Marco Rubio in The Economist
On Corporations:
Big corporations gave out bonuses instead of reinvesting
Most Republican congressmen remain entranced by the limited-government shibboleths, but Rubio's proposal, to double the tax credit to $2,000 per child and pay for it by making a small increase to the corporate rate his party wanted, was decried by some
Republicans as socialism. The watered-down version they accepted, as the price of Rubio's support for the bill, excluded the poorest families. "There is still a lot of thinking on the right that if big corporations are happy, they're going to take the
money they're saving and reinvest it in American workers," he says. "In fact they bought back shares, a few gave out bonuses; there's no evidence whatsoever that the money's been massively poured back into the American worker."His golden back-story,
as a son of poor immigrants, helps with that--and looks more relevant now than ever. "My relatives are firefighters and nurses and teachers and electricians," he says. "These are people who are not all that excited about the new economy."
Source: The Economist on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 26, 2018
On Families & Children:
Increased child tax credit plus paid family leave
Mr Rubio suggests his new programme will involve more interventions such as the increased child tax credit he inserted into the tax reform passed last year, and a provision for paid family leave he is working on now. He mulls the need for more public
spending on technological research and for education reform, to prioritise vocational skills. He advocates a more flexible benefit system, to help the retraining of disrupted workers.From the lips of an orthodox Republican leader, these modest
measures imply a serious reconsideration of the pre-eminent conservative ideals of a minimal government role in the economy.
"If we basically say everyone is on their own and the market's going to take care of it, we will rip the country apart,
because millions of good hardworking people lack the means to adapt." Economic liberty is the freedom to enjoy "the dignity of work", says Mr Rubio. "There needs to be a conservative movement that addresses these realities."
Source: The Economist on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 26, 2018
On Free Trade:
Bring back American car-manufacturing via high automation
Rubio's implication that Republicans have found no good answer to the problems Mr Trump describes: The president's scheme to revive the 1970s economy through protectionism and deregulation is unrealistic, as Mr Rubio--who these days dares not criticise
Mr Trump--cannot help but acknowledge. "The future is going to happen," he says. "I have no problem with bringing back American car-manufacturing facilities, but, whether they're American robots or Mexican robots, they're going to be highly automated."
Source: The Economist on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 26, 2018
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