The Tampa Tribune - In Pinellas Speech, Rubio Warns of Nation's Debt Woes

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By: William March

In his first Tampa Bay area appearance as a senator, Marco Rubio told a Republican crowd tonight that many Washington political leaders don't understand the seriousness of the nation's debt problems, which he said could lead to a crisis in "a couple of years."

"The fundamental debate we are having in Washington today," he said, is between "people who believe that government is the way you grow your economy and people who understand that the job of government is to make it easier for individuals to do that themselves."

Rubio made his comments before a sellout crowd of about 550 local Republicans who paid $125 to $500 each to attend the Pinellas County Republican Party's Lincoln Day dinner and a VIP reception, the party's premier annual fundraising event.

He said government is borrowing 40 cents of every dollar it spends, which can't continue. The danger, Rubio said, is that lenders will begin insisting on higher interest or will stop buying U.S. debt.

He said the nation faces losing its economic prosperity.

"Are we willing to do what it takes to remain exceptional?" he said. "We don't have 10 years to answer that question. Quite frankly, we have a couple" -- an apparent reference to the 2012 election.

Rubio said the solution must include entitlement programs such as Social Security, and that President Barack Obama should offer initiatives on changing the program.

"You can cut all the discretionary spending, the defense budget … I'm here to tell you that even that is not enough," he said.

In criticizing politicians for not understanding the magnitude of the economic problems, Rubio focused on the White House and the Democratic leadership in the Senate.

"2010 was just the beginning," he said of the GOP takeover of the House in that election. "We haven't accomplished anything yet. We can't do anything without the Senate and the White House."

He repeated his campaign theme of American exceptionalism, saying America is "the single greatest society in all of human history."

Rubio has ascended to rock star status in the Florida and national Republican Party since defeating former Gov. Charlie Crist in last year's Senate race.

Tonight's event held irony because it was in the hometown of Crist, once the county's most powerful politician.

As U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Indian Rocks reminded the crowd, the evening was a marked contrast to Rubio's last appearance at a Pinellas Lincoln Day dinner.

That night in 2008, at the height of the Florida presidential primary campaign, Rubio was embarrassed when Crist showed up with U.S. Sen. John McCain present and announced his endorsement of McCain, upstaging Rubio's keynote speech.

But a year later, with Crist losing favor among conservatives, Rubio crushed him in a straw poll among local party activists.

Rubio said Pinellas was a key to his victory: "Without having won the Pinellas straw poll, I don't think I would have won this race," he said.

"It was very difficult for a lot of you to help anyone but my opponent" without political risk, he said, naming a couple of Pinellas Republicans who backed him against Crist, including Chet Renfro and Tony DiMatteo.

Rubio's speech focused almost solely on economics and spending, and didn't mention the revolution in Egypt.

While a few Republicans have criticized Obama's handling of the crisis, Rubio and others have refrained from doing so.

In a statement last week on the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Rubio praised the revolution and hinted it could be an example for his parents' homeland of Cuba.

Mubarak's resignation "should hearten those struggling for greater freedom and respect for human rights in our own hemisphere."

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