Don’t preach “fiscal responsibility” unless you live it in your own life

“It’s not just good enough to say, you know what, we think Barack Obama’s doing a bad job. You’ve got to say what you would do instead. And I think there’s so much to be done, whether it’s stop the growth of the federal government, stop spending money we don’t have.” [Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio of Florida, appearing on CNBC, 1/12/10]

While Marco Rubio may genuinely believe the government should stop spending money it doesn’t have, someone ought to tell Rubio to follow his own advice, as a home he owns in Tallahassee, Florida went into foreclosure after Rubio and David Rivera, the co-owner of the home, failed to make payments on the home for five consecutive months. What’s more, this isn’t the first time Rubio has come under fire for his fiscal irresponsibility:

As House speaker, Rubio faced questions about his failure to disclose a $135,000 home-equity loan from a bank controlled by his political supporters. He also charged $16,000 in personal expenses, including a $135 expense at a Miami salon, on a state Republican Party credit card, and earlier this year, he refunded nearly $3,000 for flights he double-billed to taxpayers and the party.

If conservatives are going to preach about fiscal responsibility in government, perhaps they should start in their own personal lives. After all, if someone like Marco Rubio can’t be more responsible with his own money, how can anyone expect him to be responsible with other peoples’ money?

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10 thoughts on “Don’t preach “fiscal responsibility” unless you live it in your own life

  1. Nice idea for a post.
    and hmmm.. your title shows up normally in the feed but Lol on this page it’s Auto Draft?
    anyway – popular bloggers should play around with their timestamps and auto-publishing a lot. Maybe screencap some Rep bloggers posts and Photoshop false and/or ridiculous timestamps on to the posts as EVIDENCE. har har

    you know – just to make the point about that (was his name, Capper i guess) big huge (lulz) TIMESTAMP SCANDAL
    or I could Photoshop Sykes in a nasty pose with a hooker or 3. We’ll see, if I have time. But in crises, one must be creative (and insane!)with one’s response, eh?
    🙂 but yeah Blue Boy, nice post

    1. Turns out, the “Auto Draft” title you saw is due to some sort of coding problem between WordPress 3.0 and the theme I’m running (Atahualpa).

  2. Even if you give the dude a pass on his personal finances, the fact he’s playing free and loose with party funds and gov’t funds has got to be a bif red flag.

    1. Yeah, that’s not the kind of guy I want making decisions when it comes to how my tax dollars are spent; that’s for sure.

    1. Well, it seemed to work out just fine, until I discovered that glitch with WordPress 3.0 and my current theme. It’s not a major issue; it just requires one extra step before I post.

  3. Yeah, where are the candidates who paid off their student loans ahead of time, own their cars, pay income taxes, pay their mortgage, pay their property taxes, and live within their means? Oh wait…

    If you can’t manage a budget with two or three zeros why should anyone trust you to manage a budget with nine to twelve zeros?

    We must demand better.

    1. I agree; we do need to demand better. I don’t expect my elected officials to be perfect, but I would like someone who at least can balance their own checkbook.

  4. So what’s better? A guy who says government should be fiscally responsible but has money problems of his own or a guy who preaches we need to “tighten our belts” and is spending money faster than all presidents in history? I can tell you I didn’t vote for the second guy, but I’m pretty sure you did.

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