Rubio: More people will achieve American dream with Ernst in Senate

WILLIAMSBURG - 'You learn something new every day,” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Tuesday when told about the unincorporated western Washington County town of Rubio named for a 19th Century Mexican statesman and president.

Rubio is learning a lot about Iowa, especially state Sen. Joni Ernst, who could be Republicans' 51st vote in the U.S. Senate, as he traveled with her on part of her 99-county 'Iowa Knows Best Tour.”

Wearing an Ernst campaign fleece jacket, the potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate, said Iowans would be getting a two-for by electing Ernst rather than her opponent, Democratic U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley.

'We have another unique opportunity not just to elect the next great senator from Iowa - you already have one great senator in Chuck Grassley,” Rubio told nearly 100 people who packed the Java Lounge in Williamsburg. 'Now you're going to get two great senators.”

With Ernst - and a GOP majority, Rubio said Republicans will enact new policies including energy independence, a 'sane and stable tax code,” reducing regulatory barriers to job creation, and providing the education and job skills people need 'to achieve their versions of the American dream and reassert a strong American on the global strategy.”

And that couldn't come at a better time, Rubio said. Many Americans are working as hard as ever, but their paychecks don't go as far as they did a few years ago. College graduates have mountains of debt and no jobs. Too many people are in low-wage jobs 'just one flat tire away from disaster.”

Some people have begun to doubt the American dream is possible for them and their families.

Not Rubio.

'Despite all of our challenges there is no reason the 21st Century can't be greater than the 20th,” according to Rubio, who said Republicans will work to expand the new American Century 'to reach even more people than ever we reached before.”

It will happen sooner with Ernst in the Senate, he said.

'As long as we have people like Harry Reid running the Senate and Barack Obama in the White House we'll have to wait for the American Century to begin,” Rubio said. 'But here in Iowa, you can change that right here, right now next Tuesday by sending to Washington someone who will fight for the things that we believe in.”

Iowa Democrats believe that if elected to the Senate, 'Ernst would stand side by side with Marco Rubio in supporting another government shutdown, dismantling Social Security and Medicare, and opposing a minimum-wage increase.”

'So while Ernst's extreme agenda would benefit the wealthy and devastate the middle class, Bruce Braley will continue to share his message of putting middle class Iowans ahead of the millionaires, billionaires and wealthy special interests,” according to a statement released by the state party.