I agree with the chairman this morning when he said Donald Trump is not above the law.
He's not.
But he damn sure shouldn't be below the law, which is where Volume 2 of this report puts him.
More from the C -SPAN archives now of Trump nominees in their own words.
We continue with Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who's been nominated to serve as the next Secretary of State.
Senator Rubio was first elected in 2010 and currently serves as the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Thank you for coming today.
Thank you, thank you for that introduction.
I want to thank Dr. Padron before I start and thank you Miami Dade College for hosting us here today and I'm very proud to be here to an institution.
I said this a week ago at an event we did here with small businesses.
I don't know of any other institution in America that's opened the doors to more American dreams than Miami Dade College has and it's a true treasure for our community and Dr. Padron's leadership is a true treasure as well and we thank you.
For your service to our community and ultimately to our country.
So thank you for being here today.
I wanted to spend a few moments talking to you about the book.
The title of the book is American Dreams.
The American Dream has nothing to do with how much money you make.
The American Dream isn't really about getting rich, although that may be your dream.
And a lot of Americans would dream that.
The American Dream is about achieving happiness as you define it.
And for most people, the American Dream and happiness is about simple things like owning a home in a safe and stable neighborhood.
Being able to raise your family in a safe and stable environment.
Having a job that you find both rewarding but also that pays you enough to be able to enjoy the things you like, save for retirement, and be able to leave your children better off than yourself.
Of all the communities that I've spoken about the American Dream in many places, there's few, if any, where I have to spend less time describing that dream than ours.
Because both in this audience and in our community, there are hundreds of thousands, in fact, Millions of people in South Florida throughout the three counties who have lived that dream despite starting from very difficult backgrounds and circumstances.
I want you to imagine for a moment being born into a society where your future was determined by who your parents were.
Imagine growing up in a society where you only got to do whatever it is your parents did before you.
If your parents were rich, if your parents were connected, if they had influence, then you got to move ahead.
But if you didn't, if you came from parents that were poor or disconnected from power, then no matter how hard you worked or how much you tried or how much talent you had, you would not be allowed to succeed.
Imagine living in a place like that.
Thank you.
Let me finish my description of the book.
And so the book talks about that dream that millions of people in this country have.
I think I'm the only one that gets heckled by both sides of the immigration debate.
It's pretty amazing.
All right.
Well, we're going to wait for them to finish and then we'll continue talking about the book.
We're just going to wait for them to finish and then we'll talk about the book.
I apologize, folks.
That's all right.
They'll be gone in a second.
I just hope they bought the book.
All right.
Thank you.
Listen, if what they wanted was a discount on the book, we could have worked it out.
The American dream.
So think about for a moment living in a country like that.
In a place where no matter how hard you work or how much you try, you can't get ahead.
Senator Rubio!
Senator Rubio!
Senator Rubio!
What is happening today with the fact that millions of people in America...
Look, I promise you we'll get through this.
Millions of people in America now feel like that's no longer possible for them.
And what's frustrating to people is they open the newspaper or they watch on the news and it says that the economy is getting better.
Wall Street's having record years.
Companies are making record profits.
The wealthiest Americans are better off today than they've ever been.
But they're wondering when is that prosperity going to reach them?
And there's reasons why this is happening, and that's one of the cores of our book.
One of the main reasons why that is happening is because the very nature of our economy has rapidly transformed.
The very nature of our economy has rapidly transformed.
For example, 25 years ago, if you were willing to work hard, there would always be a job available in America that allowed you to achieve happiness.
Maybe not a job that made you rich or a job that made you famous, but a job that allowed you
Globalization is real.
Globalization has changed the nature of our economy.
It means we're now competing with more nations than ever before.
For jobs, for investment, for creativity, for innovation.
That means we have to be more globally competitive than we've ever been.
The nature of work has changed as well.
Look, if my parents had come here in 2006 instead of 1956, it would have been very difficult for them to achieve what they achieved working as a bartender and as a maid.
Because those jobs don't pay enough anymore compared, in most places, To what the cost of living has become.
There are jobs in the 21st century that pay more, but they require a higher level of skill than ever before.
And the problems that we have are twofold.
One, our policies haven't adjusted to this new century.
And two, increasingly we're led by people at every level of government that don't understand that we're living through the fastest, most rapidly evolving economic times in all of human history.
We are basically having the equivalent of the Industrial Revolution every three to five years.
So what are the answers to that problem?
And that's what we outline in the book.
First is we describe the stories of real people.
Of a single mom who's struggling to raise her two daughters while making nine or ten dollars an hour.
Of not one but two college students from this community who graduated with degrees and now cannot find jobs.
And what's worse, they owe a bunch of money in student loans.
Of a small business in Central Florida run by a couple.
That is struggling to stay ahead and compete in an increasingly complicated environment where big companies who can hire a bunch of lawyers and lobbyists can comply with rules and regulations.
But small businesses like them struggle to do that.
And about a young lady named India that we met through a great program called Take Stock in Children who overcame some extraordinary obstacles in her life to achieve some truly extraordinary things.
We also talk about poverty.
The fact that there are tens of millions of Americans today living in poverty.
And why our programs to deal with poverty don't work.
Because our programs to deal with poverty today often alleviate the pain of poverty, but they do nothing to cure it.
And the ultimate cure for poverty, the real cure for poverty, is a good paying job.
And too many of our programs don't address that.
They simply alleviate the pain of poverty.
What are the steps that we need to take to address these things?
The first is pretty straightforward.
We need to become globally competitive again.
We have to understand that we're not the only economy in the world anymore.
That there are now dozens and dozens of countries that are competing against us for investment and for innovation.
And that's why we need things like a simpler tax code.
Why we need to reduce regulations.
Why we need to deal with our national debt.
Why we need to take advantage in a reasonable way but in a responsible way of our energy resources.
And the second thing we talk about is that even if you grow the economy, and there's where I fault my party, and I've talked about this, sometimes the Republican Party simply stops at economic growth.
It says if we just grow our economy, everyone's going to be better off.
And theoretically, that's true.
But in the 21st century, there's a second step that's more important than ever.
Even if you grow your economy, even if you're prepared to create millions of better -paying jobs, those better -paying jobs today all require more skill and more education than it's ever required.
The problem is that we still have a 20th century higher education system that tells everyone, and the only answer to that is a four -year degree.
And let me tell you, four -year degrees will always be a part of one of our choices.
It will always be a legitimate choice.
But we need to have alternatives to that as well.
For example, some of the best -paying jobs of the 21st century require more than traditional high school, but less than four years of traditional college.
Welders and plumbers and electricians.
And airplane mechanics and BMW technicians.
These are also good paying jobs that are in demand in the 21st century.
And we need to have systems that allow people to acquire those skills.
In particular, I believe that the high schools in America should be graduating more students ready to work right away in many of these professions which are good paying jobs that are critical to 21st century success.
Perhaps the most challenging area for us to face is what do you do if you're 30 years old You have to work full -time to provide for yourself and you're trying to raise two or three children on your own.
You're making nine dollars an hour as a home health aide or twelve dollars an hour as a receptionist.
The only way you are ever going to improve how much you make and ultimately your life is to acquire skills that allow you to become a paralegal or to become a dental hygienist.
The problem is that, in order to achieve those skills, oftentimes depending on where you live, We're good to go.
And as a result, we've seen people pursuing those programs, graduating sometimes with tens of thousands of dollars in student loans.
In that realm, it's a good point to stop and congratulate Miami -Dade County for the work it does.
Miami -Dade College, not community college anymore, Miami -Dade College, for the work it's doing to fill that gap in our community.
We need more of that.
We need to invest in more of that.
Because the truth is, the only way that that receptionist Who's making $9 an hour is ever going to make $50 ,000 a year if he or she can become that paralegal or that dental hygienist or some other profession like it.
But we need to acquire education systems that allow them the access to that.
Last but not least, I would say to you that indeed the four -year college, as I said a moment ago, will continue to be a legitimate way forward, but we cannot afford to continue to graduate people with degrees that do not lead to jobs.
We can't afford it as a country, and one of the things we've proposed is that before anyone takes out a loan for a degree, before everyone can take out a loan for a degree, you should be told by that school,
this is how much you can expect to make when you graduate from this school with that degree.
Look, I myself graduated with over $100 ,000 in student loans, which I was only able to pay off after the publication of my first book, An American Son, which is now available on paperback in case you're interested.
So it's something that I hold deeply personal and important.
We cannot continue to graduate people in this country with degrees that do not lead to jobs.
We have over a trillion dollars of student loan debt in America, much of which may never be paid off.
And it isn't just bad for our country not to pay it off.
It's bad for the people that can't pay it off.
Student loan debt stays with you forever.
It can't be discharged in bankruptcy.
It locks you out of entrepreneurship.
It locks you out of home ownership.
It ruins your credit.
So we have to have alternatives as well.
And in that space, I talk about creating alternative ways to credential people, including the ability to package learning no matter where you acquire it from.
The ability to come forward and say, here's who I am.
I've worked for 10 years in the private sector, and these are the things that I've done.
I've studied these three or four things online or on my own.
I've taken these courses in this college and these courses in that college.
I served in the military.
Whatever it may be, someone should be able to package all of that experience and learning into the equivalent of a degree that the private sector recognizes.
And by the way, I also outlined an alternative to the traditional student loan that I think would be especially beneficial to graduate students, called the Student Investment Plan, which allows private sector investors to pay your college costs in exchange for a percentage of your income over a period of time,
almost like an investment fund would in a company.
It's not for everyone, but it's one more alternative to the traditional student loan.
I would also be remiss if I didn't point out one more aspect of our book, and that's the impact of societal breakdown.
The breakdown of families, and this has been documented in both the left and the right, is one of the single largest contributors of poverty in America today.
Now that doesn't mean that I can pass a law to make someone a better husband or a better wife.
Believe me, if I could pass a law to make people A better husband, my wife would run for office.
But it does mean that we need to recognize it.
And we need to recognize it in two ways.
First, we need to recognize as elected officials, as policy makers, that stable, intact families are good for people.
And we also need to recognize that children that are growing up in disadvantaged backgrounds With broken families, in dangerous neighborhoods, in substandard housing, with no access to a quality education, those children are going to struggle to succeed, statistically speaking, unless we do something to intervene, unless we do something to break that cycle,
unless we do something that allows them to overcome these things.
And in that realm, there's a lot government can do.
But ultimately, it's on us as people, as members of a community, as neighbors, as husbands and wives, as fathers and mothers.
And as members of community groups.
Tied all together, the general theme of the book is quite optimistic.
Because while we face real challenges, I remind you, and I ask you, what nation would you trade places with?
What country in the world would you rather be than us right now?
Every nation on earth faces challenges.
Every nation on, and every time in our history, we face challenges too.
But I believe we have it within us to confront these challenges and solve them.
And I believe that everything that it takes to succeed in the 21st century are things that we're better at than anyone else in the world.
The 21st century will be about productivity, and the American worker is still the most productive worker on the planet.
The 21st century will be about innovation, and the American people are the most innovative people on the planet.
And most of all, the 21st century will also be about big aspirations and big dreams.
And the American people still have those too.
I honestly believe that if we confront the challenges and embrace the opportunities of this new era, the 21st century will also be an American century.
I honestly believe that not only will we save the American dream, but we will allow it to reach more people than it's ever reached before.
And for me, that's a deeply personal principle.
It's one that I hold very dear to my heart.
I tell people all the time what's compelled me to enter public service is the reality that America doesn't owe me a single thing.
I have a debt to this country that no matter how long I live or how hard I work, I will never be able to repay.
I've been able to achieve things in my life and live a life that would have been impossible had my parents not come here, had this nation not existed, had America not been exceptional.
And what we know now is not just for that to continue, but to reach more people than ever before.
As I said at the outset, every country in the world has successful people.
Have large militaries and big geopolitical importance.
There are other nations with large economies and big companies.
I truly believe that what separates us, not just from the other nations on the earth, but other nations in history, is that here we have been united by the belief that every human being deserves the chance to achieve their God -given potential,
to go as far as their talent and their work will take them.
And if we ever were to lose that, we will lose what makes us different.
We'll still be big.
We'll still be important.
We'll still be powerful.
We'll still be important.
And we'll still matter on the global stage.
But we won't be as special.
And I, for one, don't want to be part of the first generation of Americans that leaves the next Warsaw.
I, for one, don't want to be part of the first generation of Americans that has to turn to their children and explain to them why we got to grow up in the greatest country in human history.
But they will not have the same chance.
Now I know that there's a lot of narrative out there about how divided we are between Republicans and Democrats.
How divided we are among our political feelings and ideas.
And it's true, we've always been a pretty opinionated people as evidenced here tonight.
That's the benefit of our freedom.
But I believe that what unites us is even more important.
No matter what your voter registration card says or who you voted for in the last election, I do believe there's a unifying principle in America.
And it's the idea that every single human being should matter.
That everyone deserves the right to achieve the dreams they have for themselves and for their families.
And that we will continue to endeavor to be the country that provides that to people as the task of our time.
And if we achieve it, not only will this be the greatest era in American history, but the 21st century will also be an American century.
And so that's why I took the time to write this book.
I tell it through the story of real people and their real challenges.
I describe what's gone wrong in their life.
What we're doing about it now, and what we can do better.
You'll notice in the book that there are many ideas that are bipartisan.
They involve my collaboration with people of another party, colleagues like Chris Coons in Connecticut and Cory Booker in New Jersey.
Many of our policy proposals really aren't partisan at all, particularly when it comes to higher education.
You'll read about how I'm working with Mark Warner to make higher education more affordable.
How I'm working with Cory Booker of New Jersey to provide more access to Wi -Fi and Internet platforms, especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
These are important initiatives as well.
They're not easy to put on a bumper sticker.
They don't win a lot of elections for you.
But they're critical to the future of our country.
So we still have time and space, and we should debate the issues we disagree on.
But I hope that we can come together and cooperate on the essential issues of our time.
Because what we have before us is an extraordinary opportunity.
And that is to usher in the most prosperous era in all of our history.
And that's saying a lot for a country with a history like ours.
So I appreciate you all being here tonight.
I look forward to talking to you in person more.
And thank you for this opportunity you've given me to address the book.