Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is tired of liberals asserting that somehow only Democrats care about the poor because they unconditionally support more welfare spending.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” Rubio said in an interview with Breitbart News, pointing out that the Left frequently relies on a stereotype that somehow liberals are the only people that are worried about the poor.
During an interview with the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart, the comedian news host accused Rubio of being a Democrat because he had empathy with the poor.
But Rubio strongly disagrees with Stewart’s characterization.
“That’s a tried and true tactic of the left – when they finally figure out that you are talking about something they think they have a monopoly on in a way that makes more sense than theirs – their immediate accusation is that ‘Oh, you’re becoming one of us,’” Rubio explained, pointing out that liberal policies are actually hurting the poor.
“The people are trapped in America today, many are trapped in poverty by programs that liberals don’t want touched or changed or reformed in any way, other than more money,” he said.
Rubio lays out several important policy reforms for the poor in his new book, including a idea to replace the earned income tax credit with gradual financial assistance for low-income workers and a plan to localize flexible welfare spending for states.
Rubio pointed out that liberals often exude a “false compassion” because of their support for failing government programs.
“One of the essential arguments of the book is that the liberal compassion is a false compassion, because for example their poverty programs help alleviate the pain of poverty but they do nothing to cure it,” Rubio explained. “I think the people that are trying to cure poverty are much more compassionate.”
Rubio explained that his goal was to remind Americans that not only Republicans care about helping those who are less fortunate, but that they actually have better ways to help them than the Democrats.
“I think that they’ve gotten away with the argument that they are more compassionate than we are, but I think that we have a very true story to tell about how our policies actually help people who are trying to make it – much more than their policies,” he says.