You know what the fastest growing religion in America is? Statism. The growing reliance on government.
Marco RubioI think there's a growing amount of confusion about what conservatism is. And it is time for us to understand that conservatism is not built on personalities. Conservatism is not simply built on how angry you might seem from time to time. Conservatism is built on a set of principles and ideas that our nation desperately needs.
Marco RubioReligious freedom is often referred to as America's first freedom. Our country was founded by religious exiles and built on the belief that God has given all people certain inalienable rights. Government's role in society is to protect these rights and ensure that we are safe from religious persecution and discrimination.
Marco RubioI'm more than happy to share with you my opinion on Donald Trump but I'm running for president because I think this country needs to reembrace the Constitution. This country needs to reembrace free enterprise and it needs to a reembrace the strong national defense.
Marco RubioSo the majority of Americans are conservatives. They believe in things like the Constitution. I know that's weird to some people but they believe in it.
Marco RubioFrom tea parties to the election in Massachusetts, we are witnessing the single greatest political pushback in American history.
Marco RubioLegal immigration is good for America, if it's controlled and structured via the legal process, of course. But the problem is the system we have in place right now is broken. For example, it is completely family based which means that it's based not on what you can do or what talent you have or what merit you bring or what job you could fill, but rather on whether you know someone who already lives here.
Marco RubioAll of these things we're talking about now, it will take time to sink in. But when voters begin to realize what we're really up against here, and what he's trying to do, I think you're going to see a sea shift here pretty quickly.
Marco RubioNow, look, it's true, Americans do want leaders that will come to Washington, D.C. and work together to get things done, but that comes with a very important caveat, it depends what they're trying to do.
Marco RubioI do think we lost some of the focus on the attacks in San Bernardino and focused on a plan that isn't really a plan and is never going to happen.
Marco RubioI'm all for reforming our higher education system, in the 21st century, to have the skills you need for a middle-class job, you need higher education of some form or fashion. It may not be a four-year degree. The problem is he just wants to pour that additional money into the broken, existing system.
Marco RubioAnd yet, there are still people in American politics who, for some reason, cling to this belief that America is better off adopting the economic policies of nations whose people who immigrate here from there.
Marco RubioThere are people that borrow $36,000 to go to Trump University, and they are suing him now. Thirty-six thousand dollars to go a university, that's a fake school.
Marco RubioI don't know anything about starting a university, and that was a fake university.There are people who borrowed $36,000 to go to Trump University, and they're suing now - $36,000 to go to a university. That's a fake school. And you know what they got? They got to take a picture with a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump. That's what they got for $36,000.
Marco RubioIt is a health care law [ObamaCare] that is basically forcing companies to lay people off, cut people's hours, move people to part-time. It is not just a bad health care law, it is a job-killing law.
Marco RubioThere is a lot of fiscal conservatives in the United States senate that didn't vote for that because we understand that national security spending is not the reason why we have a debt. Our debt is being driven by the way Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and, by the way, the interest on the debt is structured in the years to come.
Marco RubioJust like Trump Tower, he [Donald Trump] must have hired a foreign worker to do his own tweets.
Marco RubioNational security, the government is in charge of that. And you better have a president that understands the threats we [the state] face and what we have to do about it and if you can't articulate that as a candidate, you cannot be commander-in-chief.
Marco RubioThat may not be a majority position in my party, but that's down the road. You can't even begin that process until you prove to people - not just pass a law that says you're gonna bring illegal immigration under control. You're gonna have to do it and prove to people that it's working.
Marco RubioMy preference is that we beat him [Donald Trump] outright in the primary process. And I believe that's exactly what's going to happen here in the next few weeks, especially as we move to winner-take-all states. The terrain begins to change.
Marco RubioWe call that the American dream, but in fact, it's a universal dream of a better life that people have all over the world. It is a reminder that every country in the world has rich people. What makes America special is that we have millions and millions of people that are not rich, that through hard work and perseverance are able to be successful.
Marco RubioAren't we in the midst of a blitzkrieg, for a lack of a better term, of informational warfare conducted by Russian trolls under the command of Vladimir Putin?
Marco RubioWe need to repeal and replace Dodd-Frank act. We need to make America fair again for all businesses, but especially those being run by small business owners.
Marco RubioIf you're running to be president of the United States, you can't just tell people you're going to make America great again. I think you need to begin to explain exactly how you're going to do it policy-wise. We're not going to win a general election with a candidate that refuses to detail policy.
Marco RubioGovernment should allow people to go out and do the things Americans have always done, create jobs and prosperity. And America's role in the world - the world is a safer and better place when America is the strongest country in the world.
Marco RubioWhen I'm president, the Senate bill is not going to be what we're operating off of. It's going to begin by focusing on securing our border first and foremost. And until you do that, you're not going to be able to do anything else.
Marco RubioYou know who a complicated tax code kills? The guy or gal trying to start a business out of the spare bedroom of their home. So we've got to simplify our tax code.
Marco RubioThe vast majority of Americans want a government that creates the conditions for them to have a chance to get into the middle class, the kind of growth and the kind of educational opportunities. Most people would - the vast majority of Americans would much rather have a job that pays more than a welfare check.
Marco RubioThe Obama Administration's obsession with forcing mandates on the American people has now reached a new low by violating the conscience rights and religious liberties of our people.
Marco RubioOur government does not exist to decide the rights, nor to grant them. Our government exists to protect them. And that is why we have a constitution that limits the power of the federal government to a few specific, but important things and we have abandoned that. We have abandoned it in both political parties.
Marco RubioIf you raise the minimum wage, you're going to make people more expensive than a machine.
Marco RubioAs far as the refugees are concerned, it's not that America doesn't want to accept refugees.t's that we may not be able to, because this is an issue we have to be 100 percent right on. If we allow 9,999 Syrian refugees into the United States, and all of them are good people, but we allow one person in who's an ISIS killer - we just get one person wrong, we've got a serious problem.
Marco RubioLet's be clear about what this [presidential] campaign is about. It's not about Donald Trump, he's an entertaining guys, he's the greatest show on Earth.
Marco Rubio[Donald Trump twitts] "Lightweight Marco Rubio was working hard last night." This is true. "The problem is he's chalker and once a chalker, always a choker," I guess that's what he meant to say. He spelled choker, c-h-o-k-e-r.
Marco RubioThere is one way, only one way to solve it, and that is through legislation. It cannot be through an unconstitutional executive order that violates the Constitution. That is, it doesn't matter here what you think about immigration: here you cannot violate the nation's Constitution, period.
Marco RubioI'm running for president because there's no way we can elect Hillary Clinton to continue the policies.
Marco RubioBut let me tell you what happens when regulations go too far, when they seem to exist only for the purpose of justifying the existence of a regulator. It kills the people trying to start a business.
Marco RubioISIS are actively recruiting Americans. The attacker in San Bernardino was an American citizen, born and raised in this country. He was a health inspector; had a newborn child and left all that behind to kill 14 people.
Marco RubioBeing a conservative can never be about simply an attitude. Being a conservative cannot simply be about how long you're willing to scream, how angry you're willing to be or how many names you're willing to call people. That is not conservative.
Marco RubioWe can't be playing around with these issues [Zika disease], because this can become very serious very quickly, as we have seen in Brazil and other countries. The funds are going to be used at the state level, but it is important for the federal government to cooperate in the federal government's role.
Marco Rubio