Marco Rubio, a Senator, Decries Congress’s Impotence and Inaction, Calls for Term Limits By Reid J. Epstein

Posted By on January 6th, 2016

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/01/05/marco-rubio-a-senator-decries-congress-impotence-and-inaction-calls-for-term-limits/

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – To hear Marco Rubio talk, Congress is an impotent branch of government that needs a full-scale overhaul – and that’s exactly why he’s running for president.

Federal legislators, in Mr. Rubio’s description, are peripheral figures in Washington, people who can have some impact on policy but are not in a position to set it.

“While I’m a senator I can help shape the agenda — only the president can set the agenda,” the Florida senator said to a woman here who asked him during a town hall meeting how she can defend his record of missing Senate votes to her friends. “We’re not going fix America with senators and congressmen. The only way to turn this around is to reverse the damage this president has done to the United States of America.”

Of course, Mr. Rubio’s meager Senate attendance record has been a point of conflict in the Republican presidential primary for months. Rival Jeb Bush criticized him about it during an October debate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie brought it up in New Hampshire.

Mr. Rubio, who is forgoing a bid for a second Senate term in order to run for president, also endorsed constitutional amendments to instate term limits for federal legislators and judges. But congressmen, he said, will never agree to limit their own tenure.

“You’re never going to get that from Congress. They’re never going to pass it. I don’t care how many times they say they are for it, they will never pass it,” Mr. Rubio said.

So instead, Mr. Rubio backed the Convention of States movement, another avenue to constitutional amendment, in which states would meet to draft amendments for term limits and to require a balanced budget.

“When I’m president I will put the full weight and force of the presidency behind that effort because we need term limits and we need a balanced budget amendment and when I’m president I will do everything I can to ensure that people can achieve that,” he said.

In the meantime, Mr. Rubio told the crowd of 150 people in a Marriott ballroom here, there’s not much he can do from the Senate to stop President Barack Obama from pushing his agenda through unitary executive action.

Senate Democrats, he said, can use the filibuster to stop any Republican effort to block Mr. Obama’s agenda. And the court system, he said, takes too long to satisfy Republican voters furious with the White House.

“I think the best thing we can do is remind ourselves that, a year from today, we’re going to have on the way a new president,” Mr. Rubio said. “We’ve got one more year to put up with him, and then he’s gone.”

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