On April 14, Marco Rubio made Ring Power’s headquarters in St. Augustine a stop on his "Take a Stand" Bus Tour across Florida. The U.S. Senate candidate took a tour of the World Commerce Center facility and then spoke to a crowd of Ring Power employees and local Republican supporters. 
Addressing the crowd, Marco said, "It’s businesses like this that are going to make our economy stronger, employ Floridians desperately looking for work and lower our state’s record unemployment rate. Unfortunately, the policies coming out of Washington today are only going to hinder the success of this business and the thousands like it across Florida. We already know that policies like the massive health care bill are going to hurt this company."
Marco Rubio knows that last month during the health care debate, Caterpillar was one of the many companies to warn that the massive bill would lead to higher costs. Specifically, Caterpillar said that the bill would increase its health care costs by $100 million in the first year alone and put at risk the health care coverage of its 150,000 employees and retirees. What affects the goose, affects the gander. As a Caterpillar dealership, Ring Power will also be affected by the new health care legislation. Rubio sympathized, "You can read about job losses and laying people off but when you come to companies that face that, you get the full impact." Randy Ringhaver confirmed, "These additional costs are going to make it harder to remain competitive." Mr. Ringhaver said he supports Rubio "to improve the direction this country is going."
Rubio’s ultimate goal is to control the government’s expansion and spending. He believes big government is failing business people, "Our leaders need to be focused on helping businesses grow and succeed. We need pro-growth economic policies and someone in Washington who will provide clear, conservative alternatives because mandates, higher taxes and more debt are not the answer."
The suggestions Rubio outlined for getting the country back on track include: 
* Freezing government spending to 2007 -- what he called "pre-Obama" -- levels. "Freezing spending indicates to people that America is serious about its debt problems," he said.
* Banning earmarks, where legislators insert pet projects into bills and see them passed without scrutiny.
* Freezing civilian hiring. "Federal employees make 70 percent more than those in the private sector," he said.
* Cutting the White House budget by 10 percent.
* Passing the line item veto, which would give the president power to veto wasteful items in a budget without having to redo the document.
* Ending the bailout program. "They want to make it permanent," he said, amazed at the idea. "We'd be institutionalizing an incentive to fail."
* Reforming entitlement programs, such as Social Security and Medicare. This would be toughest of all, he said.
"These programs must be reformed if we're going to save them," Rubio said.
* Using leftover stimulus money to pay down the national debt.
Marco firmly believes by enforcing these suggestions he can help save "the freest and most prosperous country in the world." Marco explained, "If we don't fix these problems, our children and grandchildren will be the first generation of Americans to leave behind a diminished country. We must grow our economy through the private sector, not through the government."
For more information on Marco Rubio's 2010 campaign, visit his website at http://www.marcorubio.com/