Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) Exposes Dem Hypocrisy on Debt Politics

Were Dems who opposed debt ceiling increase during Bush years "terrorists?"

Yesterday, I shared with you Vice President Joe Biden's statement likening Tea Party Republicans in Congress to "terrorists." It was bad enough that Biden would think such a thing let alone say it in the same day he personally welcomed Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, one of the victims of the Tucson shooting, back to Congress.

Florida's freshman Senator Marco Rubio took to the Senate Floor on July 30 to ask why Democrats failed to do anything about the debt problem until the last minute when a crisis atmosphere prevailed. “You would think these issues would have been worked on in January, February, March -- nothing. This chamber has done nothing," Rubio said. Instead, we had another moment of crisis that was matched with Democrats accusing Republicans of being "terrorists" and "extremists" for refusing to agree to another debt ceiling increase without strings attached.

Rubio continued:

“So this has been the plan all along, by the way. The plan all along was not to take a position, to let the days count down until we got to this point with 72 hours to go and then force a vote on something that they wanted. I believe that that has been the plan the entire time. And you can see it carrying itself out.

“You want to know why people all across America get grossed out about politics? It’s by watching this kind of stuff happen.

“And instead let me tell you what we’ve seen for the last few days. First of all, for today and for much of this time I have heard all these attacks and name-calling. If we had $1 billion for every time I heard the words "tea party extremist," we could solve this debt problem.

“So all this name-calling, so I said let me read some quotes about this debt limit and I found some pretty extremist quotes.

“Here's one.

“It says, "The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I, therefore, intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt.” A quote from a tea party extremist, right? No. This is a quote from March 16 of 2006 from Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.

“I found another extremist quote. This one says, "Because this massive of accumulation of debt was predicted, because it was foreseeable, because it was unnecessary, because it was the result of willful and reckless disregard for the warnings that were given and for the fundamentals of economic management, I am voting against a debt limit increase.” Well, that must be from a tea party extremist member of the House, right? No. This is March 16, 2006, from Senator Joe Biden of Delaware.

“And last but not least, here's a quote from September 27 of 2007. It says, "I find it distasteful and disturbing to increase the debt limit yet again. Clearly we need to change course and this debt limit bill is just another reminder of that." And that is from the distinguished Senator from Nevada, the majority leader. On that date in 2007.

“And yet now these same quotes in this context, what we're talking about raising the debt limit more than has ever been raised in one vote, is extremism? This name-calling is absurd and it sets this process back.

“The other thing I hear -- oh, it is not reasonable. This is a waste of time. This bill can't pass the Senate when they talk about the House bill. So now it disqualifies the bill the fact that it can't pass in the Senate.

“Well, guess what? The Senate bill can't pass in the Senate -- the Senate bill can't pass in the Senate.”

Here's the video of Rubio's entire speech:

And of course we've all heard the line that disgreeing with Obama on the debt, or anything else, is somehow racist. Well, in USA Today, Columnist DeWayne Wickham takes that line to a new low comparing Republicans to slave owners who disrespect Obama as if he was their former property. Obviously, Dems have run out of ideas to defend their indefensible record of performance in office.


I don't expect Democrats to drop their  "racist." "extremist," "terrorist" rhetoric directed at the Tea Party anytime soon. But you watch; the minute any elected Republican tags Democrats with similar labels they will be hung out to dry by the same media that ignores the Democrat's hypocrisy on this and so many other things!