This week, GOP U.S. Senate candidate in Florida, Marco Rubio, said he would not support extending unemployment benefits to nearly 3 million Americans unless spending cuts were identified to offset the $33 billion cost. “At some point, someone has to draw a line in the sand and say we are serious about not growing debt,” Rubio said. At the same time, Rubio wants to make the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy permanent — at a cost of nearly $700 billion over the next ten years — with no offset. While Rubio recently claimed they would pay for themselves (they won’t), a local Florida CBS reporter followed up with his campaign:
However, historically speaking, no party has ever opposed extending the benefits when the unemployment rate was higher than 7 percent until the current election cycle. [...]
However, when it comes to offsetting the costs of an extension of the Bush Tax Cuts that Rubio wants made permanent, his campaign couldn’t give an answer to CBS4.com’s Tim Kephart.
In fact, Rubio’s economic platform is basically a re-hash of the Bush tax cuts. “[A]fter perusing the list [of Rubio's plan], the sharp-eyed reader will likely notice a recurring theme: This Rubio guy appears to be a big supporter of tax cuts,” said the Orlando Sentinel’s Jim Stratton. In fact, the cuts Rubio is proposing would cost trillions of dollars while overwhelmingly benefit only the very rich.
Previous in TP Politics
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.