Marco Rubio on Technology

Phase out Mass Transit account; cut gas tax by 80%

Marco will take a new approach in building the infrastructure for the next American century. As President, Marco will:
• Cut outdated gas taxes: Reduce the federal gasoline tax by 80%.
• Empower states to innovate: Turn back control of the highways to the states, stopping special interests from building "Bridges to Nowhere."
• Find common-sense savings: Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act that inflates government costs by billions every year and is a giveaway of taxpayer dollars to labor unions. Phase out the Mass Transit Account, which loots the Highway Trust Fund.

The NSA needs bulk metadata collection to fight terrorism

CRUZ: It did two things: #1, it ended the federal government's bulk collection of phone metadata of millions of law-abiding citizens.#2, it strengthened the tools go after terrorists. The prior program only covered a relatively narrow slice of phone calls, primarily land lines. The USA Freedom Act expands that so now we have cell phones, now we have Internet phones.

Q [to Sen. Rubio]: You voted against it. Is Senator Cruz wrong?

RUBIO: He is. Here's the world we live in. This is a radical jihadist group that is increasingly sophisticated in its abilities. We are now at a time when we need more tools, not less tools. And that tool we lost, the metadata program, was a valuable tool that we no longer have at our disposal. This tool allowed the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies to quickly and rapidly access phone records and match them up with other phone records to see who terrorists have been calling.

Fast change: Candy Crush got 100 million people in 1 year

RUBIO: Well, you know, that's an excellent question, because what we are going through in this country is not simply an economic downturn. We are living through a massive economic transformation. I mean, this economy is nothing like what it was like five years ago, not to mention 15 or 20 years ago. And it isn't just a different economy. It's changing faster than ever. You know, it took the telephone 75 years to reach 100 million users. It took Candy Crush one year to reach some 100 million users. So the world is changing faster than ever, and it is disruptive. Our higher education system is completely outdated. If we do what needs to be done, then we can grasp the potential & the promise of this new economy. And we won't just save the American dream. We will expand it to reach more people & change more lives than ever before. And then truly this new century can be a new American century

Amazon, our largest retailer, doesn't own a single store

Internet belongs in hands of our people, not our government

Throughout this debate, Americans have been given a false choice: Either you are for the FCC's plan, or you are for a lawless Internet. This represents a cynical view of free markets and a misunderstanding of government's role in protecting them. I believe government's role is not to regulate the actions of a few, but rather to empower all.

That's why I introduced a resolution to oppose ceding greater Internet regulatory power to the International Telecommunications Union. I have also worked on the Wi-Fi Innovation Act, designed to increase access to mobile broadband by expanding unlicensed spectrum.

The Internet is one of our people's greatest treasures, which is why it belongs in the hands of our people, not our government.

Net neutrality empowers bureaucrats and allows manipulation

1. While the FCC plan supposedly seeks to prevent ISPs from playing favorites, it does so by giving that power to another entity: government. The answer to correcting injustice in an economy is to increase consumer power, not government power.
2. The issue of ISPs creating different speed lanes is not the injustice that it is made out to be. There are hardly any cases of it to begin with, and any deals that do take place are just as likely to benefit consumers by allowing highly trafficked sites to accommodate their visitors.
3. The primary function of the FCC's plan goes far beyond the goal of net neutrality. It would label Internet service providers as public utilities, and [thereby give] power over the Internet to an unelected, unaccountable board that every lobbyist, lawyer and crony capitalist with a vested interest in the Internet will seek to manipulate.

No "Net Neutrality": don't declare Internet a public utility

A plan deceivingly referred to as "Net Neutrality," involves declaring the Internet a "public utility" and gives the FCC the power to decide what Internet service providers can charge and how they operate. This is not only a direct attack on the free market, but it will also result in an increase in Internet access fees for millions of consumers in America. It's a massive tax on the middle class, plain and simple.

The details are complicated but here's the truth: If Net Neutrality is passed, for the first time ever, the Internet will be under the rule of an antiquated regulation designed for land line telephones. I need your help to tell President Obama and the FCC: "Don't mess with the Internet!"

Technology is an opportunity to help people, not take jobs

Release anti-North Korea movie despite cyber-attack

RUBIO: First of all, the president in his end-of-year press conference alluded to the fact that there will be response and a strong one and a measured one, but one that's reciprocal. And I will support that. But, second, it's important that that movie be played, that that movie be seen. I don't even know if it's a good movie, but I think it's now important that that happen, that we figure out way to get that out there so Americans can watch it. It's unacceptable that this attack not just on our country, not just on a business located in America, but on our constitutional freedoms, if it's unresponded to, if it stays the way it is now, it is going to be an incentive for others to try and do the exact same thing in the future.

Net neutrality is government regulation of the Internet

Companies like Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Yelp--through their Washington trade group, the Internet Association--are public backers of net neutrality. They together have praised Obama for endorsing an approach that might subject the Internet to utility-like regulation. All three Republicans, however, rejected the president's suggestion. Rubio hammered it as "government regulation of the Internet" that "threatens to restrict Internet growth and increase costs on Internet users." And Cruz lambasted net neutrality as "ObamaCare for the Internet" in a tweet that went viral--and drew plenty of criticism.

Information age has changed world; people have not changed

Our people have not changed. The vast majority of the American people are hard-working taxpayers who go to work every day; who volunteer in their communities. What's changed is the world around us.

Just think how much the world has changed in the last ten years. The global economy is real--we don't live in the national economy anymore. Everything you buy- everything you touch--it's all impacted by things that are happening halfway around the world. The information age is real. It's changed the world and it's made out life easier, but it's also changed our economy. You go into a grocery store today and you'll find machines doing the job that people once did. You find today at many businesses that 1 person, because of automation, can do the work that 5 people used to do. It's the world around us that has changed. And this has had an impact on our people

1st Senate candidate to pass 100,000 "likes" on Facebook

His advisors boasted that he was the 1st US Senate candidate to pass 100,000 "likes" on Facebook. His staff uploaded his speeches to YouTube. The Twitter community can often sniff out someone who is paying a flunky to write their tweets, but Rubio fired out photographs of family that could only have come from him. The digital investments during his campaign were 100% transferable to his new role as a US senator. Rubio's tweets lived on the Internet, and his followers stayed connected to him and multiplied. In 2012 he counted more than 70,000 followers on Twitter.

Co-sponsored PIPA to Protect IP, but withdrew his support

It was too much for Rubio. The senator, smartly, took the Internet to announce that he was pulling his support for PIPA. He made his announcement on his Facebook page. What could have been a political disaster turned into a political coup.

Invest in R&D and space exploration

A: I believe that research and development results in innovations that help drive America's economic edge. However, we must continue to invest and improve our education system, space exploration and other programs to ensure our continued success.

E-budget website for detailed, issue-level budget

Florida Government Accountability Act
• Create and empower a Sunset Advisory Committee to increase the effectiveness of the review process of state agencies and programs
• Policy Choices Should Drive Budget Choices
• Combine fiscal and substantive committees into a single committee that will develop and fund the most appropriate policy issues for Florida
• Design an e-budget website that will display a detailed, issue-level budget and allow the public to comment on the budget

Protect against identity theft with privacy opt-in

Protection from Identity Theft
• Enhance penalties for identity theft crimes that affect persons sixty-five years or older
• Make any unauthorized possession of another's personal identity information a felony
• Adopt an "opt in" policy that requires government and business to receive permission from citizens before distributing any of their personal information

Put budget online to allow public inspection and comment

Florida will design an e-budget website that will display a detailed, issue-level budget and allow the publi to comment on the budget. This budget will be restructured from an input-based methodology appropriating money for employees, salaries, travel ,furniture, and contracts, to a results-based approach.

The new e-budget will allow residents to view the funding of the budget's service or program areas by category. Viewers will see the budget at various levels of complexity; departmental, program, service, and issue. The budget will be far more transparent and understandable.

Public-private partnerships to build & operate roadways

Problem: Funding is inadequate to build and maintain a transportation system that meets Florida's expanding needs.

Solution: Government should collaborate with the private sector to fund, build, and maintain needed transportation improvements.

Currently, the private sector services in such areas as road and bridge construction, engineering design, construction inspection, roadway maintenance, and toll collection. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are comprehensive services that include design-build-finance-operate-maintain schemes, with the private sector receiving "payment" through tolls collected on a road or bridge, a direct payment from the "owner," or a combination of the two.

Increase criminal penalties for identity theft

Florida should base the felony level of identity theft crimes on the class of victim, as well as the monetary damage incurred. In Florida, any person convicted of an identity theft crime affecting a person 65 years or older will face enhanced penalties.

Current Florida law permits conviction for possession of another's identification information only of the state can prove intent to USE the information. We should eliminate the "use" requirement.

Protect kids from sex predators on Facebook & MySpace

To enhance child safety, Florida will require social networking sites to set up verification systems to require parental notification and consent for minors to use these sites. The consent form should detail what data is collected from users, the disclosure practices of the site operator, and what limits, of any, parents can place on their children's use of the site. Civil penalties will be enforced against anyone that falsifies or otherwise allows a minor access to the site without the proper parental notification and consent.

Voted NO on authorizing states to collect Internet sales taxes.

Opponent's Argument for voting No (Cnet.com): Online retailers are objecting to S.743, saying it's unreasonable to expect small businesses to comply with the detailed--and sometimes conflicting--regulations of nearly 10,000 government tax collectors. S.743 caps years of lobbying by the National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association, which represent big box stores. President Obama also supports the bill.

Proponent's Argument for voting Yes: Sen. COLLINS. This bill rectifies a fundamental unfairness in our current system. Right now, Main Street businesses have to collect sales taxes on every transaction, but outbecause -of-state Internet sellers don't have to charge this tax, they enjoy a price advantage over the mom-and-pop businesses. This bill would allow States to collect sales taxes on Internet sales, thereby leveling the playing field with Main Street businesses. This bill does not authorize any new or higher tax, nor does it impose an Internet tax. It simply helps ensure that taxes already owed are paid.

Opponent's Argument for voting No: Sen. WYDEN: This bill takes a function that is now vested in government--State tax collection--and outsources that function to small online retailers. The proponents say it is not going to be hard for small businesses to handle this--via a lot of new computer software and the like. It is, in fact, not so simple. There are more than 5,000 taxing jurisdictions in our country. Some of them give very different treatment for products and services that are almost identical.

Withdrew support for policing websites for copyright.

Congressional Summary:Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act, or the PROTECT IP Act, or PIPA (in the House, Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA) :

• Authorizes the Attorney General to seek a court order against an Internet site facilitating online piracy to require the operator to cease and desist further activities constituting copyright infringement, unauthorized trafficking of sound recordings or videos of live musical performances, or trafficking in counterfeit labels.
• Allows an intellectual property right holder harmed by a US-directed website used for infringement, to first provide a written notification identifying the site to related payment network providers and Internet advertising services requiring such entities to suspend their services.
• Requires online service providers, Internet search engines, payment network providers, and Internet advertising services, upon receiving a court order relating to an AG action, to carry out preventative measures including withholding services from an infringing website or preventing users located in the US from accessing the infringing website.

OnTheIssues Notes: SOPA and PIPA, proponents claim, would better protect electronic copyright ("IP", or Intellectual Property). Opponents argue that SOPA and PIPA would censor the Internet. Internet users and entrepreneurs oppose the two bills; google.com and wikipedia.com held a "blackout" on Jan. 18, 2012 in protest. An alternative bill, the OPEN Act was proposed on Jan. 18 to protect intellectual property without censorship; internet businesses prefer the OPEN Act while the music and movie industries prefer SOPA and PIPA.