Crist vs Rubio
Florida Governor Charlie Crist and former State Speaker of The House Marco Rubio faced off in a debate on Fox News Sunday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoOnuIfmcCA
I just wanted to cover a few of the highlights of the debate to show why The Axis of Stevil Show is pulling for Marco Rubio to be the next Senator of the State of Florida.
Marco Rubio on what this race is about.
RUBIO: You just don't get it. This campaign is not about you and it's not about me. It's about the people watching this program, that are watching their country being fundamentally redefined by this administration and this Congress.
They're taking us in a direction that is wrong and they're looking for people to stand up to this agenda and offer an alternative. And you're right, there is a distinction. I will stand up to the agenda. Everyone knows that you won't stand up to the Obama agenda because just a year ago you were campaigning for it.
Marco Rubio on Stimulus.
RUBIO: Well, here's what the bad -- if it's bad for America, it can't possibly be good for your state. Let me tell you why the stimulus has failed. The stimulus has failed because since that famous day in February where the governor campaigned with Barack Obama on behalf of the stimulus program, 211,000 Floridians have lost their jobs.
Today -- just this week it was announced we have the highest unemployment rate in Florida's history. But here's the centerpiece of the stimulus debate that we need to talk about. We're running for the United States Senate. And so the choice for Republicans in Florida is do you want a candidate that would have stood up to Barack Obama, voted against the stimulus and supported something that would have cost less money and created more jobs. If that's the candidate you want, that would be me.
Crist on stimulus.
WALLACE: Let me -- let me follow up and then I'm going to let Mr. Rubio respond.
Only three Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted for the Obama stimulus when it passed in 2009, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Arlen Specter. Are you saying that if you had been a senator, Republican senator, in the U.S. Senate in 2009 you would have voted for the stimulus?
CRIST: Yeah, that's pretty clear. I mean, you know, I think it was the right thing to do at the time. You have to go back and remember what was happening in our economy. It was literally falling off the cliff.
I mean, some of these, you know, ideas to try to prop up our economy, frankly, began under the Bush administration, President Bush. It was the TARP. They wanted to make sure our financial institutions did not collapse, that people didn't have to have fear and a run on the banks or something of that nature.
And when it came to the stimulus, it was money to help our economy. Things have started to stabilize now and they're getting better in Florida.
Rubio slams Crist.
RUBIO: Well, I don't know how you define stability. Having the highest unemployment rate in Florida's history is certainly not stability, especially to the one out of 10 Floridians that can't find a job. The stimulus is a failure.
And I think in this conversation we've established the critical difference in this campaign. If I had been in Washington, D.C. as a U.S. senator, I would have voted against the stimulus. I would have fought on behalf of alternatives that were offered by Republicans that would have cost less money and would have promoted more jobs, quite frankly.
Had Charlie Crist had been in the U.S. Senate, he would have voted for the stimulus. And so for the Florida Republicans, the choice is pretty clear. Do you want your next U.S. senator to be someone like me or like the gentleman that you've named to the U.S. Senate who would have voted against stimulus and fought against it, or do you want someone who would have voted for the stimulus?
Crist sounds like Obama on taxes.
WALLACE: Let me ask you, Governor Crist, about your record, though. When you were running for governor four years ago, you made a flat George H.W. Bush pledge, you will not raise taxes as long as you're governor.
Last year you signed a $66 billion state budget that had a $2.2 billion increase in taxes -- new taxes and fees. Didn't you break your promise to Florida voters?
CRIST: No, I don't think I did, and I'll tell you why. The only part of it that was a tax -- and it's loosely defined as a tax -- was on cigarettes. And I would -- I would argue that that's a user fee. If you don't use them, you don't pay it.
***Under this definition, sales tax would not be a tax, right? It would also be a fee. Let me sum it up for you, Charlie. It's not a tax, it's money the government takes from you and keeps, right?
Crist confuses even myself.
WALLACE: I'm going to -- I'm going to get to Mr. Rubio in a minute. But you also signed into law higher fees on drivers' licenses and on motor vehicle registration, motor vehicle tags. You said these aren't broad-based taxes.
Governor, 16 million people are drivers in Florida, and there are 18 million motor vehicles.
CRIST: No, I understand that. I understand that, Chris.
WALLACE: That's a -- that's a pretty broad-based tax, isn't it? CRIST: Well, I don't think it's a tax. It's a fee. If you don't drive, you don't pay it. I mean, you know, if you look at it by its pure, common-sense definition, what the -- what the speaker wanted to do is have sales tax increase by $9 billion. That would have hit all 20 million of my fellow Floridians. Now that's a tax increase.
Rubio seals the deal.
RUBIO: Ronald Reagan had a great question he asked during his campaign, are you better off today than you were four years ago? And for Floridians, there's a powerful answer to that.
We have the highest unemployment record in our history. We have record foreclosures, record reductions in the people's property value. And we have a governor that supported Barack Obama's stimulus package.
That doesn't sound like a Reagan record to me, and I think it makes the answer to that question very easy. Floridians are not better off than they were four years ago since you became governor. And now your promise is to take those ideas to Washington, D.C.
We don't need another liberal Republican in the United States Senate. We don't need more debt piled upon the next generations of America. We don't need another rubber stamp on the Obama Administrations socialist takeover of private industries like General Motors, banks, and student loans. We need Senators with the courage to stand up to Obama and the common sense to propose alternative ideas that will make our Country stronger. That is why there is only one real choice for Conservatives in the State of Florida, and that choice is clearly Marco Rubio.
