Florida Senator Marco Rubio presented the official GOP response to President Obama’s State of the Union Address last night.
As always, Senator Rubio comes across as charismatic, handsome, well spoken, and a pleasant personality.
But when it comes to substance, Rubio was wanting in many ways.
He hardly touched on foreign policy at all, spending most of his time condemning “big” government, claiming that it cannot solve people’s problems, forgetting that he is where he is because of help from government through student loan programs, which he pointed out he had just paid off finally after many years of payments.
Rubio failed to realize that it is government which provides so many opportunities and forms of assistance, including his mother’s Medicare and Social Security.
Rubio forgets that it was the interstate highway system, initiated by Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower, which has allowed the nation, and particularly Florida, to become a success story in growth of population and economic opportunity.
Rubio criticizes government, while making sure that he spends his career in government service, including the Florida legislature, where he spent a decade.
It is also ironic that Rubio and his party attack “big” government, when George W. Bush led the greatest expansion of government in four decades!
Rubio offered no hope for any solution to gun violence, and denied climate change, just as he has, earlier, questioned evolution, so he believes that science has no validity, while invoking religion, of course, all of the time, forgetting that we have a Constitution and Bill of Rights that promotes separation of church and state.
Rubio also shows bad math, as he claims Barack Obama has raised the national debt more than any President, which is not true, and fails to reflect the deep chasm we were in when he took the oath of office, the worst since 1933!
And his belief that often corrupt state governments, including his own state of Florida, can do a better job of operating safety net programs, is belied by the stark truth of just the opposite result!
So Marco Rubio gives a good speech, but the details come up short, if one is interested in reality!
But one thing Rubio accomplished is to make him more noticed as a leading Presidential possibility for his party in 2016!
With all due respect, as usual with the left you take the argument about government to the extreme. Just because you are against big bureaucratic government, hiper-regulations and stifling taxes does not mean you are against all government. That is exactly the point Rubio is making when he talks about student loans and Medicare. More specifically he said “Now does this mean there’s no role for government? Of course not. It plays a crucial part in keeping us safe, enforcing rules, and providing some security against the risks of modern life. But government’s role is wisely limited by the Constitution. And it can’t play its essential role when it ignores those limits.” “The choice isn’t just between big government or big business. What we need is an accountable, efficient and effective government that allows small and new businesses to create middle class jobs.” He also stated, “And because tuition costs have grown so fast, we need to change the way we pay for higher education. I believe in federal financial aid. I couldn’t have gone to college without it. But it’s not just about spending more money on these programs; it’s also about strengthening and modernizing them. We need student aid that does not discriminate against programs that non-traditional students rely on – like online courses, or degree programs that give you credit for work experience. When I finished school, I owed over 100,000 dollars in student loans, a debt I paid off just a few months ago. Today, many graduates face massive student debt. We must give students more information on the costs and benefits of the student loans they’re taking out.” So he did not forget about his student aid as you claim, nor is he talking about doing away with it. Now regarding the safety net he did not forget nor is against it, as a matter of fact no conservative is against it, but all the left can do is accuse us of not caring as long as they get to avoid the debate “When we suggest we strengthen our safety net programs by giving states more flexibility to manage them – he accuses us of wanting to leave the elderly and disabled to fend for themselves.” ” I would never support any changes to Medicare that would hurt seniors like my mother. But anyone who is in favor of leaving Medicare exactly the way it is right now, is in favor of bankrupting it.Republicans have offered a detailed and credible plan that helps save Medicare without hurting today’s retirees. Instead of playing politics with Medicare, when is the President going to offer his plan to save it? Tonight would have been a good time for him to do it.” So where is the President’s plan? Regarding the debt, if it has around a $10 Trillion debt when he assumed office and now 4yrs later we have $16 Trillion, how is that mathematically wrong? I grant you could day revenues receipt drop from 18% of GDP average to 15% because of the crisis, but spending rose from 21% of GDP to over 26% of GDP under Obama and due to Obama’s spending plans.
short? lol compared to obama’s laundry list of government expansion that there is no money for.
There is money for it, if we go back to the tax rates under Eisenhower or Nixon, and if we realize that infrastructure, education, and raising the minimum wage would help spur the economy long term. One has to think long term, not just short term!
Our economy is contracting obama only knows how to do stimulus ” those shovel ready jobs were not so shovel ready, chuckling in the background” over a trillion dollars a year, he is a failure by any measure.
The Great Recession could not be turned around overnight, but the GOP did EVERYTHING possible to prevent an economic recovery by refusal to cooperate on ANYTHING, so they share the responsibility for the slowly growing economy, but still SIX MILLION jobs have been restored or created, after the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression, with both economic collapses occurring under Republican Presidents who lowered taxes and allowed the rich to get richer, and the middle class to get poorer–Calvin Coolidge and George W. Bush! Notice I give Coolidge the primary blame in the 1920s, not Herbert Hoover, who walked in on a disaster, and was slow to react to it, while Obama and FDR were quick to react, but it takes time to reverse the damage!
I find this fascinating : http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/feb/12/state-of-the-union-reading-level
Possibly if obama had spent those valuable first two years being a real leader he could have found a way to work with the opposition, which is part of leadership. i recall obama constantly blaming Bush for everything, lol, now it is the obstructionist congress, more of the same a lack of leadership and more unwholesome divisiveness .
Juan, you may find it fascinating, as you call it, but this study is totally ridiculous in calling some of our most ordinary Presidents as being smarter than our brightest Presidents, intellectually. No one is going to believe that Coolidge, Ford, Harding, Buchanan, Grant, B Harrison, A Johnson, Fillmore et al are smarter than Carter, Clinton, Obama, Kennedy, FDR, JFK, LBJ, Bush I, and Nixon!
EVERY President blames his predecessor, such as Reagan blaming Carter, FDR blaming Hoover, etc, nothing new at all, but it is still the fact that in the past, the opposition party would cooperate on many matters, although of course, not all!
Yes they do, but with obama it was to the point of ad nauseam. When was it going to be time to pull up his pants and stop complaining? and now it is congress, the man cannot even present a budget on time, but he always has time for another campaign trip after the election has been won.
Ronald: They are not taking about being smarter, they analyze the language used in the speech. Maybe it’s the American people who are getting dumber and don’t understand complex ideas. Such as the difference between deficits , debt and spending. For crying out loud , some people actually believe that this current crop of politicians cut spending in almost $4 trillion !!!LOL!
Well, Juan, I must say that even with more years of education, it DOES seem as if the American people are getting dumber. Just look at all the GOP Congressmen and Senators, a sorry lot of losers and whackos! LOL Sorry, but I had an urge to say that! LOL
The fact that we keep repeating debates like gun control as if that is going to help people seems amazing to me! LOL Look at ‘Shucky” Schummer clueless face here years ago listening to this woman’s testimony. Seems he has not learned anything, and he is not the only one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEJFAvA-ZUE&feature=player_embedded. And 2 decades later the same ignorant ideologue politicians together with their “drones” worshipers are at it again. http://www.c-spanvideo.org/clip/4357959
LOL at the part where he took a swig of water! 😉