NOTICIAS

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) released a video message ahead of President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress outlining the steps he has taken to make life more affordable for hardworking American families and secure a more prosperous future. A transcript is below. A broadcast quality video is available here. 

“It’s not possible to be a strong country without strong and stable families. The family is the most basic unit of any society. And I’ve spent the past decade making this argument. So I am pleased that tonight President Biden will address the challenges faced by parents in 21st century America.
 
“But while his focus is in the right place, his ideas are not the best or right ones. 
 
“Our tax-code should be pro-family. A tax code that allows working parents to keep more of the money they earn from their jobs. 
 
“That is why for years I fought, and in 2017, took on members of my own party to double the Child Tax Credit. 
 
“That change, by the way, gave working parents making between $20,000 and $50,000 the biggest benefit.
 
“That is why earlier this year, I proposed raising the tax credit so that parents received $3,500 per child and $4,500 for each child under the age of six.  
 
“That is why I have for years proposed turning the Earned Income Tax Credit into a wage enhancement program.
 
“And that is why three years ago, I proposed a plan to allow parents who do not have paid leave from their job to get an advance on a portion of their future Social Security benefits after the birth or the adoption of a new child. 
 
“These changes I have proposed and are working on are a far better way forward than the Biden plan to send everyone a government check. Not only is what I propose in many ways more generous, it rewards work, which is a crucial part of stability and dignity.
 
“We should make pro-family investments. 
 
“The biggest investment parents make in their children is their education. 
 
“But education today is burying working families in debt, often for degrees that do not lead to a good job.
 
“What President Biden is proposing spends a bunch of money, but it does nothing to fix what makes education so unaffordable and some degrees so useless. 
 
“A better way is to pass my longtime idea to create opportunities to give people the equivalent of a degree by providing credit for work experience or by packaging courses from a variety of different places.
 
“A better way is to advance my ideas to make vocational training and apprenticeship programs as valued and as available as traditional colleges. 
 
“And when it comes to investing in schools that provide opportunities to minority students, a better way is the historic law I fought for last year to make annual federal funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities permanent funding. 
 
“Look, we should all share the goal of doing everything we can to empower working parents and American families.
 
“But doing that isn’t only about spending more taxpayer money. It’s about spending the money in a way that actually helps real families living in the real world, in a real way. 
 
“It isn’t pro-family to bury our children in debt to pay for programs that will not improve their lives. 
 
“We should all share the goal of doing everything we can to make our government policies pro-family, pro-parent and pro-work. 
 
“But let’s make sure it’s ideas that will work. Ideas that achieve the goal we should all share.”