Iowa is Rubio Country

[UWS]

First Presidential Debate

Date : September 29, 2020

Place : Dayton University, Dayton, Ohio

Moderator : George Stephanopoulos

Podium order :

Sanders        Rubio

George Stephanopoulos : Good evening from the University of Dayton, Ohio. I'm George Stephanopoulos, chief anchor of ABC News and I welcome you to the first of the 2020 presidential election debates between President Marco Rubio, the Republican nominee, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the Democratic nominee.

This debate and the next three -- two presidential, one vice presidential -- are sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Tonight's 90 minutes will be about domestic issues and will follow a format designed by the commission. There will be six roughly 15-minute segments with two-minute answers for the first question, then open discussion for the remainder of each segment.

Thousands of people offered suggestions on segment subjects or questions via the Internet and other means, but I made the final selections. And for the record, they were not submitted for approval to the commission or the candidates.

The segments as I announced in advance will be three on the economy and one each on health care, the role of government and governing, with an emphasis throughout on differences, specifics and choices. Both candidates will also have two-minute closing statements.

The audience here in the hall has promised to remain silent -- no cheers, applause, boos, hisses, among other noisy distracting things, so we may all concentrate on what the candidates have to say. There is a noise exception right now, though, as we welcome President Rubio and Senator Sanders.

[APPLAUSE FROM THE AUDIENCE AS MARCO RUBIO AND BERNIE SANDERS ARRIVE ON THE DEBATE STAGE, SHAKE HANDS AND GET BEHIND THEIR DEBATE PODIUMS

[UWS]

First Presidential Debate, Part 1

George Stephanopoulos : Gentlemen, welcome to you both. Let's start the economy, segment one, and let's begin with jobs. What are the major differences between the two of you about how you would go about creating new jobs? Mr. President, you go first.

Marco Rubio : Thank you George. I want to thank Senator Sanders for being here tonight and I want to thank the University of Dayton for this wonderful hospitality and for hosting this debate.

Four years ago, I ran for President during a time America was living its slowest economy in our nation's history and was heading into a recession. This was caused by a drastic increase of the size of government, higher taxes and regulations that diminished our people's purchasing power, dependence towards foreign energy and skyrocketing national debt, which are all policies supported by Senator Sanders.

But when I came in office, we turned this economy around. Because of your determination, you took me on faith. Because we trust the American people, because we believe in free enterprise, in free market and in the hard work of our people, we managed to grow this economy by cutting taxes for all Americans, including the middle class, thus increasing their purchasing power as well as their ability to raise their families and to find a good-paying job. We led America to energy independence by encouraging oil drilling and the construction of new pipelines to facilitate oil transportation, which not only brought massive job creation but also  got revenues which a part are invested into the development of renewable energies, thus favoring both job creation and the protection of the environment. Under my leadership President, we made America competitive in the world economy by promoting free trade and making free trade favorable for American workers by cutting taxes for our manufacturing industry and reducing our corporate tax rate by 25 %, which helped us to ratify free trade agreement with Europe, Latin America and India and to encourage job creation here in America and we are number one in auto production again. By promoting school choice, we lowered the costs for families to ensure their children's access to education and produced higher outcomes compared to public education. It granted parents the power to orientate their children out of poorly-performing schools assigned by zip code and look for better education elsewhere. We made America the best place in the world to do business by reducing the fiscal burden of all businesses across America, including small businesses, and by reducing the cost of doing business in America which reinforced their ability to grow, to expand, to innovate, to produce and to hire people and we now have a new record of small businesses.

Our policies created 12 million new jobs, reduced our unemployment rate from 5.6 % to 2.5 %, which is the lowest rate in 50 years, and we reduced the deficit by $8 billion, almost in half. America's future is bright and we're going to make sure it will remain bright. By balancing the budget, we're going to put our deficit under control, invest a part of future budget surpluses into the development of new infrastructures, of renewable energies and in education. That's how we're going to create the jobs of tommorrow, get us to full-employment and keep America strong.

George Stephanopoulos : Senator Sanders, two minutes.

Bernie Sanders : Thank you George, thank you Mr. President and I want to thank  the University of Dayton for hosting this debate of ideas aimed at showing our differences about how to lead America and to make sure our country's future is bright.

We are now living a time of strong economic growth in America. But I believe that we have to make sure that it benefits for all the American people, not just the top 1 %. We have to make sure that no one is left behind. That's why we need to invest in education and training. I think it's important to develop new sources of energy, that we change our tax code to ensure that all Americans, including the wealthy, pay their fair share. It's important for us to make sure that we're helping small businesses and companies that are investing here in the United States and to invest into infrasructure. That is the way we can make this economy working for all Americans, reinforce the middle class, reduce poverty and balance the budget.

George Stephanopoulos : Mr. President, 90 seconds to respond.

Marco Rubio : Well, it's interesting to hear Senator Sanders talking about strengthening the middle class because after he promised not to raise taxes on the middle class, he changed his position and is now adopting a health care plan that would raise taxes on middle class Americans through a new 2.2 % income tax on all Americans. Even the majority of his colleagues in his own party, including even Bill Clinton and his former rival in the primaries Senator Cory Booker, spoke out against this plan because that is not the best way to defend the middle class. A strong economy requires a strong middle class and that's exactly why we reduced taxes for the middle class just like we did for all the rest of the American people, which boosted job creation and made small businesses competitive again.

When it comes to the sectors Senator Sanders just mentionned and claims that we did not focus on, we actually did made these sectors top priorities. We brought Republicans and Democrats together to fix America's infrastructure by staying fiscally responsible. We reduced the federal gasoline tax rate by 80 %; turned back control of the highways to the states; stopped special interests in Washington from building “Bridges to Nowhere” and engaging in other wasteful spending and removed barriers to public-private partnerships in order to fund infrastructure projects, which developped new infrastructures across America, facilitated economic activities around the country and favored the implementation of new businesses here in the United States, resulting to strong job creation. We don't need to build a bridge to nowhere, we need to build a bridge to the future.

George Stephanopoulos : Senator Sanders, 90 seconds.

Bernie Sanders : Look, the President is adopting the same tricckle-down economics that brought us to the 2008 financial crisis that was caused by skyrocketing deficits, by the repeal of Glass-Steagall, by an increase of the gap revenue between the rich and the poor and that bailed out Wall Street and other big banks.

That's why we have to make sure that corporations and big businesses pay their fair share and ensure a fair share of wealth for Americans of all incomes. We have  invest in the right sectors, including health care and education and focus on eliminating the debt, on welfare reform and on making our trade deals fair for our workers. We can't do it by standing for special interests.

But the President abolished Dodd-Frank, which favored Wall Street over every day Americans who are struggling to earn their fair part of wealth and to rise. But I will make the fight against Wall Street's special interests a top priority and make sure that Wall Street will work for the people not Wall Street itself.

George Stephanopoulos : Mr. President, your response.

Marco Rubio : Senator Sanders got everything wrong on Dodd-Frank, a job-killing big government policy that made big banks bigger because the government made them big by imposing thousands of pages of regulations. Unlike small banks, big banks are able to deal with all these regulations because they have an army of lawyers and compliance officers, thus making big banks bigger while small banks are struggling to lend or to exist. It also eviscerated small businesses and small banks since it wiped out 40 % of small and mid-size banks that loan money to small businesses, which bankrupted small businesses and killed tens of thousands of jobs. So Senator Sanders supported a policy that put the special interests of Wall Street individuals ahead of the needs of America's middle class and hard working families. So by repealing Dodd-Frank, we helped smaller banks to recover and to get small businesses growing again to create jobs and hire people.

As the son of immigrants, as a husband and as the father of four children, I know that a strong economy requires strong families. By the way the word « economics » in Greek came from the word family, or law or custom of the family. That is the reason why we successfully worked hard to double the child tax credit from $1000 to $2000, which strengthened our economy as well as hard-working families, including middle class families, through a stronger purchasing power reinforcing their ability to buy and to consume, to raise their families and to hand their children all the opportunities they couldn't have realized themselves. As a result, we rewarded the hard work of the American people instead of punishing it like Senator Sanders would do by raising their taxes.

Senator Sanders doesn't understand that 70 % of the jobs created in America come from small businesses and that's why we worked hard to make America the best business-friendly environment in the world by cutting taxes and regulations on businesses and by lowering the cost of doing business in America as well as our corporate tax rate from 40 % to 15 %, thus strengthening businesses' competitiveness and favoring the strongest and fastest job growth we've ever had in the last 5 decades.

Senator Sanders seems to have forgot that John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, cut taxes during his presidency in order to boost economic growth. Thanks to these tax cuts put in place by President Kennedy, the economy accelerated and prospered, the GDP expanded by an average of 5.5% from early 1961 to late 1963, inflation was down at around 1 %, the unemployment rate declined from 6.6 % to 5.6 % during Kennedy's two years in the White House, industrial production rose by 15 % and motor vehicle sales rose by 40 %. That's why tax reform is effective in growing the economy.

No wonder that Senator Sanders is no Jack Kennedy.

[UWS]

First Presidential Debate, Part 2

George Stephanopoulos : Let's move to the energy issue. The question will go to Senator Sanders. In the last four years, America became energy independent and this is mostly due to an increase of energy production. But you're opposing fossil energy production. Why should we put fossil energies aside and how can you ensure that this won't  hurt the economy?

Bernie Sanders : Well, we have to understand that in the 21st century, the economy and the environment go together. But the you Mr. President invested all on fossil energy, oil, natural gas and coal. That's not the right way to get to a clean environment. Climate change and global warming are existing problems and  we have to face these problems. We need to develop the energies of the future by investing more into the development of renewable energies. We can't develop our sources and get them to markets if we don't manage the environment need to focus on all energy sectors, including renewable energies. We need a diversified economy in order to make it work for all Americans. That is how we can get to a clean environment while keeping our economy strong.

George Stephanopoulos : Mr. President.

Marco Rubio : Well, what Senator Sanders said is simply not true. We actually took considerable action to face our environmental challenges. I agree with Senator Sanders when he says that the environment and the economy go together. But that is not a justification to make America a harder place to do business by increasing taxes on America's energy industry. That is not an energy strategy for the future. We made America's energy independence possible by increasing oil drilling and production, by doubling permits and licenses on federal lands and by approving the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, the Dakota Access pipeline and the TransAmerica pipeline to facilitate energy transportation and get these sources of energy to markets. And instead of doing it by raising taxes like Senator Sanders is suggesting we improved our ecological footprint and got us to a clean environment by investing a part of the revenues from oil drilling into the development of renewable energies,  including the solar, wind and hydroelectric energies, which added thousands of people right now in Iowa, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Mexico working and creating wind power and solar power. As a result, our energy policy created over 4 million jobs and reduced our gas emissions, thus keeping our economy strong while helping us to make progress in our environmental goals.

And America's energy independence also helped us to deprive terrorists of the revenues they were getting from our past energy dependence and from our oil imports from unstable countries in throes of terrorism, which aweakened their ability to finance, organize and prepare their terrorist operations. That's why need to win our future for the sake of America's prosperity, of our environment and our national security. That's why I intend to win it as President of the United States.

George Stephanopoulos : Let's move on to the trade issue. Mr. President, under your Administration, America has increased trade activities with other countries around the world. Senator Sanders claims that these trade deals « are going to result to the same effects as NAFTA and will move American manufacturing jobs overseas. » How is your free trade policy putting America first?

Marco Rubio : Well George, if we didn't take action to increase our economic competitiveness in the world, we wouldn't have these two million new jobs created through the promotion of free trade and lower tariffs in the last four years. Senator Sanders believes that the way to create jobs is to build a wall around the country, to restrict trade and to increase barriers. This policy will cause job losses. The last president who tried such policies was Herbert Hoover under whom the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act increased tariffs and restricted trade, which made the Great Depression longer and worse. The way to create jobs and to make our trade deals fair for American workers is to lower taxes and regulations on businesses around the country, including manufacturing businesses, that's exactly the path we followed and that's how we managed to keep our manufacturing jobs and to encourage job creation in America. By reducing our corporate tax rate and lowering tariffs, we reinforced our competitiveness in the world economy, lowered the costs of trading and made our products less expansive, thus making them accessible to 95 % of the world market. That's how we were able ratify new free trade deals with Europe, Latin America and India. We counter-balanced China's trade power and made those trade deals favorable for our workers and will keep putting our country first.

George Stephanopoulos : Senator Sanders, your response.

Bernie Sanders : If you look at Detroit, Detroit was one of the wealthiest cities in America in the 1960s. Since then, our country got corporated through the approval of disastrous free trade deals which cost us millions of decent-paying jobs. What this economy desperately needs is to rebuild our manufacturing sector with good-paying jobs. We cannot continue to sustain the loss of millions of decent-paying jobs that we have seen over the last 20, 30 years, based on trade agreements, including NAFTA, one of the worst deals ever that attracted building cars in Mexico instead of America. I want to trade with other countries as much as the President wants to do, but we need to make trade favorable for our workers and defend their interests. So my plan is to renegotiate trade deals in order to make sure we can get fair trade deals. If we can't get concessions, we're going to terminate these free trade deals and create fairer deals that will              bring jobs back home and encourage businesses to invest here at home.

Marco Rubio : Let me help you with the facts, Senator. Our trade policy actually protected the interests of American workers and kept our jobs and businesses here in this country thanks to tax reform and free enterprise. Breaking down trade barriers would actually help the American auto industry and those on the assembly lines. I need to remind you that the reason why Mexico was beating us on auto production is because Mexico had free trade agreements with 45 countries while the U.S. had free trade deals with only 20 countries before I came in office. Under my administration, we reversed that tendency with the ratification of trade deals with Europe, Latin America and India and we are now have free trade agreements with about 75 countries, surpassing Mexico on trade partnerships, thus making us number one in auto production again. One of the main reasons why our jobs were moving overseas is because we had the highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world, which was 40 % while Singapore was the most competitive nation with a 17 % corporate tax rate. So by reducing our corporate tax rate to 15 %, we made America the best business-friendly country in the world and increased our competitiveness in the global economy. Our trade policy allowed U.S. businesses to make direct investments into foreign economies to produce goods at a lower cost in these environments. Free trade is a basic element of our prosperity and that's why I will keep working with our allies to reinforce our trade relations for the sake of a strong economy and the protection of our jobs and our workers.

[UWS]

First Presidential Debate, Part 3

George Stephanopoulos : Let's move to the health care topic. Senator Sanders, you are one of the harshest critics of the Rubiocare which you claimed are going to deprive millions of Americans of their health care services in the next few years. What is your health care plan?

Bernie Sanders : We are the only country, major country on Earth, that does not guarantee health care to all people, and yet we end up spending almost three times what the British do, 50 percent more than the French. My proposal, a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program and universal health care program, will save middle-class families many thousands of dollars a year in their health care costs. That is exactly what we should be doing. I'd pay for that by telling Wall Street that, yeah, we are going to have a tax on Wall Street speculation, which will bring in more than enough money to provide free tuition at public colleges and universities and lower the outrageous level of student debt. We have seen in the last 30 years a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the top 0.1 percent. I am determined to transfer that money back to the working families of this country.

George Stephanopoulos : Mr. President.

Marco Rubio : George, Senator Sanders' plan is just unrealistic. He claims that his plan will save money for the middle class, which is not true. The health care plan he adopted would raise taxes on middle class Americans through a new 2.2 % income tax on all Americans, which will restrict their purchasing power and their access to health care and Medicare. No wonder that Senator Sanders wants to increase Washington mandates bailing out health care companies with taxpayer dollars. That is not going to solve anything. And even my 90-year old mother Oriales is on Medicare and Medicaid. I am against anything that is bad for my mother just like I'm against anything that is bad for all the American people. That's why we repealed and replaced Obamacare with a better plan that created an advanceable and refundable tax credit that all Americans are using to purchase health insurance, which increased credits annually and set the tax preference for employer-sponsored insurance on a glide path to ensure that it will equal the level of the credits within a decade. We adopted measures reforming insurance regulations to lower costs, encouraging innovation, and protecting the vulnerable to make sure those with pre-existing conditions have access to affordable care through mechanisms such as federally-supported, actuarially-sound and state-based high risk pools. So this plan not only defended the interests of the middle class but also provided health care for everyone.

George Stephanopoulos : Now we are on the education topic. What are the differences between both of you on granting education for all Americans?

Marco Rubio : Education is an important element for our children's future. I was raised by people who came to this country with nothing, they barely spoke English at the time. They had no money. My father stopped going to school when he was nine years old, he had to go work. He would never go back to school. He would work for the next 70 years of his life. My parents did not make enough to save for our education. But I managed to use Pell grants, student loans, work study and summer jobs to pay for a four-year degree and eventually law school.

Under my presidency, we fixed our education system by promoting school choice, which made access to education less expansive for children and produced higher outcomes compared to public education. It granted parents the power to orientate their children out of poorly-performing schools assigned by zip code and look for better education elsewhere, thus increasing their chances of success and of entry into the workforce. As a result, we are graduating as much science & engineering PhDs as China and India, which is boosting our innovation knowledge faster than before, boosting our industries and helping us creating much more new businesses. So by keeping the states responsible for holding schools accountable for student achievement and by focusing on education and job training, we're going to ensure success for our children and create the jobs of tomorrow.

George Stephanopoulos : Senator?

Bernie Sanders : While I agree that we have to make our children's success a top priority in terms of education, we also have to understand that teachers' interests must be defended too. They are making great contributions in our children's future. That's why education must not be privatized and we must invest in education and ensure teachers' formation. We're going to need teachers, professors and others to keep the economy going. If we don't have them, then we can't make education accessible. Let private areas teach what they want. However, private schools and colleges should not be receiving a single cent in government funding at all. The money we save from this would be enormous; we can use it to help pay for universal tuition for American children.

I feel strongly that we have to have an education system that starts with preschool and goes through college. That's why I want more technical education in high schools and in community colleges, real apprenticeships to prepare young people for the jobs of the future. I want to make college debt-free and for families making less than $125,000, you will not get a tuition bill from a public college or university.

George Stephanopoulos : Gentlemen, let's move now to the deficit issue. In the last four years, our national debt was reduced from $20 trillion to $12 trillion, which is almost in half. So I want to hear from both of you. How do you lan the deficit problem in this country? Senator Sanders.

Bernie Sanders : We first have to cease years of out-of-control military spending. Around half of our discretionary budget is spent on the military. We can reduce the deficit by making the rich pay their fair share of taxes by introducing the Buffett Rule : No billionaire should be paying less than their secretary in taxes. That's just egregious. How can a a billionaire's secretary be paying less taxes than the billionaire himself? That's why I want to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour because reducing the deficit also requires high wages for all Americans.

When the budget will be balanced, I believe surpluses should go towards bettering the lives of middle and working class America. I believe that any surplus must go towards education, Social Security and Medicare for all. I believe we should funnel it into infrastructure projects and towards creating better lives for the middle and working classes. We can also funnel surplus money into renewable energy research. We are badly falling behind in this regard, and we can't afford to delay any longer. Unless we want to leave the world in a bad shape, we must start looking towards renewables without delay.

George Stephanopoulos : Mr. President.

Marco Rubio : Well, first of all, we ended the War in Afghanistan last summer after totally defeating Al-Qaida, the Taliban and ISIS there, we are accomplishing our duty to rebuild this country and train the Afghan Army to make sure they will be fully ready to take the responsibility of their nation's security. We are progressively withdrawing from Afghanistan and our troops in Afghanistan will be coming home next  year, which will save over $500 billion in the next 10 years to be invested into reducing the deficit and into our future. We got there by keeping America strong on foreign policy and national security.

The reason why we managed to reduce the deficit almost in half in the last four years, by $8 trillion precisely, is that we adopted pro-growth policies that lowered the size of government, reduced government spending, cut taxes for all Americans, reinforced their purchasing power, made America a place open for business, got us to energy independence, promoted free trade and created 12 million jobs. Senator Sanders' plan to increase the size of government, to increase spending and to raise taxes and regulations by $15 billion on hard-working families that will bring massive job losses and ship businesses overseas will do nothing but increase the deficit and add $21 trillion to the national debt over the next decade by costing $33.3 trillion in new spending, thus blowing a whole in the deficit.

In the next four years, when we'll get the budget balanced, we're going to use a part of budget surpluses into the development of infrastructures in order to grow our economy by making our companies more dynamic and more competitive, thus ensuring innovation and further job creation because developing our infrastructures will improve transportation, facilitate economic activities and favor the implementation of new businesses here in this country like our infrastructure policy is doing. We will not do it with borrowed money but with earned money. Another part of future budget surpluses is going to be invested into the development of renewable energies for the sake of our economy and our environment and into education and health care. And finally, some of budget surpluses will be invested into the modernization of our military notably with the development of the building of the Air Force LRS-B program and of the Columbia-class submarine program and with the development of laser weapon programs in order to make sure we will lead America to final victory against terrorism and that we'll be able to win any war against any geopolitical foe.

So let's balance the budget in order to keep our economy and our national security strong and in order to invest in your future and I intend to invest in your future as President if you give me the priviledge to lead this country for four more years.

[OSR stands with Israel]

First Presidential Debate, Part 3

George Stephanopoulos : Let's move to the health care topic. Senator Sanders, you are one of the harshest critics of the Rubiocare which you claimed are going to deprive millions of Americans of their health care services in the next few years. What is your health care plan?

Bernie Sanders : We are the only country, major country on Earth, that does not guarantee health care to all people, and yet we end up spending almost three times what the British do, 50 percent more than the French. My proposal, a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program and universal health care program, will save middle-class families many thousands of dollars a year in their health care costs. That is exactly what we should be doing. I'd pay for that by telling Wall Street that, yeah, we are going to have a tax on Wall Street speculation, which will bring in more than enough money to provide free tuition at public colleges and universities and lower the outrageous level of student debt. We have seen in the last 30 years a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the top 0.1 percent. I am determined to transfer that money back to the working families of this country.

George Stephanopoulos : Mr. President.

Marco Rubio : George, Senator Sanders' plan is just unrealistic. He claims that his plan will save money for the middle class, which is not true. The health care plan he adopted would raise taxes on middle class Americans through a new 2.2 % income tax on all Americans, which will restrict their purchasing power and their access to health care and Medicare. No wonder that Senator Sanders wants to increase Washington mandates bailing out health care companies with taxpayer dollars. That is not going to solve anything. And even my 90-year old mother Oriales is on Medicare and Medicaid. I am against anything that is bad for my mother just like I'm against anything that is bad for the American people. That's why we repealed and replaced Obamacare with a better plan that created an advanceable and refundable tax credit that all Americans are using to purchase health insurance, which increased credits annually and set the tax preference for employer-sponsored insurance on a glide path to ensure that it will equal the level of the credits within a decade. We adopted measures reforming insurance regulations to lower costs, encouraging innovation, and protecting the vulnerable to make sure those with pre-existing conditions have access to affordable care through mechanisms such as federally-supported, actuarially-sound and state-based high risk pools. So this plan not only defended the interests of the middle class but also provided health care for everyone.

George Stephanopoulos : Now we are on the education topic. What are the differences between both of you on granting education for all Americans?

Marco Rubio : Education is an important element for our children's future. I was raised by people who came to this country with nothing, they barely spoke English at the time. They had no money. My father stopped going to school when he was nine years old, he had to go work. He would never go back to school. He would work for the next 70 years of his life. My parents did not make enough to save for our education. But I managed to use Pell grants, student loans, work study and summer jobs to pay for a four-year degree and eventually law school.

Under my presidency, we fixed our education system by promoting school choice, which made access to education less expansive for children and produced higher outcomes compared to public education. It granted parents the power to orientate their children out of poorly-performing schools assigned by zip code and look for better education elsewhere, thus increasing their chances of success and of entry into the workforce. As a result, we are graduating as much science & engineering PhDs as China and India, which is boosting our innovation knowledge faster than before, boosting our industries and helping us creating much more new businesses. So by keeping the states responsible for holding schools accountable for student achievement and by focusing on education and job training, we're going to ensure success for our children and create the jobs of tomorrow.

George Stephanopoulos : Senator?

Bernie Sanders : While I agree that we have to make our children's success a top priority in terms of education, we also have to understand that teachers' interests must be defended too. They are making great contributions in our children's future. That's why education must not be privatized and we must invest in education and ensure teachers' formation. We're going to need teachers, professors and others to keep the economy going. If we don't have them, then we can't make education accessible. Let private areas teach what they want. However, private schools and colleges should not be receiving a single cent in government funding at all. The money we save from this would be enormous; we can use it to help pay for universal tuition for American children.

I feel strongly that we have to have an education system that starts with preschool and goes through college. That's why I want more technical education in high schools and in community colleges, real apprenticeships to prepare young people for the jobs of the future. I want to make college debt-free and for families making less than $125,000, you will not get a tuition bill from a public college or university.

George Stephanopoulos : Gentlemen, let's move now to the deficit issue. In the last four years, our national debt was reduced from $20 trillion to $12 trillion, which is almost in half. So I want to hear from both of you. How do you lan the deficit problem in this country? Senator Sanders.

Bernie Sanders : We first have to cease years of out-of-control military spending. Around half of our discretionary budget is spent on the military. We can reduce the deficit by making the rich pay their fair share of taxes by introducing the Buffett Rule : No billionaire should be paying less than their secretary in taxes. That's just egregious. How can a a billionaire's secretary be paying less taxes than the billionaire himself? That's why I want to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour because reducing the deficit also requires high wages for all Americans.

When the budget will be balanced, I believe surpluses should go towards bettering the lives of middle and working class America. I believe that any surplus must go towards education, Social Security and Medicare for all. I believe we should funnel it into infrastructure projects and towards creating better lives for the middle and working classes. We can also funnel surplus money into renewable energy research. We are badly falling behind in this regard, and we can't afford to delay any longer. Unless we want to leave the world in a bad shape, we must start looking towards renewables without delay.

George Stephanopoulos : Mr. President.

Marco Rubio : Well, first of all, we ended the War in Afghanistan last summer after totally defeating Al-Qaida, the Taliban and ISIS there, we are accomplishing our duty to rebuild this country and train the Afghan Army to make sure they will be fully ready to take the responsibility of their nation's security. We are progressively withdrawing from Afghanistan and our troops in Afghanistan will be coming home next  year, which will save over $500 billion in the next 10 years to be invested into reducing the deficit and into our future. We got there by keeping America strong on foreign policy and national security.

The reason why we managed to reduce the deficit almost in half in the last four years, by $8 trillion precisely, is that we adopted pro-growth policies that lowered the size of government, reduced government spending, cut taxes for all Americans, reinforced their purchasing power, made America a place open for business, got us to energy independence, promoted free trade and created 12 million jobs. Senator Sanders' plan to increase the size of government, to increase spending and to raise taxes and regulations by $15 billion on hard-working families that will bring massive job losses and ship businesses overseas will do nothing but increase the deficit and add $21 trillion to the national debt over the next decade by costing $33.3 trillion in new spending, thus blowing a whole in the deficit.

In the next four years, when we'll get the budget balanced, we're going to use a part of budget surpluses into the development of infrastructures in order to grow our economy by making our companies more dynamic and more competitive, thus ensuring innovation and further job creation because developing our infrastructures will improve transportation, facilitate economic activities and favor the implementation of new businesses here in this country like our infrastructure policy is doing. We will not do it with borrowed money but with earned money. Another part of future budget surpluses is going to be invested into the development of renewable energies for the sake of our economy and our environment and into education and health care. And finally, some of budget surpluses will be invested into the modernization of our military notably with the development of the building of the Air Force LRS-B program and of the Columbia-class submarine program and with the development of laser weapon programs in order to make sure we will lead America to final victory against terrorism and that we'll be able to win any war against any geopolitical foe.

So let's balance the budget in order to keep our economy and our national security strong and in order to invest in your future and I intend to invest in your future as President if you give me the priviledge to lead this country for four more years.

How



What is the amount of revenue the gov has collected comparted to how much it has spent

[UWS]

First Presidential Debate, Part 3

George Stephanopoulos : Let's move to the health care topic. Senator Sanders, you are one of the harshest critics of the Rubiocare which you claimed are going to deprive millions of Americans of their health care services in the next few years. What is your health care plan?

Bernie Sanders : We are the only country, major country on Earth, that does not guarantee health care to all people, and yet we end up spending almost three times what the British do, 50 percent more than the French. My proposal, a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program and universal health care program, will save middle-class families many thousands of dollars a year in their health care costs. That is exactly what we should be doing. I'd pay for that by telling Wall Street that, yeah, we are going to have a tax on Wall Street speculation, which will bring in more than enough money to provide free tuition at public colleges and universities and lower the outrageous level of student debt. We have seen in the last 30 years a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the top 0.1 percent. I am determined to transfer that money back to the working families of this country.

George Stephanopoulos : Mr. President.

Marco Rubio : George, Senator Sanders' plan is just unrealistic. He claims that his plan will save money for the middle class, which is not true. The health care plan he adopted would raise taxes on middle class Americans through a new 2.2 % income tax on all Americans, which will restrict their purchasing power and their access to health care and Medicare. No wonder that Senator Sanders wants to increase Washington mandates bailing out health care companies with taxpayer dollars. That is not going to solve anything. And even my 90-year old mother Oriales is on Medicare and Medicaid. I am against anything that is bad for my mother just like I'm against anything that is bad for the American people. That's why we repealed and replaced Obamacare with a better plan that created an advanceable and refundable tax credit that all Americans are using to purchase health insurance, which increased credits annually and set the tax preference for employer-sponsored insurance on a glide path to ensure that it will equal the level of the credits within a decade. We adopted measures reforming insurance regulations to lower costs, encouraging innovation, and protecting the vulnerable to make sure those with pre-existing conditions have access to affordable care through mechanisms such as federally-supported, actuarially-sound and state-based high risk pools. So this plan not only defended the interests of the middle class but also provided health care for everyone.

George Stephanopoulos : Now we are on the education topic. What are the differences between both of you on granting education for all Americans?

Marco Rubio : Education is an important element for our children's future. I was raised by people who came to this country with nothing, they barely spoke English at the time. They had no money. My father stopped going to school when he was nine years old, he had to go work. He would never go back to school. He would work for the next 70 years of his life. My parents did not make enough to save for our education. But I managed to use Pell grants, student loans, work study and summer jobs to pay for a four-year degree and eventually law school.

Under my presidency, we fixed our education system by promoting school choice, which made access to education less expansive for children and produced higher outcomes compared to public education. It granted parents the power to orientate their children out of poorly-performing schools assigned by zip code and look for better education elsewhere, thus increasing their chances of success and of entry into the workforce. As a result, we are graduating as much science & engineering PhDs as China and India, which is boosting our innovation knowledge faster than before, boosting our industries and helping us creating much more new businesses. So by keeping the states responsible for holding schools accountable for student achievement and by focusing on education and job training, we're going to ensure success for our children and create the jobs of tomorrow.

George Stephanopoulos : Senator?

Bernie Sanders : While I agree that we have to make our children's success a top priority in terms of education, we also have to understand that teachers' interests must be defended too. They are making great contributions in our children's future. That's why education must not be privatized and we must invest in education and ensure teachers' formation. We're going to need teachers, professors and others to keep the economy going. If we don't have them, then we can't make education accessible. Let private areas teach what they want. However, private schools and colleges should not be receiving a single cent in government funding at all. The money we save from this would be enormous; we can use it to help pay for universal tuition for American children.

I feel strongly that we have to have an education system that starts with preschool and goes through college. That's why I want more technical education in high schools and in community colleges, real apprenticeships to prepare young people for the jobs of the future. I want to make college debt-free and for families making less than $125,000, you will not get a tuition bill from a public college or university.

George Stephanopoulos : Gentlemen, let's move now to the deficit issue. In the last four years, our national debt was reduced from $20 trillion to $12 trillion, which is almost in half. So I want to hear from both of you. How do you lan the deficit problem in this country? Senator Sanders.

Bernie Sanders : We first have to cease years of out-of-control military spending. Around half of our discretionary budget is spent on the military. We can reduce the deficit by making the rich pay their fair share of taxes by introducing the Buffett Rule : No billionaire should be paying less than their secretary in taxes. That's just egregious. How can a a billionaire's secretary be paying less taxes than the billionaire himself? That's why I want to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour because reducing the deficit also requires high wages for all Americans.

When the budget will be balanced, I believe surpluses should go towards bettering the lives of middle and working class America. I believe that any surplus must go towards education, Social Security and Medicare for all. I believe we should funnel it into infrastructure projects and towards creating better lives for the middle and working classes. We can also funnel surplus money into renewable energy research. We are badly falling behind in this regard, and we can't afford to delay any longer. Unless we want to leave the world in a bad shape, we must start looking towards renewables without delay.

George Stephanopoulos : Mr. President.

Marco Rubio : Well, first of all, we ended the War in Afghanistan last summer after totally defeating Al-Qaida, the Taliban and ISIS there, we are accomplishing our duty to rebuild this country and train the Afghan Army to make sure they will be fully ready to take the responsibility of their nation's security. We are progressively withdrawing from Afghanistan and our troops in Afghanistan will be coming home next  year, which will save over $500 billion in the next 10 years to be invested into reducing the deficit and into our future. We got there by keeping America strong on foreign policy and national security.

The reason why we managed to reduce the deficit almost in half in the last four years, by $8 trillion precisely, is that we adopted pro-growth policies that lowered the size of government, reduced government spending, cut taxes for all Americans, reinforced their purchasing power, made America a place open for business, got us to energy independence, promoted free trade and created 12 million jobs. Senator Sanders' plan to increase the size of government, to increase spending and to raise taxes and regulations by $15 billion on hard-working families that will bring massive job losses and ship businesses overseas will do nothing but increase the deficit and add $21 trillion to the national debt over the next decade by costing $33.3 trillion in new spending, thus blowing a whole in the deficit.

In the next four years, when we'll get the budget balanced, we're going to use a part of budget surpluses into the development of infrastructures in order to grow our economy by making our companies more dynamic and more competitive, thus ensuring innovation and further job creation because developing our infrastructures will improve transportation, facilitate economic activities and favor the implementation of new businesses here in this country like our infrastructure policy is doing. We will not do it with borrowed money but with earned money. Another part of future budget surpluses is going to be invested into the development of renewable energies for the sake of our economy and our environment and into education and health care. And finally, some of budget surpluses will be invested into the modernization of our military notably with the development of the building of the Air Force LRS-B program and of the Columbia-class submarine program and with the development of laser weapon programs in order to make sure we will lead America to final victory against terrorism and that we'll be able to win any war against any geopolitical foe.

So let's balance the budget in order to keep our economy and our national security strong and in order to invest in your future and I intend to invest in your future as President if you give me the priviledge to lead this country for four more years.

How



What is the amount of revenue the gov has collected comparted to how much it has spent

You asked a good one.

Let’s say approximately $650 billion spent on national defense in general + at least $150 billion for some social or education services.

Anyway, compared to all my of this, the gov has collected about $9 trillion through economic policies that cut spending, reduced taxes, encouraged the size of government, promoted free enterprise and encouraged job creation and through the reduction of the cost of infrastructure programs by encouraging partnerships between public and private sectors (which further reduced spending while encouraging job creation through infrastructure development).

So 9 trillion - over 800 billion = 8 trillion. 20 trillion - 8 trillion = 12 trillion.

[OSR stands with Israel]

First Presidential Debate, Part 3

George Stephanopoulos : Let's move to the health care topic. Senator Sanders, you are one of the harshest critics of the Rubiocare which you claimed are going to deprive millions of Americans of their health care services in the next few years. What is your health care plan?

Bernie Sanders : We are the only country, major country on Earth, that does not guarantee health care to all people, and yet we end up spending almost three times what the British do, 50 percent more than the French. My proposal, a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program and universal health care program, will save middle-class families many thousands of dollars a year in their health care costs. That is exactly what we should be doing. I'd pay for that by telling Wall Street that, yeah, we are going to have a tax on Wall Street speculation, which will bring in more than enough money to provide free tuition at public colleges and universities and lower the outrageous level of student debt. We have seen in the last 30 years a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the top 0.1 percent. I am determined to transfer that money back to the working families of this country.

George Stephanopoulos : Mr. President.

Marco Rubio : George, Senator Sanders' plan is just unrealistic. He claims that his plan will save money for the middle class, which is not true. The health care plan he adopted would raise taxes on middle class Americans through a new 2.2 % income tax on all Americans, which will restrict their purchasing power and their access to health care and Medicare. No wonder that Senator Sanders wants to increase Washington mandates bailing out health care companies with taxpayer dollars. That is not going to solve anything. And even my 90-year old mother Oriales is on Medicare and Medicaid. I am against anything that is bad for my mother just like I'm against anything that is bad for the American people. That's why we repealed and replaced Obamacare with a better plan that created an advanceable and refundable tax credit that all Americans are using to purchase health insurance, which increased credits annually and set the tax preference for employer-sponsored insurance on a glide path to ensure that it will equal the level of the credits within a decade. We adopted measures reforming insurance regulations to lower costs, encouraging innovation, and protecting the vulnerable to make sure those with pre-existing conditions have access to affordable care through mechanisms such as federally-supported, actuarially-sound and state-based high risk pools. So this plan not only defended the interests of the middle class but also provided health care for everyone.

George Stephanopoulos : Now we are on the education topic. What are the differences between both of you on granting education for all Americans?

Marco Rubio : Education is an important element for our children's future. I was raised by people who came to this country with nothing, they barely spoke English at the time. They had no money. My father stopped going to school when he was nine years old, he had to go work. He would never go back to school. He would work for the next 70 years of his life. My parents did not make enough to save for our education. But I managed to use Pell grants, student loans, work study and summer jobs to pay for a four-year degree and eventually law school.

Under my presidency, we fixed our education system by promoting school choice, which made access to education less expansive for children and produced higher outcomes compared to public education. It granted parents the power to orientate their children out of poorly-performing schools assigned by zip code and look for better education elsewhere, thus increasing their chances of success and of entry into the workforce. As a result, we are graduating as much science & engineering PhDs as China and India, which is boosting our innovation knowledge faster than before, boosting our industries and helping us creating much more new businesses. So by keeping the states responsible for holding schools accountable for student achievement and by focusing on education and job training, we're going to ensure success for our children and create the jobs of tomorrow.

George Stephanopoulos : Senator?

Bernie Sanders : While I agree that we have to make our children's success a top priority in terms of education, we also have to understand that teachers' interests must be defended too. They are making great contributions in our children's future. That's why education must not be privatized and we must invest in education and ensure teachers' formation. We're going to need teachers, professors and others to keep the economy going. If we don't have them, then we can't make education accessible. Let private areas teach what they want. However, private schools and colleges should not be receiving a single cent in government funding at all. The money we save from this would be enormous; we can use it to help pay for universal tuition for American children.

I feel strongly that we have to have an education system that starts with preschool and goes through college. That's why I want more technical education in high schools and in community colleges, real apprenticeships to prepare young people for the jobs of the future. I want to make college debt-free and for families making less than $125,000, you will not get a tuition bill from a public college or university.

George Stephanopoulos : Gentlemen, let's move now to the deficit issue. In the last four years, our national debt was reduced from $20 trillion to $12 trillion, which is almost in half. So I want to hear from both of you. How do you lan the deficit problem in this country? Senator Sanders.

Bernie Sanders : We first have to cease years of out-of-control military spending. Around half of our discretionary budget is spent on the military. We can reduce the deficit by making the rich pay their fair share of taxes by introducing the Buffett Rule : No billionaire should be paying less than their secretary in taxes. That's just egregious. How can a a billionaire's secretary be paying less taxes than the billionaire himself? That's why I want to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour because reducing the deficit also requires high wages for all Americans.

When the budget will be balanced, I believe surpluses should go towards bettering the lives of middle and working class America. I believe that any surplus must go towards education, Social Security and Medicare for all. I believe we should funnel it into infrastructure projects and towards creating better lives for the middle and working classes. We can also funnel surplus money into renewable energy research. We are badly falling behind in this regard, and we can't afford to delay any longer. Unless we want to leave the world in a bad shape, we must start looking towards renewables without delay.

George Stephanopoulos : Mr. President.

Marco Rubio : Well, first of all, we ended the War in Afghanistan last summer after totally defeating Al-Qaida, the Taliban and ISIS there, we are accomplishing our duty to rebuild this country and train the Afghan Army to make sure they will be fully ready to take the responsibility of their nation's security. We are progressively withdrawing from Afghanistan and our troops in Afghanistan will be coming home next  year, which will save over $500 billion in the next 10 years to be invested into reducing the deficit and into our future. We got there by keeping America strong on foreign policy and national security.

The reason why we managed to reduce the deficit almost in half in the last four years, by $8 trillion precisely, is that we adopted pro-growth policies that lowered the size of government, reduced government spending, cut taxes for all Americans, reinforced their purchasing power, made America a place open for business, got us to energy independence, promoted free trade and created 12 million jobs. Senator Sanders' plan to increase the size of government, to increase spending and to raise taxes and regulations by $15 billion on hard-working families that will bring massive job losses and ship businesses overseas will do nothing but increase the deficit and add $21 trillion to the national debt over the next decade by costing $33.3 trillion in new spending, thus blowing a whole in the deficit.

In the next four years, when we'll get the budget balanced, we're going to use a part of budget surpluses into the development of infrastructures in order to grow our economy by making our companies more dynamic and more competitive, thus ensuring innovation and further job creation because developing our infrastructures will improve transportation, facilitate economic activities and favor the implementation of new businesses here in this country like our infrastructure policy is doing. We will not do it with borrowed money but with earned money. Another part of future budget surpluses is going to be invested into the development of renewable energies for the sake of our economy and our environment and into education and health care. And finally, some of budget surpluses will be invested into the modernization of our military notably with the development of the building of the Air Force LRS-B program and of the Columbia-class submarine program and with the development of laser weapon programs in order to make sure we will lead America to final victory against terrorism and that we'll be able to win any war against any geopolitical foe.

So let's balance the budget in order to keep our economy and our national security strong and in order to invest in your future and I intend to invest in your future as President if you give me the priviledge to lead this country for four more years.

How



What is the amount of revenue the gov has collected comparted to how much it has spent

You asked a good one.

Let’s say approximately $650 billion spent on national defense in general + at least $150 billion for some social or education services.

Anyway, compared to all my of this, the gov has collected about $9 trillion through economic policies that cut spending, reduced taxes, encouraged the size of government, promoted free enterprise and encouraged job creation and through the reduction of the cost of infrastructure programs by encouraging partnerships between public and private sectors (which further reduced spending while encouraging job creation through infrastructure development).

So 9 trillion - over 800 billion = 8 trillion. 20 trillion - 8 billion = 12 trillion.

Did you account for the projected deficits or just used 2016 numbers. Cause interest expenses were also expected to go up as well.
 

[UWS]

First Presidential Debate, Part 4

George Stephanopoulos : That brings us to the closing statements. Senator Sanders you were selected to go last. So you have a closing two minutes Mr. President.

Marco Rubio : Thank you George, and I want to thank Senator Sanders. This was a terrific debate and we'll have two additional occasions to debate about our differences of our two different visions for the country.

When I ran for President four years ago, our economy was heading into a recession due to its slowest growth in history. And yet my determination and my optimism about America's future remained strong because I trust the American people while Senator Sanders trusts the government, because one of my main purposes is to make sure that our children and grand-children will inherit a rising shining America, not a country in decline, and will become the most prosperous generations of Americans that ever lived. That requires handing them all the opportunities previous generations couldn't have, which is what we are doing through a strong economy.

American voters are facing a choice in this election : either we move backwards with the same failed big government policies that gave us the slowest economy ever, made us dependent on foreign energy, made America a harder place to do business, diminished our competitiveness in the world economy through protectionism or we keep moving America forward by pursuing the successful policies that managed to grow this economy through the promotion of free enterprise, small government and tax reform, got America to energy independence, reinforced America's economic competitiveness through free trade, made us the first auto producer in the world again and made us the best place in the world to do business, which created 12 million new jobs and brought us to the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. If we balance the budget, we're going to get to full-employment by investing budget surpluses in our future, including into the development of new infrastructures, renewable energies, education, health care and further reduction of American taxpayers' fiscal burden. I kept my promised to fight every single day to protect the interests of the American people, including the average American worker and the middle class and that is how our economy is stronger than ever before. And for the sake of your future and your children's future I intend to pursue this fight in a second term.

George Stephanopoulos : Senator Sanders, your two-minute closing.

Bernie Sanders : Thank you, George and Mr. President. This was an amazing debate. In this time of strong economy, we have to ensure that it will benefit for all the American people, including the middle class and lower income Americans. I spent my entire life fighting for the average  American since I campaigned along with Martin Luther King. I will use my four decades of experience in politics to make this society as well as this economy fair for all Americans of all incomes. I intend to resurrect the New Deal and the Great Society, to stand up for the middle class, to expand healthcare and Social Security and to prioritize the needs of the American people over the needs of the corporations and Wall Street. We need more investment in public education, a nationwide infrastructure and jobs program, we need to raise the minimum wage,and we need to start making the wealthy in this country pay their fair share. These are ideals I have stood up for all my life, and I will bring my platform of social and economic justice to Washington D.C.

George Stephanopoulos : Thank you, Senator. Thank you, Mr. President. The next debate will be the vice presidential event on Thursday, October 7th at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. For now, from the University of Dayton, I'm George Stephanopoulos. Thank you, and good night.

[APPLAUSE FROM THE AUDIENCE AS MARCO RUBIO AND BERNIE SANDERS SHAKE HANDS]

[UWS]

Why did Rubio always end the debate segments (except the closing)?

Actually, Sanders ended the education segment too.

[UWS]

Who Won the First Presidential Debate?

CNN/ORC poll :

Marco Rubio : 66 %
Bernie Sanders : 27 %
Tied/Unsure : 7 %

Politico/Morning Consult poll :

Marco Rubio : 62 %
Bernie Sanders : 31 %
Tied/Unsure : 7 %

Reuters/Ipsos poll :

Marco Rubio : 58 %
Bernie Sanders : 29 %
Tied/Unsure : 13 %

NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll :

Marco Rubio : 59 %
Bernie Sanders : 35 %
Tied/Unsure : 6 %

Gallup poll :

Marco Rubio : 65 %
Bernie Sanders : 29 %
Tied/Unsure : 6 %

Fox News poll :

Marco Rubio : 73 %
Bernie Sanders : 23 %
Tied/Unsure : 4 %

ABC News/Washington Post poll :

Marco Rubio : 64 %
Bernie Sanders : 31 %
Tied/Unsure : 5 %

[UWS]

2020 Electoral College Map polling

After his strong debate performance, President Rubio maintained his strong lead over Bernie Sanders. He managed to reinforce his advantage among middle class voters by denouncing Sanders' plan that would increase taxes on the middle class and by highlighting the success of his economic policies that led America to strong economic prosperity. October will be marked by  the upcoming vice-presidential debate between Vice-President Haley and former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and by the second and third presidential debates.

   
Marco Rubio : 377 great electors
Bernie Sanders : 67 great electors
Undecided : 94 great electors

Nationwide opinion polling
Marco Rubio : 61 %
Bernie Sanders : 37 %
Undecided : 2 %

Statewide opinion polling

Iowa
Marco Rubio : 55 %
Bernie Sanders : 39 %
Undecided : 6 %

Wisconsin
Marco Rubio : 54 %
Bernie Sanders : 41 %
Undecided : 5 %

Minnesota
Marco Rubio : 51 %
Bernie Sanders : 46 %
Undecided : 3 %

Michigan
Marco Rubio : 55 %
Bernie Sanders : 40 %
Undecided : 5 %

Illinois
Marco Rubio : 47 %
Bernie Sanders : 46 %
Undecided : 7 %

Ohio
Marco Rubio : 58 %
Bernie Sanders : 39 %
Undecided : 3 %

Pennsylvania
Marco Rubio : 55 %
Bernie Sanders : 40 %
Undecided : 5 %

New Jersey
Marco Rubio : 49 %
Bernie Sanders : 45 %
Undecided : 6 %

Connecticut
Bernie Sanders : 48 %
Marco Rubio : 47 %
Undecided : 5 %

Delaware
Bernie Sanders : 48 %
Marco Rubio : 41 %
Undecided : 11 %

New Hampshire
Marco Rubio : 52 %
Bernie Sanders : 42 %
Undecided : 6 %

Maine
Marco Rubio : 49 %
Bernie Sanders : 44 %
Undecided : 7 %

Virginia
Marco Rubio : 56 %
Bernie Sanders : 38 %
Undecided : 6 %

North Carolina
Marco Rubio : 59 %
Bernie Sanders : 37 %
Undecided : 4 %

Florida
Marco Rubio : 62 %
Bernie Sanders : 35 %
Undecided : 3 %

Colorado
Marco Rubio : 56 %
Bernie Sanders : 40 %
Undecided : 4 %

New Mexico
Marco Rubio : 53 %
Bernie Sanders : 43 %
Undecided : 4 %

Nevada
Marco Rubio : 58 %
Bernie Sanders : 39 %
Undecided : 3 %

California
Marco Rubio : 48 %
Bernie Sanders : 45 %
Undecided : 7 %

Oregon
Marco Rubio : 48 %
Bernie Sanders : 42 %
Undecided : 10 %

Washington
Marco Rubio : 48 %
Bernie Sanders : 45 %
Undecided : 7 %

[UWS]

Marco Rubio's Presidency
October 2020, Part 1

President Rubio's job approval rating :
Approve : 66 %
Disapprove : 30 %
Unsure : 4 %

October 1 :

-President Rubio campaigns in Lansing, Michigan where he highlights the beneficial effects of America's energy independence on auto production in America since cars mostly function through  fossil energy.

October 2 :

-In an effort to attract Hispanic voters, President Rubio campaigns in Fort Collins, Colorado where he attacks Bernie Sanders on his vote in favor of the Community Protection Act of 2006 that included the detention of undocumented immigrants while reiterating his accomplishment of reforming America's immigration system.

October 3-4 :

-During the inter-Korean summit between South Korea, North Korea, Japan and China, North Korea agreed to dismantle the loudspeakers in the Korean Demilitarized Zone as well as its nuclear test site ahead of the upcoming summit between the United States and North Korea by the end of October, thus reinforcing the eventuality of peace and stability in the Korean peninsula. Some political analysts consider these news as the October Surprise of the 2020 presidential election.

October 5 :

-While campaigning in Olympia, Washington, President Rubio praises North Korea's decision to dismantle its nuclear test site, declaring that thanks to the efforts given by America and its allies, peace and stability is now possible in the Korean peninsula.

October 7 :

-Vice-President Nikki Haley and former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick clashed for the 2020 vice-presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

October 8-9 :
-In the context of North Korea's denuclearization, Pyongyang announced the release of three American detainees : Kim Dong Chul, Kim Sang-duk and Kim Hak-song. President Rubio welcomes them home during a press conference at the White House.

October 11 :

-President Rubio and Senator Sanders clashed for the second presidential debate at the North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina.

October 12 :

-The Malian Army conducted a successful military operation on an Al Qaida base near the Niger River, in Mali, where they killed 184 jihadists.

October 14 :

-Praising President Rubio's foreign policy leadership towards North Korea, Secretary of State Lindsey Graham declares that North Korea's denuclearization will soon force Iran to do the same.

[Lamda]

Rubio leading in California LOL

[UWS]

Vice-Presidential Debate

Date : October 7, 2020

Place : Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.

Moderator : Margaret Brennan

Podium order :

Haley      Patrick

Margaret Brennan : Good evening. From Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, and welcome to the first, and only, vice presidential debate of 2020, sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

I'm Margaret Brennan of Face The Nation. It's an honor to moderate this debate between Vice-President Nikki Haley, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, and former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee

The campaigns have agreed to the rules of this 90-minute debate. There will be nine different segments covering domestic and foreign policy issues. Each segment will begin with a question to both candidates who will each have two minutes to answer. Then I'll ask follow-up questions to facilitate a discussion between the candidates. By coin toss, it's been determined that Governor Patrick will be first to answer the opening question.

We have an enthusiastic audience tonight. They've agreed to only express that enthusiasm once at the end of the debate and right now as we welcome Vice-President Nikki Haley and Governor Deval Patrick.

[APPLAUSE FROM THE AUDIENCE AS NIKKI HALEY AND DEVAL PATRICK ARRIVE ON THE DEBATE STAGE, SHAKE HANDS AND SIT DOWN ON THEIR CHAIRS IN FRONT OF BRENNAN TO START THE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL THE DEBATE]

[2016]

Rubio leading in California LOL

Not completely unreasonable. If you check Sanders Positions and compare that with Democrat Michael Dukakis who lost a landslide in 1988 they are quite similar.

Electoral Count 1988
George H. W. Bush 426
Michael Dukakis 111
Abstentions 1

[OBD]

Rubio leading in California LOL

Not completely unreasonable. If you check Sanders Positions and compare that with Democrat Michael Dukakis who lost a landslide in 1988 they are quite similar.

Electoral Count 1988
George H. W. Bush 426
Michael Dukakis 111
Abstentions 1

And California was much more Republican then and actually was a red state. Now it's the most Democratic state in the country. But of course it will flip because muh Rubio is Cuban.

I agree. California should be voting at least 7-8 points to the left of Washington and 11-12 points left of Oregon. 

[UWS]

Rubio leading in California LOL

Not completely unreasonable. If you check Sanders Positions and compare that with Democrat Michael Dukakis who lost a landslide in 1988 they are quite similar.

Electoral Count 1988
George H. W. Bush 426
Michael Dukakis 111
Abstentions 1

And California was much more Republican then and actually was a red state. Now it's the most Democratic state in the country. But of course it will flip because muh Rubio is Cuban.

Wrong. Vermont and Hawaii are more Democratic than California.

And if you look at 2004, John Kerry won California by less than 10 percentage points. I guess George W. Bush would have won it if he gave more efforts there or if Bin Laden was killed before the 2004 election.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_California,_2004

And not only Rubio is Cuban-American but he reformed America's immigration system.

[OBD]

Rubio leading in California LOL

Not completely unreasonable. If you check Sanders Positions and compare that with Democrat Michael Dukakis who lost a landslide in 1988 they are quite similar.

Electoral Count 1988
George H. W. Bush 426
Michael Dukakis 111
Abstentions 1

And California was much more Republican then and actually was a red state. Now it's the most Democratic state in the country. But of course it will flip because muh Rubio is Cuban.

Wrong. Vermont and Hawaii are more Democratic than California.

And if you look at 2004, John Kerry won California by less than 10 percentage points.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_California,_2004

Much has changed since 2004...

I mean in 2002, just two years before, Washington friggin county Oregon went to the Republican candidate.

I can see your point, but I looked at 2008-2016 results and California is consistently 6-10 points more Democratic than Washington.

[Blair]

Quoting 2004 in relation to 2020, is the same as trying to understand the 2000 by looking at the results in 1984.

This TL is a joke.

[America Needs R'hllor]

Quoting 2004 in relation to 2020, is the same as trying to understand the 2000 by looking at the results in 1984.

This TL is a joke.

"Of course Sanders can win Alabama. I mean, it was a Democratic state and Clinton came within 7 points of winning it, and Sanders is not only a white dude, but reformed the healthcare system!"

[CookieDamage]

Quoting 2004 in relation to 2020, is the same as trying to understand the 2000 by looking at the results in 1984.

This TL is a joke.

This TL really is a joke, except it's not even funny.

[Lamda]

Rubio leading in California LOL

Not completely unreasonable. If you check Sanders Positions and compare that with Democrat Michael Dukakis who lost a landslide in 1988 they are quite similar.

Electoral Count 1988
George H. W. Bush 426
Michael Dukakis 111
Abstentions 1

This is not 1988 ,Republican can't win California.
Dukakis won West Virginia,does it mean that a Democrat can win West Virginia in a presidential election now?

[Lamda]

Quoting 2004 in relation to 2020, is the same as trying to understand the 2000 by looking at the results in 1984.

This TL is a joke.

"Of course Sanders can win Alabama. I mean, it was a Democratic state and Clinton came within 7 points of winning it, and Sanders is not only a white dude, but reformed the healthcare system!"

Maybe Vermont is a swing state because Alf Landon won it,this is so ridiculous.

[Lamda]

This is not a timelime,this is a fantasy

Obviously, Rubio can win Vermont. Alf Landon won it in 1936, when FDR was winning a landslide, so why not Rubio?

-This timeline

Sanders can win Utah. LBJ won it in 1964,so why not?

[OBD]

Rubio leading in California LOL

Not completely unreasonable. If you check Sanders Positions and compare that with Democrat Michael Dukakis who lost a landslide in 1988 they are quite similar.

Electoral Count 1988
George H. W. Bush 426
Michael Dukakis 111
Abstentions 1

I somehow feel like your related to UWS somehow. Maybe a cousin or something?