Marco Rubio: Special elections highlight continued disconnect with Washington

Sen. Marco Rubio said the results of Tuesday’s special elections show the continued disconnect between Washington and the rest of the country.

“One of the things we’re constantly reminded is that there’s this political Washington bubble,” Mr. Rubio said Wednesday on Fox News. “The people that are watching cable news all day, talking to each other on Twitter — and then there’s the rest of the world and the rest of the country.

“That disconnect was brought to light in the presidential race in 2016 and I think it’s been brought to light again last night,” he said.

Democrat Jon Ossoff was defeated Tuesday by Republican Karen Handel in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, despite raising more than $23 million in the most expensive House race in history. And in South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District, Republican Ralph Norman defeated Democrat Archie Parnell.

Mr. Rubio said the issues people are focused on are taxes and health care, the latter of which he feels is still at the starting point.

“This bill that they’re working on, they’re just crafting the first step,” the Florida Republican said. “I respect what the leadership is trying to do, and perhaps what they produce is something everyone is in agreement with, and so you can move to a vote fairly quickly, but my sense is there are some differences that will still need to be worked out.”

Mr. Rubio cautioned that rushing the process could produce a similar problem as Obamacare, passing a law without fully understanding it.

“One of the reasons Obamacare failed is because they rushed it through and didn’t full understand it — we don’t want to make the same mistake,” he said. “I think we need to do this right.”