The Scary Worldview of Marco Rubio

Beth Reinhard has written a must-read piece on Marco Rubio. Reinhard outlines Rubio's policy positions. We learn what Rubio stands for is very scary.

*Marco Rubio doesn't have an opinion on Barack Obama's citizenship status. Rubio either lacks the political courage to state his view or lacks the intellectual capacity to formulate an opinion.

* Rubio supports abolishing the income tax. Rubio proposes a national sales tax. A Cato Institute study found that a national sales tax would be regressive.

The incidence of the tax burden under this reform depends in important ways on the measure of household well-being. If annual income is used to rank households, the tax reform looks very regressive. If lifetime income is used to rank households, the tax reform continues to look regressive, though much less so than when the annual income approach is used. If a universal rebate tied to poverty thresholds is coupled with the national sales tax, as is the case in the Schaefer-Tauzin bill (H.R. 2001), the sales tax is about as progressive as the current income tax. Alternatively, if a payroll tax rebate is provided to low-income families, the new system is only slightly less progressive than the current income tax system.

Rubio does not support progressive tax proposals. Rubio has pushed flat tax policies. Rubio (if he can't abolish the IRS) want a simplified tax code. Every American would be taxed equally. It sounds nice on paper. It works badly in practice. Florida has no income tax and is bleeding debt. Sales tax revenue was hurt during the recession. A national sales tax would hurt the economically disadvantaged. Imagine paying 50 cents on every dollar of groceries. That gives you an idea of how sales taxes would increase under Rubio.

* Rubio want Roe v. Wade overturned. The less government Rubio believes government owns women's uteruses.

* Rubio tells conservatives climate change legislation will make America the "cleanest third world country on the planet." Rubio also supports drilling off of Florida's coast. The Daily News editorial board was shocked to learn Rubio did not know the military was using the coast for exercises.

But he was unaware of military officials’ concern about expanded drilling, which complicates the issue here on the Emerald Coast. In June, the commander of Eglin Air Force Base’s Air Armament Center told our editorial board that more drilling in water ranges that are used for training will, “at some point,” have an impact on national defense.

Mr. Rubio said he would have to research the matter.

The Miami resident also seemed unfamiliar with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s recent shutdown of amberjack fishing, which has riled folks in Destin. The most he could muster was a one-size-fits-all observation that federal officials were “overreaching.”

* Rubio believes the best way to reform health care is to trust private insurers.



Rubio: "And the key is can we get this insurance independent of our employer. The way I buy my auto insurance and my life insurance, and I think a private market, that the government stays out of the way can offer these things."

The problem is many Americans either can not afford health insurance or are denied because preexisting conditions. Rubio provides no policy details on how the private market will provide health insurance to people they previously denied. Rubio doesn't do policy. He is a intellectually lazy conservative ideologue.