Marco Rubio could be a great president — if he keeps up the reckless binge-spending
Three cheers for a profligate president!
Marco Rubio has struggled with money during his life, according to an obnoxious tut-tutting New York Times profile. Among other things, he has a nice house, a nice car, and bought a "luxury speedboat" for $80,000 after he got a book advance for 10 times as much. More worrisome, he reportedly mingled personal and campaign funds in a possibly illegal way.
Insofar as Rubio may have broken campaign finance law, that's worth knowing (though whatever he's done surely pales in comparison to Jeb Bush's entire candidacy thus far). And it needs to be said that while an $80,000 boat is definitely a luxury purchase, it's not even close to a "luxury yacht" — it's more like a bass-fishing boat. But the upshot of the condescending Times piece is that Rubio's policy choices are somehow now in question. The implication goes like this: Despite giving lip service to fiscal conservatism, is Rubio actually a spendthrift who would sink America under a pile of debt?
Let's take this ridiculous question at face value for a moment. By that logic, the truth would actually be the exact opposite: Rubio's professed policy positions are lame and impossible while his personal life would be a pretty good model for government policy — if anything, he's not been nearly profligate enough. What America has needed for years is a drunken spending binge that would put King Croesus to shame.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Remarkably there are glimmers of hope within Rubio's policy platform. Unusually for a Republican, he has a tax plan that is actually within spitting distance of being measurable! Also unusually for Republicans, it involves some transfers of income to someone besides the rich. He co-wrote a tax plan with Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) to give a tax break to parents. It deliberately leaves out the poor, and pays out more the more money you make, but it's still better than the carried interest loophole.
It won't pass, of course, because it would blow up the deficit, and Republicans have rhetorically boxed themselves in there by posturing against Obama's supposedly spendthrift policy. Political non-starter, but at least a flicker of a not-horrible idea. D plus.
That brings me back to the personal angle. Rubio has had a "strikingly low savings rate" over the past 15 years, harrumphs the Times, its monocle dropping into its organic quinoa. But if he brought that tendency to the White House, so what? The opposite approach — austerity — is terrible policy in a depression. Rubio's personal foibles, if we take the supposed logic here seriously, are actually reason to upgrade our estimate of his presidential potential.
One of the most obnoxious habits in Very Serious political journalism is the instinctive equation of the government budget with a household budget. But while overspending is a problem for individuals because they might outstrip their income, the government can create arbitrary quantities of dollars, and has the best credit rating in existence. Thus, its major question when it comes to spending is whether it might create excessive inflation, or crowd out private activity through increased interest rates. On both counts, it has the opposite problem right now: too little inflation, mass unemployment, and rock-bottom interest rates.
Since 2010, when the inadequate-but-still-good Obama stimulus faded out, the greatest problem with American budget policy by far has been insufficient spending. For seven years, we've had cheap commodities and labor, borrowing costs that were literally less than nothing for years on end, and infrastructure badly in need of repair and upgrading. A Rubio-style spending spree is just what the doctor ordered.
Of course, Rubio wouldn't actually try to save America's crumbling infrastructure, much less try and bring it up to scratch with developed-world standards. But that's obvious due to his party affiliation, and nothing else. The Times' arch, preening "investigation" is incoherent nonsense.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.
-
Nigel Hamilton's 6 inspirational books for fellow writers
Feature The award-winning author recommends works by John Banville, Ann Patchett, and more
By The Week US Published
-
The winners and losers in Gaetz's rise and fall
The Explainer The implosion of Donald Trump's first pick to run the Department of Justice was part fluke, part feature and part forecast of the president-elect's incoming administration
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
6 outstanding homes for under $600K
Feature Featuring heated concrete floors in New Mexico and an outdoor movie screen in Washington, D.C.
By The Week Staff Published
-
US election: who the billionaires are backing
The Explainer More have endorsed Kamala Harris than Donald Trump, but among the 'ultra-rich' the split is more even
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
US election: where things stand with one week to go
The Explainer Harris' lead in the polls has been narrowing in Trump's favour, but her campaign remains 'cautiously optimistic'
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Is Trump okay?
Today's Big Question Former president's mental fitness and alleged cognitive decline firmly back in the spotlight after 'bizarre' town hall event
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
The life and times of Kamala Harris
The Explainer The vice-president is narrowly leading the race to become the next US president. How did she get to where she is now?
By The Week UK Published
-
Will 'weirdly civil' VP debate move dial in US election?
Today's Big Question 'Diametrically opposed' candidates showed 'a lot of commonality' on some issues, but offered competing visions for America's future and democracy
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
1 of 6 'Trump Train' drivers liable in Biden bus blockade
Speed Read Only one of the accused was found liable in the case concerning the deliberate slowing of a 2020 Biden campaign bus
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
How could J.D. Vance impact the special relationship?
Today's Big Question Trump's hawkish pick for VP said UK is the first 'truly Islamist country' with a nuclear weapon
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Biden, Trump urge calm after assassination attempt
Speed Reads A 20-year-old gunman grazed Trump's ear and fatally shot a rally attendee on Saturday
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published