News

Washington, D.C. – This morning, Senator Marco Rubio appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America” to talk about his op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal outlining his opposition to raising the debt limit. Please see below for an excerpt and video of Senator Rubio’s interview with George Stephanopoulos. Senator Rubio also appeared on Fox News’ “Hannity” (VIDEO) and ABC’s “Nightline” (VIDEO) last night.

Senator Marco Rubio Interview On ABC’s “Good Morning America” (3/30/11):

Senator Rubio: “Well, my view is that we should avoid a government shutdown. That’s not the ideal scenario. We need to remind ourselves of why we’re still talking about the 2011 budget. The reason why this discussion about the current year’s budget is still going on is because when the Democrats had the House, the Senate, and the White House, all three, they didn’t pass a budget. Even as we speak, Senate Democrats still haven’t passed a budget. So I do think we have to deal with this once and for all because we need to move to the bigger issues. We’re having all of this discussion about how we’re going to spend money over the next 6 months, but the real debate needs to be about how we’re going to spend money over the next 60 years, and that’s that debt limit debate.”

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos: “That is coming up next month, but we do have this immediate hurdle, and where it stands right now, you’ve passed about $10 billion in cuts. Democrats say they’re going to come up with $30 billion. Republicans have said they want 60. Is the $30 billion good enough for you?”

Senator Rubio: “Well, what it needs to be is to show that we’re serious, so I don’t know if the number is the right number. I think it should be higher, quite frankly. I was happy with the bill that the House passed. I think that was a good step forward. It’s still a small amount in comparison to the trillions of dollars of debt that this country has now taken on. If you look at it, this is a multi-trillion dollar debt, that’s over a trillion dollars a year in debt, in the deficit, and they’re talking about $6 billion in cuts, which was a Democrat plan when they passed it here. That’s not a serious offer. I think the Senate Democrats need to get serious about dealing with this, and we’re running out of time.”