Marco Rubio: Budget Deficit Hypocrite

US Senate candidate and Tea Party darling Marco Rubio (R-FL) opposes an extension of unemployment benefits. Rubio argues that Congress should make spending cuts before extending benefits to unemployed Americans.

Rubio, however, favors extending the Bush tax cuts that favor wealthier Americans, and he does not seek any spending cuts to justify their extension. Instead, Rubio argues that the tax cuts will pay for themselves. Most of the credible data on this issue, however, show that the tax cuts have actually enlarged the deficit and would continue to do so.

Last week, Rubio released a gimmicky statement detailing "23 Simple Ways To Create Jobs, Grow Our Economy And Help The Gulf Coast Recover." Of the 23 proposals Rubio offers, 13 involve tax cuts or reforms. None of them, however, involve any spending cuts. Rubio's position on government spending is blatantly hypocritical and would cause the deficit to grow even larger.

The Party of "Say What?"

Apparently, the GOP has morphed from the party of "no" into the party of "say what?" Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky is staging a one-man show to hold up unemployment and healthcare benefits and several roads projects that provide jobs for needy workers. Now, Senator John Kyl of Arizona has stated that unemployment benefits provide incentives for people not to find a job. What a crock, Kyl.

First of all, people are usually eligible for unemployment insurance only if they are laid off -- not simply because they do not have a job. With unemployment hovering around 10% and Republicans complaining daily that nothing is getting done about it, Kyl's analysis is especially disturbing. The unemployment rate is dangerously high, but apparently, we can explain it away because people are not trying to fill the abundance of jobs that are screaming for warm bodies. Instead, these silly laid-off workers would rather live off of the pittance called unemployment insurance. Give all of us a break, Senator Kyl.