A.G. Gancarski
Sen. Marco Rubio, who has at times been an eager proponent of the recently-passed tax reform package, again flashed second thoughts in an interview with The Economist.
“There is still a lot of thinking on the right that if big corporations are happy, they’re going to take the money they’re saving and reinvest it in American workers,” he says. “In fact they bought back shares, a few gave out bonuses; there’s no evidence whatsoever that the money’s been massively poured back into the American worker.”
This quote is remarkable, given that Rubio did a press event in early April in Jacksonville, in which he and other politicians extolled the benefits of the tax reform package.
That event focused on a business expanding, an expansion from 6,500 to 47,000 square feet and 100 jobs in the next five years. And a roundtable at the event, in which the company’s principals focused on the benefit to the company, had relatively little focus on “American workers.”
Rubio’s public statements have been conflicted on the matter.
In December, Rubio said that the bill “probably went too far” in helping corporations, a statement consistent with the Economist interview.
However, Rubio also said late last year that people will notice the benefits of the bill.
“By the early part of next year,” Rubio said, “people will know whether they have a tax cut or not.”
“The American people will have the right to change their minds,” Rubio said, adding that their “opinions will be based on [what their] paychecks are showing them.
