Marco Rubio: Don't Pass Continuing Resolutions Unless Health Care Law is Defunded

Speaking at a breakfast event on Thursday sponsored by the Concerned Veterans of America and The Weekly Standard, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., took aim at President Barack Obamas health care law. Repeatedly calling the law unimplementable, Rubio suggested Republicans oppose passing continuing resolutions of the federal budget unless they defund it.

I believe that we should not vote nor pass a continuing resolution unless that continuing resolution defunds Obamacare. You want to delay implementation? Dont fund it, Rubio said. And if we have a six-month continuing resolution, we should defund the implementation of Obamacare by those six months. But we should not pass a continuing resolution, and I will not vote for a continuing resolution unless it defunds Obamacare for the period of time of the continuing resolution. Id like to see it permanently repealed, but at a minimum, we should agree to do that.

Rubio also weighed in on the fiscal state of the federal government.

Soon after we are done with the short-term budget will come another recurring issue, and thats the debt limit or debt ceiling, Rubio said. Our national debt is now about $17 trillion and it is growing. And here is the most startling part about it: there is no plan in place to stop it from growing in the near future. Its $17 trillion, it requires us to raise the debt limit here in a couple of months, and it will require us to do it again in the next 18 to 20 months. There is no plan in place, and, quite frankly, there is no one seriously working on one.

The fact that there is this $17 trillion debt and no plan to fix it is discouraging growth right now, Rubio added. People are afraid to risk and invest their money in an economy that they think is headed for either disruptive changes in the government or massive tax increases to deal with the debt. You think the $17 trillion debt and no plan to get control of it is encouraging economic growth? How many chambers of commerce around America are bragging about Come to America, invest here, we have a $17 trillion debt! Because it discourages growth. It discourages job creation. It is having an impact right now as we speak.

And so, thats why I believe that we should refuse to raise the debt limit by one single cent unless we pass, and the president agrees to sign, a budget that shows how we are going to begin to get to balance it [within]10 years, Rubio said. This is not an unreasonable request. They will say that it is, but it is not.