Rick Santorum was asked several times after he endorsed Rubio to name at least one senate success, Santorum stuttered and was left red faced. Well we are going to help Santorum out Rubio's biggest success is screwing Florida voters and the American people.
As The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza writes, a “major part of the problem is that Rubio doesn’t have all that many accomplishments in the
Senate.”
“When Rubio is asked to
name his single greatest achievement in the Senate, do you hear
crickets?” tweeted the National Journal’s Ron Fournier.
(1) The
Rubio-Schumer Gang of Eight Bill
The Washington
Examiner’s Byron York has described the 2013 Rubio-Schumer bill as Rubio’s
“signature accomplishment.” Although Santorum seemed reluctant to mention
it, Rubio’s immigration bill is probably the first accomplishment that comes to
mind when anyone thinks of Rubio’s very brief career in the U.S. Senate.
Rubio’s immigration bill
would have tripled the issuance's of green cards, doubled the dispensation of
foreign worker visas, and granted citizenship — and, thereby, welfare access
and voting privileges — to illegal immigrants.
Reports ranging from
the The National Review,
to the Tampa Bay Times, to
the Washington Post, to
the New Yorker have
all suggested that the Gang of Eight bill would have likely not passed the
Senate if not for Sen. Rubio’s tireless efforts. Lizza wrote: “[Democratic
Senator Bob] Menendez told me that Rubio’s role was to ‘work over the
conservative universe, particularly the conservative opinion-maker universe,’
in order to ‘neutralize them’ and, in some cases, ‘proselytize them.’ Schumer
said, ‘He’s the real deal.’”
Democratic Sen. Dick
Durbin told Lizza, “[Rubio]
has been invaluable… He’s willing to go on the most conservative talk shows,
television and radio, Rush Limbaugh and the rest.”
(2) Rubio was also able to successfully strike
down all conservative amendments to the Gang of Eight’s proposal. As Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) pointed out, ““Marco
and Schumer basically had a secret deal to block all amendments.” Indeed,
Rubio joined Chuck Schumer in voting down an amendment
offered by Sen. Thune, which would have required the completion
of a double-layer border fence. He also successfully defeated an
amendment offered by Sen. Vitter, which would require the implementation of an
exit-entry tracking system in order to prevent foreign nationals from illegally
overstaying their visas.
(3)
Obamatrade
Sen.
Rubio cast the 60th and deciding vote to fast-track the Trans-Pacific
Partnership agreement. By giving President Obama fast-track powers, Rubio
essentially helped to ensure the passage of not only the TPP, but all subsequent
trade pacts, which are now liberated from Senate filibuster, amendment process,
and constitutional treaty vote.
This represents a
significant legislative victory for the young Senator, who previously endorsed
TPP and described Obama’s trade deal as the “second pillar” of a President
Rubio’s three-pillar foreign policy strategy.
Moreover, Rubio was also
successful in promoting foreign currency manipulation by helping to vote down a
provision to crack down on the illicit practice that had been proposed by Ohio
Republican Sen.
Rob Portman (R-OH)
(4) Blocking Curbs to Muslim Immigration
Rubio told Sean Hannity he’d “hate” to block funding for
Obama’s refugees, and suggested that curbs on Muslim migration would be
unconstitutional. This pro mass-migration offensive helped give Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) 5the space he needed to wave in a vast new group of Muslim
migrants.
Rubio further lent aid
and comfort to Paul Ryan by joining a large group of Senators in voting down a proposal offered by Sen. Rand Paul to curb
Muslim migration. Sen. Paul’s amendment would have suspended visa
issuance's to more than 30 Muslim countries with active Jihadist populations.
(5) Rubio
INTRODUCES S.153, is called the Immigration Innovation Act (or I-Squared" Marco Rubio
Introduced the Bill That Would Expand Five Major Visa Categories used by Muslim
Migrants"
Rubio has been one of the
most ardent champions for increasing Muslim migration. The U.S. has admitted
roughly 1.5 million migrants from Muslim countries since 9/11 on a permanent
lifetime basis. Yet Rubio has sought to grow that number vastly. In 2015, Rubio
introduced an immigration bill which would have allowed
for an unlimited increase in Muslim migration.
(6) Blocking Food Stamp Reform
In 2011, Marco
Rubio voted against a
Republican proposal which the Congressional Budget Office projected would save
the U.S. government $10 billion by reining in the abuse of the food stamp
program. The measure was backed by almost all Republicans and opposed by
virtually all Democrats. The measure, as Sen. Jeff Sessions explained when he
proposed it, would have eliminated what is known as the “categorical
eligibility” for food stamps, which makes people “automatically eligible” to
receive government benefits even if that household has “substantial assets.”
Rubio was one of only seven Republicans to oppose the measure, but his no vote
helped stall momentum for food stamp reform– which remains elusive.
Rubio’s campaign
did not respond to Breitbart’s request for explanation as to why Rubio
voted against the 2011 food stamp reform.
(7)
Benghazi
As George Will pointed out, Sen.
Rubio gave his “enthusiastic support of the Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton
intervention in Libya.” Indeed, as the Washington Examiner wrote at the time in a piece entitled “Rubio
takes the lead to support Obama’s war in Libya.”“Rubio proposes that the Senate
authorize the president’s use of force in Libya, and that the authorization
state that the aim of the use of force should be the removal of the Qaddafi
regime,” the piece said. George Will notes that “Rubio supported this third
adventure in regime change in the Muslim world since 9/11, perhaps on the
principle that practice makes perfect.” The destabilization and chaos that
resulted from the overthrow of Qaddafi not only provided an operating ground
for ISIS, but also provided the conditions that led to the
2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi.
(8)
Worst Attendance Record
Reports note that Sen.
Rubio has amassed one of the worst attendance records in the Senate, which is
quite an achievement. The WWashington Post writes, “Since the beginning of the year, Marco Rubio has cast
votes about two-thirds of the time he could have — the worst attendance of
any senator seeking a presidential nomination.” The Sun Sentinel editorial board noted, “Rubio has missed more votes than any other senator
this year. His seat is regularly empty for floor votes, committee meetings and
intelligence briefings. He says he’s MIA from his J-O-B because he finds it
frustrating and wants to be president, instead…
(9)
Enabling His Corporate Backers to Replace Americans With Foreign Workers
In 2015, Florida Disney
laid off scores of Marco Rubio’s constituents and replaced them with low-wage
foreign workers brought in on H-1B visas. However, before terminating their
American employees, Disney forced Rubio’s constituents to train their
lesser-skilled foreign replacements.
If Rubio had spent his
political capital in 2013 trying to reform the H-1B program, instead of
massively expanding it, he could have saved these careers of these Disney
workers, instead of enabling their termination by leading the charge for more
foreign workers. In 2013, Rubio’s aide even told Ryan Lizza that “There are
American workers who, for lack of a better term, can’t cut it. There shouldn’t
be a presumption that every American worker is a star performer. There are
people who just can’t get it, can’t do it, don’t want to do it. And so you
can’t obviously discuss that publicly because–.”
At this point
another Rubio aide jumped in, asserting, “But the same is true for the
high-skilled worker,” to which the first Rubio aide replied, “Yes, and the same
is true across every sector, in government, in everything.”
Shortly before the Disney
workers got the axe, Rubio introduced legislation in January of 2015 to
massively expand the H-1B program. Rubio’s 2015 Immigration Innovation Act
would have tripled the number of H-1B visas. Interestingly, the bill was
endorsed by Disney’s CEO Bob Iger via his immigration lobbying group, the
Partnership for a New American Economy. According to Open Secrets, the Walt
Disney Corporation is one of Rubio’s biggest financial backers, having donated
more than $2 million.
Unfortunately, Rubio’s
success in protecting his corporate backers’ ability to increase their bottom
line has gone virtually unreported in the corporate media. This perhaps
explains why so few are able to list his Senatorial achievements.
For instance, Julia
Preston of the New York Times has written
multiple articles about the Florida Disney’s H-1B scheme. Yet Preston fails to
mention the fact that Florida Senator Rubio introduced legislation to triple
the H-1B program, nor does Preston like to mention that Disney is one of
Rubio’s financial backers. To demonstrate, here are several stories in which
Preston writes about Rubio’s corporate backer replacing Rubio’s constituents
with H-1Bs, yet makes no mention whatsoever of Rubio nor Rubio’s H-1B legislation:
Senator Seeks Inquiry Into Visa Program Used At Disney [The
Senator mentioned here in Preston’s story is Florida’s Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) . In
contrast to Sen. Rubio — who provided cover to Disney’s cheap-labor practices
by pushing to expand H-1Bs — Sen. Nelson joined Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to
propose legislation that would reduce the number of H-1Bs and eliminate
visas for low-wage jobs. Preston’s story makes no mention of Sen. Rubio
nor his desire to expand H-1Bs.] ###
