Greg Sargent keeps framing the issue wrong as do a number of pundits. The issue of personal finances is not so much just that he can't manage them well as that he has misused state funds for all kinds of personal use.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/11/05/the-careful-balancing-act-behind-republicans-new-attack-on-marco-rubios-finances/
Sargent frames it wrong there by making it an issue of Rubio not being rich. That plays into his hands. He has this whole Gee, I'm sorry I'm not a rich boy and that my parents were legal immigrants spiel down pat.
But the real problem is that this shows him as a very corrupt elected official in his time in Florida.
"Come on. The problem revealed by Rubio’s shady history with state party credit cards isn’t that Rubio is bad at “managing his finances” – it’s that he’s a weasel who cashed in on his position of (limited) authority. The image of Rubio as a poor money manager with massive debt isn’t as damaging as his opponents and the press might think. Pretty much everyone in the country has trouble handling debt, and far too many people are carrying way too high a balance on their credit cards. Framing it in these terms just allows Rubio to make the point that he’s not wealthy and he copes with the same financial difficulties as everyone else. The damning part of all this is that he abused resources made available to him as Speaker. I’m not especially bothered that Rubio can’t balance his checkbook, but I do care that he’s a corruptible sneak."
http://www.salon.com/2015/11/05/were_missing_the_real_marco_rubio_scandal_the_problem_isnt_his_financial_trouble_its_that_hes_a_corruptible_sneak/
Correct. He's going to actually use his personal debt to make himself sound more sympathetic which he isn't. He may not be able to live within his own personal means but he has every intention of applying crushing austerity to the American people.
By the way-while the Very Serious Pundits have been up in arms over how much Trump's tax plan raises the deficit, Rubio's does the same thing. Economists estimate the effect of his huge tax cuts for the rich on the deficit as between a low ball estimate of $4 trillion and a highball estimate of $12 trillion.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-10-28/marco-rubio-s-6-trillion-problem
Bear in mind that W's tax cuts 'only' put is in a $4.6 trillion dollar hole. So W's plan is now the low end of GOP tax plans to explode the deficit-which no doubt will then lead to demands to cut public services to close the gap.
P.S. If Rubio is the ultimate nominee, the challenge for Hillary will be to distinguish between biography and substance.
Rubio will sell his own story as the child of 'legal immigration' and how he isn't rich-as opposed to HIllary's 'We were broke' comment and claim she's a dynasty.
He will argue that the GOP loves Latinos as it's nominated him.
The way to respond is to point out that running diverse candidates is not the same thing as having diverse ideas.
That Rubio may not have been born rich but that's who his tax plans benefit. He is not exactly poor today with his almost $200,000 dollars a year Senate salary. That he has a gun at the poor and middle class with his plans to destroy Medicare.
FDR was the President Americans most considered on their side and he was a man of great personal privilege. It's about issues not biography. Rubio is no better than Jeb where it counts and in fact his tax plan is arguably even worse.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/11/05/the-careful-balancing-act-behind-republicans-new-attack-on-marco-rubios-finances/
Sargent frames it wrong there by making it an issue of Rubio not being rich. That plays into his hands. He has this whole Gee, I'm sorry I'm not a rich boy and that my parents were legal immigrants spiel down pat.
But the real problem is that this shows him as a very corrupt elected official in his time in Florida.
"Come on. The problem revealed by Rubio’s shady history with state party credit cards isn’t that Rubio is bad at “managing his finances” – it’s that he’s a weasel who cashed in on his position of (limited) authority. The image of Rubio as a poor money manager with massive debt isn’t as damaging as his opponents and the press might think. Pretty much everyone in the country has trouble handling debt, and far too many people are carrying way too high a balance on their credit cards. Framing it in these terms just allows Rubio to make the point that he’s not wealthy and he copes with the same financial difficulties as everyone else. The damning part of all this is that he abused resources made available to him as Speaker. I’m not especially bothered that Rubio can’t balance his checkbook, but I do care that he’s a corruptible sneak."
http://www.salon.com/2015/11/05/were_missing_the_real_marco_rubio_scandal_the_problem_isnt_his_financial_trouble_its_that_hes_a_corruptible_sneak/
Correct. He's going to actually use his personal debt to make himself sound more sympathetic which he isn't. He may not be able to live within his own personal means but he has every intention of applying crushing austerity to the American people.
By the way-while the Very Serious Pundits have been up in arms over how much Trump's tax plan raises the deficit, Rubio's does the same thing. Economists estimate the effect of his huge tax cuts for the rich on the deficit as between a low ball estimate of $4 trillion and a highball estimate of $12 trillion.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-10-28/marco-rubio-s-6-trillion-problem
Bear in mind that W's tax cuts 'only' put is in a $4.6 trillion dollar hole. So W's plan is now the low end of GOP tax plans to explode the deficit-which no doubt will then lead to demands to cut public services to close the gap.
P.S. If Rubio is the ultimate nominee, the challenge for Hillary will be to distinguish between biography and substance.
Rubio will sell his own story as the child of 'legal immigration' and how he isn't rich-as opposed to HIllary's 'We were broke' comment and claim she's a dynasty.
He will argue that the GOP loves Latinos as it's nominated him.
The way to respond is to point out that running diverse candidates is not the same thing as having diverse ideas.
That Rubio may not have been born rich but that's who his tax plans benefit. He is not exactly poor today with his almost $200,000 dollars a year Senate salary. That he has a gun at the poor and middle class with his plans to destroy Medicare.
FDR was the President Americans most considered on their side and he was a man of great personal privilege. It's about issues not biography. Rubio is no better than Jeb where it counts and in fact his tax plan is arguably even worse.
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