EIB Interview: Why, Senator Rubio?

April 18, 2013

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We welcome back to the program Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. I think he just hustled to our microphones here from a Senate vote, correct?

RUBIO: Yeah, we did. Still votin' on the gun legislation.

RUSH: Gun legislation. Senator, I know your time is limited here. I know you've got a very busy day. Let's get started. I must tell you: I just don't understand this, Senator. I don't understand why we're doing something that the Democrats are salivating over. I've never agreed with Senator Schumer about anything and I'm being told that I should on this. I'm just having a tough time. I look at what happened in California after the last amnesty. We lost that state to the Democrats. I'm having trouble seeing how this benefits Republicans.

RUBIO: Well, a couple things. First of all, as far as Senator Schumer and others who are on the bill are concerned, I think the way to understand it is they've agreed to things that we believe in because they want our support. They understand it's important to get something done primarily because, not just in the Senate, but because in the House it's controlled by conservative Republicans. As far as why we're dealing with the issue, let me just begin by saying, Rush, that if we didn't have a single illegal immigrant in the United States we'd still have to do immigration reform, for two reasons.

One, because our current legal immigration system is broken. I think Americans support legal immigration. I know you do. Legal 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.

That needs to be reformed, and actually we do that. The second is because our immigration laws are not enforced, and, in particular, we don't have an electronic verification system. So when people are hired they're basically hired using illegal documents. We don't track people that are overstaying visas. So 40% of our illegal immigrants are people that entered legally and have overstayed. And our border is not secure, and we know that is a national security and sovereignty issue as much as it is an immigration issue. So, for those two reasons alone, we have to do something.

And beyond it, I would just say it's not good for the country to have 11 million people here who we don't know who they are, where they're living. They're not paying taxes, but they're showing up in emergency rooms. They're driving up the cost of auto insurance 'cause they don't have driver's licenses and are getting into accidents. They're having children, which are US citizens. So, I mean, it's an issue that needs to be dealt with -- and, beyond that, it's an issue the Democrats were gonna raise anyway. So we might as well have an alternative, and that's what we've worked on. Hopefully, we can keep it an alternative that we can support.

RUSH: I want to stick with the politics of this for just a second.

RUBIO: Yeah?

RUSH: I heard what you say.

RUBIO: Yeah.

RUSH: I understand. I have some questions for you about that, but the politics of this still fascinate me. If you look at the 2010 election or 2012 election results. The percentage of the electorate that was Hispanic was 7%, and we got 27 or 28% of that vote. The evangelical vote was about 28% of the electorate, and we got 78% of that.

RUBIO: Right...

READ THE REST OF THE INTERVIEW HERE http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/04/18/eib_interview_why_senator_rubio