging it. It is outrageous.”
 
On flying migrants to various places in the United States:
 
“[The Biden Administration] refused to tell us [about the flights]. That’s a big, big problem. That has to change. Unfortunately, we’re not in the majority in the House and Senate or we would change that. They refuse to tell us. That’s just one part of the equation. Those are the ones that we got the records to identify. 
 
“The ones you don’t see are where they turn you over to some charity, a non-governmental organization. Even though these organizations receive money from the government, these organizations are buying commercial flights. [Then] they’re putting [migrants] on a commercial flight to any city in America [they] want to fly to. Then [they] show up at TSA, [they] may not have [identification.] So what they’re using for ID is their asylum application. Not photo ID, an asylum application, is being accepted by TSA as ID to get on a commercial flight. That’s the way they worked around this…. 
 
“Once you release someone into the country, you have no idea where they’re living at any given moment. That’s a fact. Now states and cities have to pay for that. Local taxpayers [in] northwest Florida, all across the state and your property taxes, your money will go to any increases in EMS services, to schools, to hospitals, to the local roads and infrastructure. All of that cost is being dumped on the states. The federal government isn’t paying for that.”
 
On preparation for potential cyber attacks by Russia: 
 
“When we talk about cyber attacks, it’s not against the U.S. government, it’s against U.S. corporations and businesses. [The Russians] decide they have the ability to do this. It’s just a question of when they decide to do it. 
 
“If they decide to do it, I believe that it’s an option available to [Putin] because he can’t come after us diplomatically [or] economically. He has two choices: military or cyber. Let’s say he targeted American oil and natural gas production in the midst of these disruptions that already existed. As strong as those companies’ ability to defend against it [is, the Russians] probably have established access that they’ve worked on for many years, backdoors to either the software that’s embedded or something else. All they need to do is give an order and they can disrupt oil and natural gas production in America: the logistics line, pipelines, or utilities. And just a one or two-day disruption in the flow of energy [can] cause some chaos in this country. 
 
“At this point, our best defense against it is the ability to strike back against them if they do that. They haven’t done it yet. I think that whether it’s now or in the future, this threat is real. Everybody should be hyper vigilant about it. I believe the chances are likelier than not. At some point we will see something from them in response to everything that’s happened and we just need to be extra careful about it.”
 
On if the United States is providing enough aid to Ukraine: 
 
“I think we’re providing everything we can. I’m not sure we’re providing it in the most organized and quickest way possible. That’s been my challenge, is that we’ve been reactive as opposed to proactive. I’d like to see the effort be more coordinated. 
 
“The weaponry that has been supplied to Ukraine has allowed them to defeat Russian forces, which is what they’ve done. The Russians have basically retreated out of the entire country, with the exception of eastern Ukraine and portions of southern Ukraine on the coast. They’ve gone into Belarus and Russia to sort of retrofit and regroup, and then they’re going to put the full bulk of that military force to capture the Donbas and then down south all the way to Odessa, so they control coastal Ukraine. 
 
“At that point, I think Putin will then say, ‘Okay, we’re prepared to stop if you agree to permanently give up eastern Ukraine and Crimea. If you agree to become officially a neutral country in your constitution, the way countries like Malta [have], for example’
 
“First they have to take those areas militarily. I believe that’s what you’re going to see happening. The Ukrainians know that it’s a different war now, and we have to make sure that from intelligence sharing to weaponry, we are providing the Ukrainians what they need to prevent Russia from being able to take the areas we know they’ll come after very soon.”
 
On Florida’s Parental Rights Bill and criticizing Disney’s reaction: 
 
“It’s very simple. I ask this to every parent…, ‘Do you want children from ages five to nine, which is what this bill is about, being talked to in school, about gender identity or sexuality? Do you want them getting classes and seminars on that? Do you want some teacher that you don’t know [or] some school board somewhere deciding that your children, five, six, seven, eight years of age [should be] taught these things about gender identity and the like?’ 
 
“My answer is no. I don’t want my school [to do that.] I want [the schools] teaching [students] how to read, write, do arithmetic, learn history, and social studies. That’s what I want them learning at that age. I don’t want them learning about heterosexuality or homosexuality. I don’t want them learning about gender identities, transsexual[lity]. That’s not the place of school, especially for five to nine-year-olds, which is what we’re talking about. 
 
“If you ask everyday people, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, they will agree, and the polling proves it. That’s what this law is about. But there’s this very small group of people in Hollywood, Washington, and New York who think this is outrageous and they think they represent the majority in this country. They’re out there making a big deal about it, and they don’t realize the majority of people think they’re crazy. 
 
“I don’t know why Disney became the face of this. Disney runs amusement parks and makes fiction movies…. They benefit greatly from the government. The government allowed them to be their own city in Florida. They benefit from all this stuff. Yet they’ve decided to make themselves the face of it, as opposed to just running their business. If they want to be the face of indoctrinating children five to nine years of age and this new transsexual ideology, then I guess that’s their freedom, their right, and their choice. But I think consumers are going to respond to that.”
 
On the relevance of common sense in American politics: 
 
“Human nature doesn’t change. I don’t care how much we advance in technology, human nature is the same today as it was 5,000 years ago…. It is human nature for people who have too much power to try to impose their views, values, and politics on others. That happens internationally. That happens domestically. 
 
“[Remember that] you haven’t gone crazy. The people in charge of important things have gone crazy. Common sense still matters. North is still north. South is still south. No matter how much people try to convert that and change things, what you know to be true from the point of view of everyday common sense is still true. It’s not you that’s gone nuts. It’s the people who are in charge of important corporations and governments that have gone nuts. 
 
“We really need to bring that common sense back to American politics at every level. It’s fine for people to disagree on what the tax rate should be. It’s fine for people to disagree on how much or how little government we should have, but to change fundamental facts, to pretend they aren’t real, which you see from social issues to economic issues, that’s because we’ve put nutty people with crazy ideas in positions of great influence, and that has to change.”