Marco Rubio expresses doubts about the tax reform bill he just voted for

Rubio admitted to reporters that the tax reform bill "probably went too far on (helping) corporations"

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published December 29, 2017 3:24PM (EST)

 (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
(AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is publicly criticizing the same tax reform bill that he voted for.

"If I were king for a day, this tax bill would have looked different," Rubio told a reporter who asked him about his overall view of the Republican tax bill, according to News-Press. "I thought we probably went too far on (helping) corporations. By and large, you’re going to see a lot of these multinationals buy back shares to drive up the price. Some of them will be forced, because they’re sitting on historic levels of cash, to pay out dividends to shareholders. That isn’t going to create dramatic economic growth."

Rubio then went on to defend the bill by pointing out that it doubles the Child Tax Credit and claiming that "it is better – significantly better – than the current code." After explaining how he persuaded many of his fellow Republicans about the merits of the Child Tax Credit by proving that it wasn't welfare, Rubio then addressed the potential political ramifications of the bill.

"(People’s) opinion today is based on what they’ve read and what they’ve been told it does," Rubio told reporters. "But if I’m against the tax bill because I don’t think it’ll actually cut my taxes and I get my first paycheck in February and it has $200 in there that didn’t used to be there, I’m going to notice that. By the time we get to November of next year, their opinion about the tax bill is not going to be based on media coverage. It’s going to be based on what their paycheck is telling them."

 


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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Gop Tax Cuts Gop Tax Reform Bill Marco Rubio Tax Cuts Tax Reform Bill