Rubio Campaign Press Release - This is Where Liberals Have Gotten Us

Fewer Americans are working than at any time since Jimmy Carter

For conservatives especially, we are facing a defining moment. The failure of government-centered, command-and-control liberalism to lift the poor and sustain the middle class is apparent as never before. Whether we are able to step forward with our own solutions — and not simply rail against the expansion of the state — will determine our future as a movement.

Our recent history in this regard is not encouraging. President Barack Obama was elected on a promise to fight for poor and middle-class Americas. During his campaigns for president, he talked directly to the American people about the girl who's worried she can't go to college because she can't afford it, about the dad who doesn't know if his wages will cover the winter heating bill, about the single mom who's stressed about what her children are doing after school while she's at work. Meanwhile, my party talked about tax cuts and waited for the American people to punish the president for the economy. They didn't. He won. We lost.

And yet seven years into his presidency, struggling Americans are — by every measure — worse off today than they were before he took office. Why has a president elected as a champion of the disadvantaged failed so miserably at helping them? Because, like most liberals, he doesn't understand the real causes of the erosion of equal opportunity we are experiencing today. He has raised taxes, increased regulations and taken over health care — all according to the outdated liberal theory that Americans struggle when government doesn't tax the rich enough and spend on the poor enough. But the results, such as they are, speak for themselves. After seven years of old-school liberalism, fewer Americans are working than at any time since the Great Recession in the first quarter of 2014.

It's getting harder for millions of Americans to get ahead, not because our taxes are too low or our government is too stingy. The poor and the middle class are struggling because while our economy is undergoing a dramatic and disruptive transformation, our policies have not changed with it. Our economy is no longer producing well-paying jobs, not enough people have the skills they need for better-paying jobs and the values needed for success are eroding at an alarming rate.

It's time for A New American Century. Join our fight and help lead American in a new direction.