Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida pounded the Obama administration’s plan to combat climate change, saying it would destroy the nation’s economy.
“[W]e’re not going to destroy our economy,” the GOP presidential candidate said during Wednesday night’s CNN debate. “Every proposal they put forward … will make it harder to do business in America … will make it harder to create jobs in America.
“Single parents are already struggling across this country to provide for their families,” he said. “Maybe a billionaire here in California can afford an increase in their utility rates. But a working family in Tampa, Fla., or anywhere across this country cannot afford it.”
The administration’s policies will do nothing, “absolutely nothing,” to combat climate change, Rubio said. His comments suggest he believes what many Republicans adhere to: Obama’s climate agenda will drive up energy prices and drive jobs overseas.
“America is a lot of things. The greatest country in the world, absolutely. But America is not a planet. And we are not even the largest carbon producer anymore,” he said. “China is.”
China is “drilling a hole, and digging anywhere in the world that they can get ahold of,” Rubio said.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey played up a solution driven by markets. He said he didn’t “think Sen. Rubio is a skeptic of climate change.” He said emissions can be lowered through free-market approaches that use economic forms of energy, not through regulations. “We don’t need this massive government intervention to deal with the problem.”
Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin added that the administration plan would sacrifice “thousands of manufacturing jobs.”
Rubio is currently ranked sixth in the Washington Examiner‘s presidential power rankings.
