NEW YORK — Ben Bernanke, the former Federal Reserve chairman appointed by President George W. Bush, recently expressed regret about the government’s response to the 2008 financial crisis. He wished some Wall Street executives had gone to jail.

Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican presidential candidate, isn’t so sure. “I’m not necessarily a person who’s looking for that sort of thing,” he said in an interview at the New York Stock Exchange.

The reticence of Mr. Rubio, who casts himself as a champion for Americans “living paycheck to paycheck,” underlined a striking reality of the 2016 campaign. For all their talk of anger and angst among working-class voters, Republican candidates have shied away from economic populism.

Mr. Rubio, in New York for fund-raising at the time of the interview, offers an example. He proposes a significant new tax credit for households with children. But he would also cut the top federal income tax rate to 35 percent, from nearly 40 percent, and eliminate levies on capital gains, dividends and multimillion-dollar estates.