News

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) appeared on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom with Sandra Smith today to discuss the need to provide tax relief for working American families by expanding the child tax credit. 
 
Earlier this week, Rubio published an op-ed in the New York Times calling for tax reform that will help American families. Recently, Rubio and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) reiterated the need for pro-family tax reform after House Republicans unveiled their tax reform bill. Last month, the Senate passed Rubio’s child tax credit amendment in its budget resolution and Rubio also released an analysis showing the child tax credit remains the best way to provide meaningful tax relief for working families.
Key excerpts of Rubio’s remarks are transcribed below.

RUBIO: This is the starting point. There may be things in it I want to change. If the child tax credit is not high enough or if it’s not refundable, I’ll want to change that because I think we have to do that for working families – people out there that are raising two, three, four children. Both parents work really hard. We can’t raise their taxes. They need a tax cut. It’s expensive to raise kids.
 
SANDRA SMITH: And I know it’s something you have been extremely passionate about. You wrote an op-ed over the weekend in the New York Times published it in which you called for at least doubling the per-child tax credit to $2,000 and making it refundable against payroll tax liability, the biggest tax paid you say by working class American families. You go on to say the House tax bill released last week falls short in this regard. So will we see that, specifically that number, show up in the Senate plan?
 
RUBIO: Well I don’t know if they’ll get to that number. But I think it will be better. I expect it’ll be better than the House position. And we’ll keep working on it. Look, if I don’t like it, I can file an amendment on the Senate floor. And I am pretty confident I have the votes.
 
And, by the way, 2,000 is not some number out of the air. That is the point in which you are giving a tax cut to people who will have… two, three, four children, are raising a family, are working because you can’t get this if you are not working.
 
Here’s what I can tell you: it cannot be that it is more lucrative to not work and raise four kids with the government benefits that come with that, than it is to take a job for $35,000 a year. That can’t be, and our tax code should not encourage that.