The world as Marco Rubio prefers to see it
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio may have had an awkward, amateurish moment in his rebuttal to the State of the Union last night — grace under pressure it was not — but it’s nothing that will do permanent damage to his career. The national spotlight is a difficult place, and you learn how to handle it by living in it. Sarah Palin, for example, never got the benefit of the learning curve that Rubio is now experiencing, and the lack of preparation ended her career.
With that in mind, let’s set aside talk of Rubio’s delivery and take a serious look at the message itself. (Transcript available here.) And let’s start with the fact that in most respects, his speech was a standard, rote recitation of Republican ideology, including a familiar condemnation of President Obama as an enemy of capitalism:
“Presidents in both parties – from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan – have known that our free enterprise economy is the source of our middle class prosperity. But President Obama? He believes it’s the cause of our problems.”
“… the idea that more taxes and more government spending is the best way to help hardworking middle class taxpayers – that’s an old idea that’s failed every time it’s been tried. More government isn’t going to help you get ahead. It’s going to hold you back.”
That is an easily disprovable assertion. Medicare is not a failure; Social Security is not a failure; the GI Bill was not a failure; Head Start is not a failure; unemployment insurance is not a failure. The student loan and Pell Grant programs are not failures. Neither is Medicaid, which among other things insures two-thirds of Americans receiving long-term nursing home care in this country.
These and other programs — almost all of them opposed by Republicans since their inception — have been of immense service to “hardworking middle-class taxpayers” and other Americans. In fact, Rubio and his family have themselves benefited greatly from those programs. As he acknowledged later in his speech, his mother and late father have relied heavily on Medicare to deal with their declining health. Rubio attended a state-financed university, including a community college and the University of Florida, and financed that college education through federal loans and the Pell Grant program.
It is not an exaggeration to say that those taxpayer-funded programs — dismissed by Rubio as failures in helping the middle class — have made his entire life and career possible. College, for example, would have been much more difficult. And without Medicare and Social Security footing the bill, the cost of caring for his aging parents would have had to be paid from his own pocket, significantly shrinking his own economic and career options.
However, when Rubio recounts his personal history, such inconvenient facts seem to melt away. As he said in his speech last night:
“My parents immigrated here in pursuit of the opportunity to improve their life and give their children the chance at an even better one. They made it to the middle class, my dad working as a bartender and my mother as a cashier and a maid. I didn’t inherit any money from them. But I inherited something far better – the real opportunity to accomplish my dreams. This opportunity – to make it to the middle class or beyond no matter where you start out in life – it isn’t bestowed on us from Washington.”
It is a theme that he returned to in his closing, in which he talked of the dreams that parents of today have for their newborn children, just as his parents had for him:
“For many of these parents, life has not gone the way they had planned. Maybe they were born into circumstances they’ve found difficult to escape. Maybe they’ve made some mistakes along the way. Maybe they’re young mothers, all alone, the father of their child long gone.
But tonight, when they look into the eyes of their child for the first time, their lives will change forever. Because in those eyes, they will see what my parents saw in me, and what your parents saw in you. They will see all the hopes and dreams they once had for themselves. This dream – of a better life for their children – it’s the hope of parents everywhere. Politicians here and throughout the world have long promised that more government can make those dreams come true.
But we Americans have always known better. From our earliest days, we embraced economic liberty instead. And because we did, America remains one of the few places on earth where dreams like these even have a chance.”
It is moving stuff, but again, it is romanticized to the point of caricature. These parents “born into circumstances they’ve found difficult to escape” would no doubt welcome high-quality pre-K programs of the sort advocated Tuesday night by Obama, because without it their children would have a much tougher time excelling in school. The earned-income tax credit for working families having a hard time making ends meet would be invaluable to them. Parents working as bartenders and cashiers are highly unlikely to have employer-provided health insurance, so Medicaid would be essential if their children should become ill.
There’s one more very important factor to consider. Rubio’s parents came to this country in 1956, and over the next quarter century, as they tried to establish an economic foothold here, they did so in an era when economic prosperity was more broadly shared than it is today.
Here’s what income inequality looked like in America from 1956 to 1981:
Here’s what it has done since:
Here’s what employees’ share of the gross domestic product did from 1956 to 1981:
Here’s what it has done since:
Those and other profound, structural changes in the American economy have made it much more difficult for modern versions of Mario and Oria Rubio to look into their children’s eyes and dream of a better life for them. Yet, as their son explained to the American people Tuesday night, the Republican Party believes that government should take no account of those changed conditions. “More government isn’t going to help you get ahead,” as he told us. “It’s going to hold you back.”
In fact, we are told, the answer must be to shrink those government programs that — Rubio’s denials aside — have helped himself and countless millions more Americans achieve the dreams of their fathers and mothers. The American people are going to have a hard time swallowing that.
– Jay Bookman
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856 comments Add your comment
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
February 13th, 2013
9:20 pm
Only Kammy would know!
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
– Thomas “Billy Shakespeare” Jefferson
TBS
February 13th, 2013
9:22 pm
josef
I know first hand because I was raised by one and grew up around many Latinos from Panamanians, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Cubans, Columbians…….. you name it. And even the non-Cubans did or or do not vote all Democrat.
The one who raised me being the main one.
appleseed
February 13th, 2013
9:27 pm
well from what I heard Rubio just another flip/flopper.Another Romney.
getalife
February 13th, 2013
9:31 pm
Hillary 16.
moonbat betty
February 13th, 2013
9:31 pm
Sheesh…
I bet half you libs couldn’t pat your bellies and rub your head at the same time.
am i right?
getalife
February 13th, 2013
9:32 pm
No.
moonbat betty
February 13th, 2013
9:32 pm
geez, getalife.
fogetaboutit.
Hill isn’t goin to leave Bill for you.
Stop it.
getalife
February 13th, 2013
9:34 pm
Not for me moonbat.
For our country.
Hillary 16.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
February 13th, 2013
9:35 pm
Hill isn’t goin to leave Bill for you.
Nor will she leave Bill for you.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
February 13th, 2013
9:36 pm
pat your bellies and rub your head at the same time
I thought most of the cons were typing and rubbing their “heads” (okay, we’ll call it that…wink, wink) but I really try not to think about that….sort of like that Redneck guy posting butt nekkid
getalife
February 13th, 2013
9:37 pm
moonbat loves her some President Clinton.
Oscar
February 13th, 2013
9:38 pm
Hillery is not going anywhere. And don’t thnk she will be running in 16.
Who is going to step up. Big Joe?
Governor __________ (fill in the blank)
Oscar
February 13th, 2013
9:39 pm
Betty – I was able to do that three times out of five. Not bad.
barking frog
February 13th, 2013
9:42 pm
I thought it was pat your head and rub your belly…..
Josef
February 13th, 2013
9:42 pm
TBS
The “Latinos” are now the largest “minority” in the country and the fastest growing. Both “sides” know enough about demographics to know that whoever can sway enough of that demographic will win in a tight, or even close, race. What the don’t seem to have a handle on are the issues that will determine that sway. There’s going to be a lot of fumbling going on, for sure, on both sides, fumble number one is that the Latino community is monolithic and homogenous.
barking frog
February 13th, 2013
9:46 pm
josef 9:42
and soon to be pastureized….
Mick
February 13th, 2013
10:26 pm
jay
Excellent column! We know rubio well down here and when he was speaker of the house in the florida legislature he got rolled by sen. jim king of jacksonville every which way but loose. While all those good ole boys were singing the praises of young buck marco they picked miami clean and all rubio left us with is his gee whiz, boy wonder smile! Yes, the further north you go in florida the more southern it gets and jacksonville (s. georgia) is not in the same league with the types of problems we have down here with immigration. Do people know that clinton made a deal that we would accept 200k immigrants from cuba every year, think they are going to jacksonville? Jim king got all of the funding rerouted northward by nebulous data from gator u and marco never knew what hit him.
There’s only one other culprit here who in the end betrayed his “adopted” city and signed that crap into law, yes the great jeb bush! Miami says, thanks for nothing dork, education expert my friggin arse!!!
Marco hit his glass ceiling pretty hard last night, future president? Ever since palin arrived on the scene I’m reminded to say: never say never…
crumpled fender
February 13th, 2013
10:28 pm
The problem is the government comes up with good programs like medicare and Pell grants, etc, then someone in congress says “I can make this even better!” Then the program sinks under the weight of all of the “improvements.” Leave things alone.
Also, we should make a law or amendment that any amendment added to a new bill in Congress has to be directly related to the bill, no Alaskan bridge amendments added to relief bills, for example.
Get Real
February 13th, 2013
10:34 pm
Mick…you are always so objective. If you honestly believe that about Rubio, then you are at best naive and at worst a complete moron…
Mick
February 13th, 2013
10:46 pm
real
Well then, since I live in miami and know rubio like you might know your local georgian legislator, odds are way better that the moronic boomerang you threw will probably come back and knock the nonsense out of you…
Chris
February 13th, 2013
10:49 pm
Hey Jay,
Did you happen to see Dr. Benjamin Carson’s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast? Wondered what you thought about it. I must have missed your commentary on it.
moonbat betty
February 13th, 2013
10:51 pm
“Nor will she leave Bill for you.”
Really, Kam.
Wasn’t even in my top 5.
Thanks, tho.
Chris
February 13th, 2013
10:52 pm
By the way, you may have addressed this in the blog, but I didn’t have time to hunt through 821 comments to check. If you did, my apologies.
getalife
February 13th, 2013
10:54 pm
chris,
He used a rw talking point and our President laughed.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
February 13th, 2013
11:14 pm
Headline: “Sheriff Says His Deputies Did Not Intentionaly Try to Burn Down Cabin”.
Cough, cough …………………………
BADA BING (imagine an umlaut above the i, I'm trying to class this place up a little)
February 13th, 2013
11:16 pm
Dorner had a bunch of idiots on twitter and facebook cheering him on before his death. He was their hero, a modern day Django. I wonder if the ‘D’ in Dorner is silent?
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
February 13th, 2013
11:21 pm
BADA :
LOL ! It is now !
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ………… It gets lonely walking point here. I’ve taken lots of schrapnel but I’m still fighting !
getalife
February 13th, 2013
11:25 pm
Get a room.
BADA BING (imagine an umlaut above the i, I'm trying to class this place up a little)
February 13th, 2013
11:27 pm
hey 0311, I check in every now and then, good to see you are still here. I have been busy living the good life, I am truely blessed, I hope you are too.
getalie
February 13th, 2013
11:32 pm
hey 0311,
Marry me?
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
February 13th, 2013
11:37 pm
BADA:
You better believe it !
By the way, wonder if the “D” in dead is silent ??
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
February 13th, 2013
11:38 pm
getalife:
Recon and I got a room before.
It’s called a “barracks” !
Ever been inside one ?
getalie
February 13th, 2013
11:39 pm
I crush you like grape.
I tie you into pretzel!
getalife
February 13th, 2013
11:44 pm
“Recon and I got a room before.”
I don’t want to know that and think government should stay out of your bedroom too.
TMI.
Dawgs88
February 13th, 2013
11:45 pm
I have a question for all of you pro government liberals that believe higher education and increased federal investment in technology will increase jobs. If that’s the case then why is it that the current young generation, or Generation Y born between 1980-1999 (the most educated generation in American history), has the highest overall unemployment even though nearly 35% of them hold a bachelor’s degree and over 50% of them have at least an Associate’s Degree? Let’s see we had smaller government twenty five years ago and less government investment and we also had lower unemployment among younger Americans!!! Oh my God who woulda thunk it huh y’all?
Also, to add to Jay’s graphs did anyone consider what started happening around 1981? Oh yeah manufacturing jobs, especially in those lovely cesspool union states, began leaving the country in droves. I’m sure corrupt governments (like Detroit), high taxes and regulations, and oh and let us not forget grossly overpaid union employees had nothing to do with it right? If you go from making $40 an hour at a plant to $7 an hour at the local pizza place then yeah you’re moving down the chart.
Both parties are to blame. If you honestly think those d*ckhead Republicans and King Obama really give a flying crap about you and your daily lives you’re sadly mistaken. If Obama was so smart then he’d have a better record to prove it. If the Republicans ideas worked then the economy would not have collapsed under that looney tune Bush. JFK, Reagan, and Clinton were presidents who could agree and compromise to ideas that were maybe better than their own, and that’s why they had the success they did.
To sum it up for y’all;
“I’m going to reject my social security payments and pay for my aging parents’ healthcare out of my own pocket.” -said no Republican ever.
“I’m going to pay more in taxes and give most of my disposable income to someone less fortunate than myself voluntarily.” -said no Democrat ever.
Ya see the hypocrisy now ladies and gents?
getalie
February 13th, 2013
11:49 pm
I crush you like grape.
I tie you into pretzel!
TMI
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
February 13th, 2013
11:59 pm
getalife:
LOL !
Jack ®
February 14th, 2013
6:23 am
Medicare and Medicaid are suffering because those who contributed nothing are getting the same benefits as those who did; methods to spread the wealth. Obama’s mantra: we are going to have to share which means one group of citizens is going to have to pay to support another group.
Fred ™
February 14th, 2013
6:47 am
Thank you Jack for your morning driveby of hate filled lies. now you can go choke a puppy to top of the rest of your morning.
Common Sense isn't very Common
February 14th, 2013
6:49 am
Fred
I see Mr. Meoff was on at 6:23 again
Fred ™
February 14th, 2013
6:53 am
Yeah he does his early morning driveby with his turd bombs and then leaves it up to us to clean up the place………..
Common Sense isn't very Common
February 14th, 2013
6:56 am
Fred
Well he does have to catch the short bus to school soon
Fred ™
February 14th, 2013
7:04 am
Speaking of crappy……… I drive by the ChikFila in Tucker and I see a sign: Heart Shaped Biscuits on Thursday. So deciding to suck up a little i went to the CFA on North Lake (I live between them) thinking thye would have the same thing. Same place right? Wrong. SInce I had a time frame of 7.3 seconds for error I was stuck getting NON heart shaped biscuits for the girls. Had I know that I would have made my OWN damn biscuits.
Just another reason for me to hate that crappy place and their crappy food. But the girls didn’t care, they loved their chicken biscuit (big girl) and chicken nuggets (little girl) anyway.
guy
February 14th, 2013
7:21 am
Fred, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out of CFA. They will survive without you. All people like you do are bitch and complain,especially about those who you don’t agree with. Grow up! Don’t worry,be happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This isn’t a perfect world anyway.
stands for decibels
February 14th, 2013
7:35 am
mornin’.
I see Mr. Meoff was on at 6:23
Sure it wasn’t Mr. Officer?
Corbin Sharpe. I think, therefore I am...I think.
February 14th, 2013
7:45 am
Good morning all y’all…
We were “debating” the drone program earlier and I ran across this…
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2013/02/military-new-medal-for-drone-pilots-outranks-bronze-star-021313/
Seems the military likes the program, doesn’t it?
Fred ™
February 14th, 2013
7:45 am
guy
February 14th, 2013
7:21 am
Fred, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out of CFA. They will survive without you. All people like you do are bitch and complain,especially about those who you don’t agree with. Grow up! Don’t worry,be happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This isn’t a perfect world anyway.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Bite me troll. I DON’T like CFA, never had. Their fries are always cold and their food is over priced, nasty, full of salt, and their breading a biscuits are full of sugar. The ONLY thing there worth getting is the peach milkshake.
However, my girls love them so I will continue buying their crappy product for the girls.
As to you? How sad and pathetic you are to not only stalk me, but to have to make up new screen names to do it. Grow a set of balls loser.
stands for decibels
February 14th, 2013
7:47 am
The libs are scarred to death of Rubio so let’s see, not discuss his ideas and his terrific response to Obama’s speech.
Further evidence that there is a hardcore group of contributors to these threads who never, ever, actually read what Jay’s posted, or any of the replies to same.
(for the record, I’d not even seen the infamous water-bottle grab n gulp until I saw it replayed rather late last night, and don’t especially care, save for how some people were able to have a bit of fun with it.)
Fred ™
February 14th, 2013
7:48 am
Corbin; The REMF’s are always whining because while they are too cowardly to actually GO to combat, they want the glory of it.
Unless something has changed, the drivers of the drones are pilots. Although it’s been shown that a 10 year old with a joystick can fly those things, the officers weren’t happy having enlisted scum, non pilots doing the job, so they took it away.
TiredOfIt
February 14th, 2013
7:50 am
It’s 3 AM and president Rubio’s phone ringing, what’s his first action? Take a drink of water. The good news is, Rubio won’t be president.
julia
February 14th, 2013
7:51 am
typical Republican mind set, i got mine now to heck with everyone coming along behind me.
Brosephus™
February 14th, 2013
8:17 am
If that’s the case then why is it that the current young generation, or Generation Y born between 1980-1999 (the most educated generation in American history), has the highest overall unemployment even though nearly 35% of them hold a bachelor’s degree and over 50% of them have at least an Associate’s Degree?
Well, I don’t fit into the category of ” all of you pro government liberals that believe higher education and increased federal investment in technology will increase jobs”, but I think their unemployment levels have something to do with people staying in the workforce a lot longer than normal thanks to depleted retirement savings.
Not too long ago, the stock market took a serious nosedive, and many people who were close to retirement saw their savings disappear into thin air. My mom is one of those people, but she still had enough money diversified where she was still able to retire. Had our “stellar business leaders” not gotten so damned greedy that they nearly screwed the country into oblivion, my mom would likely have a much better stream of income coming from her 401k.
UNCLE SAMANTHA
February 14th, 2013
8:26 am
LIBERALS SHOULD BE ASHAMED BUT AREN’T…… THEIR HEADS ARE TOO FAR BURIED OR STUCK UP PLACES
WASHINGTON —
Outgoing Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue has some parting shots for Congress, the White House and advocates for seniors. They have all “really walked away from Social Security,” he says, leaving the program “fraying because of inattention to its problems.”
Instead of making the hard choices to fix Social Security’s financial problems, policymakers “use it as a tool of political rhetoric,” Astrue said.
Brosephus™
February 14th, 2013
8:31 am
GOP Problem sheetz!!!!!!!!!
Escaped from Email Purgatory
February 14th, 2013
8:41 am
I think all your points are well taken, Bookman.
The trends reflected in those graphs also show how we end up with a social crusader as our President.
There’s an equilibrium someplace between social Darwinism and a nanny state where there’s relative prosperity – or the opportunity for it – available to all willing to work for it. That’s what keeps the classes from each other’s throats.
In lean times like these, it’s always the other guy who’s the problem. Nothing gets accomplished without numeric superiority sufficient for one side to impose its will on the other (please see AHA).
That usually leads to repudiation when the next election cycle rolls around.
Obama’s leadership has done nothing to bring us together as a nation. Quite the contrary, he’s identified what’s wrong with America and the Americans responsible for those ills and he pledges revenge to those who will grant him their vote.
In victory, he’s hardly magnanimous. Great leaders are. See Mandela in South Africa after apartheid’s abolition; or Douglas McCarthur’s leadership in rebuilding Japan after WWII. To this point, Obama’s hardly acquitted himself as a competent leader, let along great.
The GOP is no better. Clearly, their tack was to obstruct even measures they supported (pre-Obama) in order to delay economic recovery so he’d be voted out after one term. Then the “grownups” would clean up his mess. How’ed that work out for them?
Washington DC is a room full of small men for going on 13 years now. I keep waiting for somebody to experience a growth spurt. It would be nice if it was my President.
I ain’t holding my breath.
JKL2
February 14th, 2013
8:57 am
-no doubt welcome high-quality pre-K programs of the sort advocated Tuesday night by Obama, because without it their children would have a much tougher time excelling in school.
That’s the ticket. Our children can’t learn anything unless they’re getting a check from the government. Their books are all broken. If you don’t buy me an iphone you’re a racist.