News

Washington D.C. — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Mornings with Maria to discuss Russia’s threat to Ukraine, America’s overreliance on China, the Biden Administration’s lack of foreign policy credibility, and the radical Build Back Better spending bill. See below for highlights and watch the video here.

 
 
On tensions between Russia and Ukraine:
 
“I wasn’t at the meeting [between President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin] so I can’t comment. My only source of information about it is whatever the White House puts out. I can tell you Putin is determined to impose neutrality on Ukraine. He is not going to accept that Ukraine becomes a member of NATO. He believes that NATO is eventually going to put troops and missiles there on his western border and threaten him. I think he views this as an opportunity for three reasons.
 
“First is I think he looks at President Biden after Afghanistan, his domestic troubles, and everything that is going on and figures [that] now is a good time to push.
 
“Second, I think he looks at differences of opinion. Different countries in Europe, members of NATO give this a different level of priority. Up until a week ago, you had a lot of NATO countries that didn’t think this was real; they weren’t too concerned about it. And many that are concerned about it, some want to do a lot about it, and some really think it’s a manageable problem.
 
“And third, I think in [Putin’s] view…the term that he likes to use is ‘cup of patience.’ It’s Russian terminology, but it basically equates to our red line, which is the language he is now using increasingly. 
 
“So, I think it’s a very delicate and serious situation, and I think it is important for the President to explain to the American people why what happens to Ukraine is in the national interest of the United States. What is our national interest? Because, based on that is how you determine how involved you get and what options you would even consider.” 
 
On the crisis at the southern border:
 
“We have people entering the United States illegally who get released into the population after processing even if they’re not vaccinated. And the people who arrested and processed them are going to get fired if they’re not vaccinated.There’s a lot of crazy stuff like that happening. 
 
“I think that happens when your policy agenda is driven by lunacy and radical, left-wing, Marxist ideology that becomes the base of your party, and not by common sense wisdom, and not by things we know that work. 
 
“You have this world right now where Joe Biden is now in charge of implementing the Remain in Mexico policies that he ran against, not just because the court told him to, but because, frankly, if he doesn’t, the border situation is going to continue to unravel.” 
 
On the Biden Administration’s treatment of China:
 
“This is an administration that is heavily populated by people that are deeply invested in a 20-year conventional ideology that [says] China is a country we need to work with and the more we work with them, the more they’re going to become like us. And they believe this stuff and they’re still wedded to it.
 
“And then, of course, you’ve got John Kerry running around trying to do a climate deal with China as the crowning achievement of his long career in politics. He doesn’t want to do anything that upsets China. 
 
“You do have some people in the administration that probably want to be more aggressive about China, but you have a lot of others who sort of want to balance out and not go too hard and still think there is hope for China because they spent 20 years invested in that and they don’t want to walk away from it. They want to be popular in the international community. So, it’s just going to be hard to have real policy that takes this on as long as people like that are making decisions.”
 
On America’s overreliance on China following its admission to the World Trade Organization:
 
“What has happened here over the last 20 years since China was admitted to the World Trade Organization, is our economy and most companies became heavily dependent on China.
 
“This dependence leads to the fact that on a daily basis now we have, not just government leaders, but major and important American corporations and leaders of industry advocating for policies and taking actions that are bad for America and good for China. 
 
“We have American investors and we have people in this country who invest in companies that are building weapons designed to kill American soldiers in the future and they do not care. Because when they’re forced to choose between billions more dollars in profits from China or the well-being of the country they live in and supposedly call home, you know they choose the profits. And that is incredibly damaging. I think the Chinese played it that way. They understood that as a vulnerability and they continue to exploit it.”
 
On the Biden Administration’s Summit for Democracy:
 
“The idea of holding a summit of democracies and bringing them together is not negative. I think any time you can use the convening power of the United States to create alliances to push back against totalitarian regimes, you should. 
 
“I think the bigger and fundamental question is what credibility do we have after these? Because it’s great to bring people together, but if it doesn’t lead to some actionable items that emerge from it, then it really was just symbolic. 
 
“And I think for the United States, we have some fundamental challenges under Joe Biden —whether it’s Colombia asking, ‘Why are you doing something we asked you not to do?’, when last week they said the FARC, this Marxist rebel terrorist group, is no longer a terrorist group, whether you are our allies who basically were left stranded and scrambling after [President Biden] decided to withdraw from Afghanistan on an arbitrary timeline without even consulting them ahead of time and working it out with them — you’ve got a lot of alliances around the world that are wondering, ‘Yeah, democracy is great, and we will go to your Zoom meeting but, ultimately, what does this lead to? And can we really count on you when the rubber meets the road?’
 
“I think it’s a credibility problem this administration has. It has it here, but I think it increasingly has it internationally.” 
 
On the possibility of the Build Back Better bill getting voted on by the end of the year: 
 
“Chuck Schumer can set [the vote] up any time he wants, and he continues to say he wants to do it before Christmas, so we will see if that is true. I don’t know if he has the votes — that’s a question for Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. He doesn’t have any Republican votes for it. 
 
“I don’t think we should be under any illusion that this bill is nothing more than codifying socialism. And they’re bragging about it now; they’re putting out videos and promotional materials about how all these government programs are basically going to be involved in your life from cradle to grave. 
 
“If you want to understand why it’s a bad idea, it’s not just about the debt and the money — that’s important — it’s about the fact that when the federal government is the sponsor or the primary payer of a program, they can use that as leverage to get you to do other things. The reason why these mandates are out there, for example, [in] nursing homes and other places, is because…their biggest payer is Medicare. And if the federal government says, ‘You can’t get Medicare dollars if you don’t follow our mandate,’ you’re going to have to follow the mandate.
 
“They want to have the same amount of leverage over early childhood education, Pre-K, childcare, healthcare — everything. And they want to put the federal government in charge because, ultimately, Marxism [and] socialism isn’t about economics, it’s about power, it’s about control, it’s about shaping a country the way you want it to be and using the power of government to get people to do what you want them to do. That’s a lesson we should have learned over the last couple of years, and I hope we don’t forget.” 
 
On whether the Build Back Better plan is paid for: 
 
“That’s gimmicky language. It’s not all paid for — the [Congressional Budget Office] says it’s not all paid for, but [Democrats] say, ‘Oh, the CBO is just one opinion. There are a lot of other opinions out there about it.’
 
“But here’s the truth: if you create a program and you say, ‘Okay, the program is authorized for three years, so over the next 10 years you only have three years worth of costs,’ that is one thing. The programs may be authorized for three years, but [Democrats] intend for them to be permanent. That’s what they are hoping for, that once these things get into the ground and once they get running, they’re never going to go away. And if you calculate it that way, not only is it not paid for, but it is a massive expansion of government that is going to lead to tax increases way beyond anything they are publicly acknowledging. 
 
“If this bill passes, it will fundamentally redefine America’s economy in a very negative way and it will strip us of our dynamism.”