In Senator Marco Rubo’s Establishment Republican Response (as opposed to the Batshit Crazy Teabagger Republican Response from Rand Paul), he made this basic Republican statement of principle:
More government isn’t going to help you get ahead. It’s going to hold you back. More government isn’t going to create more opportunities. It’s going to limit them.
He then followed that statement of Randian principle up with a little bit of his middle class Cubano life story, during which he said this:
I believe in federal financial aid. I couldn’t have gone to college without it.
Which is it?
Those two statements are in direct contradiction. Rubio is saying that without government Stafford Loans and Pell Grants, he could not have afforded college. And without a college degree, he most assuredly would not become a hotshot lawyer, then state lawmaker, then Speaker of the Florida House, and then a U.S. Senator and the 2016 presumptive Republican frontrunner of the moment. So, by definition and by Rubio’s own admission, government did help him get ahead, it did not hold him back, but pushed him forward with a helping hand, creating more opportunities for the young Rubio, rather than limiting them.
So we are left with two options which may not be mutually exclusive: 1) Rubio is a massive hypocrite who is trying to deny to others the opportunities he was given; and/or 2) his statement of principle is pure bullshit and not believed by anyone, anywhere.
It really is amazing that Rubio is being groomed as the GOP’s Obama in 2016, for he has massive liabilities that Hillary Clinton will gleefully exploit en route to a 45 state 20 point landslide. These same liabilitiesare what prevented him from being picked as Romney’s running mate in 2012.
Rubio charged more than $100,000 to state GOP credit cards, had racked up nearly $1 million in personal debt, and nearly had his home foreclosed on. No doubt that Rubio has plenty of assets (young, Latino, from Florida). But he also carries a lot of risk for the usually risk-averse Romney.
Suffice it to say, Marco Rubio is a crook. He stole from his own political party and supporters, and was fined by the Federal Election Commission last year because he collected over $200,000 in illegal political contributions during his campaign for Senate.