Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R) was interviewed this morning on Fox & Friends on numerous topics, which included his continued support for small businesses, the threat that China continues to pose on the United States and the world, and also his disapproval with the federal government bailing out blue states.
In the interview, the senator doubled down on blue states not being given the opportunity of a bailout by the federal government, arguing that he doesn’t “think the federal government is in a position to be bailing out jurisdictions, whether it’s a country or a city or a state that made bad decisions in the past.”
He added, “the one thing I’m open about and I think the White House has expressed flexibility on as well is, there is a baseline of ongoing operations, you know you need police officers, you need sanitation workers, you need the basic services of government and that’s been hurt by the downturn.” “We don’t want any of these cities laying off police officers,” he reaffirmed,” noting that “you separate that from… a city or state for that matter that made bad decisions over the last 10 or 15 years.”
He concluded by saying that “they have a huge debt coming into this crisis – a pre-existing problem,” and “that is not something the federal government should be bailing out.”
Earlier this month, Florida Senator Scott (R) also voiced his disapproval of bailing out blue states in a letter to the editor of the New York Times. The letter was in response to an editorial that asked for federal funding to bail out states.
In the letter, Scott detailed that “the issue at hand is not about what the citizens of our states pay in and receive in federal taxes and benefits,” “it’s about how states have managed their budgets and which ones are better prepared to withstand the coming fiscal year.”
