By Jonathan Easley - The Hill
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) said voters will turn away from President Obama because he is assaulting" free enterprise.
Speaking Wednesday on FOX News Rubio was asked what GOP primary voters in the Sunshine state are looking for in a candidate.
The number one issue in the Hispanic American community is how do I leave my children better off than myself" Rubio said. How do I have the opportunity to fulfill my own hopes and dreams the reason why I came here the reason why my parents came here and how do we leave our children with better opportunities than what we had? Theres only one real answer to that and thats the American free enterprise system and thats exactly what the president is assaulting."
At Tuesday nights State of the Union address the president renewed his call for the so-called Buffett Rule" named after billionaire investor Warren Buffett which would ensure that middle-class workers dont pay a higher tax rate than those who make more than $1 million per year off of long-term investments which are currently taxed at a lower rate.
Now you can call this class warfare all you want" Obama said. But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense. We dont begrudge financial success in this country we admire it. When Americans talk about folks like me paying my fair share of taxes its not because they envy the rich. Its because they understand that when I get tax breaks I dont need and the country cant afford it either adds to the deficit or somebody else has to make up the difference…Thats not right. Americans know its not right."
Rubio said these are the kinds of redistributive policies that immigrants are fleeing when they arrive in the U.S.
(President Obama) goes into the State of the Union and basically says that the only way some Americans can do better is if other Americans are worse off that we have to take from some people and distribute it to others" he said. Thats never been our heritage thats what other countries do and by the way thats why other people including Hispanic Americans have left other countries to get away from that kind of stuff."
The presidents speech was also a veiled swipe at GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney who many believe will be Obamas opponent in the fall election.
Romney released his tax returns on Tuesday which show that he paid less than 15 percent because the bulk of his income came from capital gains. The average tax rate for wage-earning Americans is 35 percent.
