By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
On Tuesday, December 1, Republican presidential candidate US Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) spoke at a capacity crowd at a rally in Guntersville.
Senator Rubio talked about ways to improve the job skills of the American workforce. Rubio said that when a kid graduates from High School they need to graduate with the job skills to be able to go straight to the work force. Rubio said that a lot of people like single moms don’t have time to spend four years in a classroom because she is taking care of her child and working to have the money to support them. Rubio said that the nation needs to be able to train people like that so they will have the 21st century job skills to succeed. The Florida Senator said that too many Americans are crippled by student loan debt, often for a degree that they were never able to finish and sometimes for a degree that had no value in the real world.
Senator Rubio said that he himself had over $100,000 in student loan debt, which would still be over his head except that he wrote a book. The Florida Senator said that in a Rubio administration when you apply for college students will receive the total cost of that education up front and the likelihood of getting a job in that field of study.
Rubio said that soldiers who finished a tour of combat in Iraq or Afghanistan ought to be able to get at least four hours of credit in Middle East Studies. Colleges need to give credit for life skills, for real world experience that you can’t learn in any classroom.
Sen. Rubio said that the primary purpose of the federal government is to keep us safe. We do not need a federal government to run K through 12 education. Its primary purpose is to protect us. Where in the world are we safer today after Barack Obama? Whether it is the Middle East, Russia, China, North Korea, Iran…..the world is less safe today.
Rubio said that the Obama administration is giving Iran $160 billion to fund terrorism, long range missiles that can reach us, and eventually nuclear weapons.
Rubio said that ISIS is a radical Sunni Islamist group that is recruiting people to fight in an Apocalyptic war with the West. These people are motivated by their perverse religious interpretation and they kill anyone as a heretic, even other Muslims, that don’t agree with their religious interpretation. “They can not be contained. The will not be contained. Either they win or we win.”
Sen. Rubio said that President, “Obama is eviscerating our military.” We will soon have the smallest and oldest Air Force we have had in the history of our Air Force. We will have the smallest and oldest Navy since the 1930s. He is cutting another 40,000 troops from our Army.
Sen. Rubio said, “I will rebuild the American military.” “I will give them an unfair advantage over anybody they will ever fight.” They will have better equipment and better training than anyone in the world and we are going to take care of them when they come back home.
Sen. Rubio said that his brother (21 years his senior) was a Green Beret who served in Southeast Asia and Vietnam. Rubio said that his father was a banquet bartender, meaning that he worked every holiday and every weekend for decades and his mom worked as a maid; but they had a dream for their children. What is remarkable about my story is just how common it is. Who among us are not just a generation or two removed from that story or who are living it this day.
Rubio said, “America owes me nothing, but I have a debt to this country that I will never be able to fully repay. America literally changed the destiny of our family.”
Rubio’s Campaign in Alabama is co-chaired by State Representative Will Ainsworth (R-Guntersville) and former Alabama Republican Party Chairman Bill Armistead.
Senator Rubio also attended two private fundraisers, one at Dream Ranch in Guntersville and a second at the home of State Senator Slade Blackwell (R-Mountain Brook).
Former Secretary of State and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton was also in Alabama on Tuesday, speaking in Montgomery honoring Rosa Parks on the 60th anniversary of the bus boycott which triggered the Civil Rights movement.
Alabama has been visited this year by Texas Senator Marco Rubio, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, author and neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Ohio Governor John Kasich, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, New York City billionaire and reality TV star Donald Trump, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.
The Primary will be held for all offices on March 1, 2016.
