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Rubio, Murphy hit hard during Florida Senate debate

DAVIE, Fla. — Sen. Marco Rubio and his re-election opponent, Congressman Patrick Murphy, went hard at each other during their final scheduled debate, accusing each other of being ineffectual and accomplishing little in Washington.

The Republican incumbent accused Murphy on Wednesday night of never sponsoring a bill that passed during his four years in Congress and of doing little to help Florida.

Raw: Closing statements of second Senate debate

Murphy attacked Rubio's attendance record during his unsuccessful run for the Republican presidential nominee. The Palm Beach-area Democrat pointed out that Rubio missed 40 percent of the Senate's votes during his campaign.

Murphy also said Rubio lost all credibility by failing to denounce Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Rubio fired back by saying all Murphy had was attacks on Trump, and continued to paint Murphy as a congressman with four years of service and nothing to show for it.

“An hour into this debate and (he) has yet to cite a single thing he’s done,” Rubio said.

Murphy questioned why Rubio wants his job back considering his poor voting record.

“If you voted as much as you lied, you’d be a good senator,” said Murphy.

When asked about how they would deal with the expected 25 percent increase in premiums under Obama’s Affordable Care Act, Murphy said he would work to improve the program while Rubio said he would scrap it.

Murphy called the act “a huge step forward for our country but the emphasis now has to be on getting it right” and making the plan more affordable. He called for an expansion of Medicaid to cover more low-income Americans and for the government to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs.

He accused Rubio of wanting to “take us back to the days where you could get dropped from your health insurance plan if you got sick. You could be denied coverage if you had a pre-existing condition. Where women were being charged more than men because they were women. Where seniors were being charged more for their prescription drugs.”

Rubio said he would allow companies to give their employees tax-free money to buy their own insurance and allow taxpayers who don’t receive employer subsidies to get a full tax credit to pay for private coverage. He said the government’s only role should be to create a high-risk pool for people with pre-existing conditions who otherwise couldn’t get insurance.

The two split over the U.S.’s stance on Cuba and lifting sanctions against the community country.

Murphy praised the easing of tensions, while Rubio argued all the concessions have been one-sided.

Murphy said increased opportunity for Cubans could be a better way to open the island than the embargo.

“Would we rather see out own cruise ships, Royal Caribbean and Carnival, there in Havana, or would we rather see Russian spy ship?” Murphy said.

“The Cuban government is a dictatorship,” said Rubio. “An invasion of cruise ships is going to bring democracy to Cuba? It is not,"

Rubio went on to say that the Cuban government’s only motivation was money.

The debate at Broward College near Fort Lauderdale was sponsored by the Florida Press Association and Leadership Florida, a group founded by the state chamber of commerce.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Due to a technical error in tonight's U.S. Senate debate, Sen. Marco Rubio's closing statement was inadvertently cut off. The closing statements of both candidates appear below. We regret the inconvenience to our viewers.

Due to a technical error in tonight's U.S. Senate debate, Sen. Marco Rubio's closing statement was inadvertently cut off. The closing statements of both candidates appear here. We regret the inconvenience to our viewers. http://at.wftv.com/2eNP7i7

Posted by WFTV Channel 9 on Wednesday, October 26, 2016