There is a difference between bailing out states that are in debt because they didn't manage their investment and pension funds and helping out states that are having trouble continuing basic government operations because they were slammed too hard by the coronavirus pandemic, Sen. Marco Rubio said Wednesday.
"We should not be paying for their debt," the Florida Republican told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" about states seeking bailouts. "Whatever problems they had coming into this thing, this is not an opportunity to get that stuff paid off. If we're talking about the loss of revenue, they were going to generate a million dollars this year, and instead, they only generated half a million dollars, there is something I'm willing to talk about."
Local governments are expected to provide services such as garbage collection, police officers, firefighters, and more, he added, and "those workers shouldn't be paying the price" of the epidemic, he added.
"If we’re talking about revenue replacements for local governments for essential services, I do think that’s a valid area of conversation because we can’t respond to this pandemic without firefighters, police officers, and all the other things that local government is responsible for," said Rubio.
The senator also backed the nomination of Rep. John Ratcliffe as the next Director of National Intelligence, saying that he is "way more qualified" than some people under discussion to be Joe Biden's potential running mate.
"There isn’t a human being on this planet that the Democrats would support if nominated by Donald Trump for this position, or virtually any position at this point," said Rubio, "so you may as well nominate someone who is smart, who is hard-working, and who the president trusts and will listen to."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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