Posted on 11/02/2015 3:16:19 PM PST by conservativejoy
At the debate last night Marco Rubio was asked a question about his personal finances and how he always seemed to be out of money. He turned the question around by talking about how poor he was, and the audience clapped like seals. We were treated to the intriguing spectacle of the establishment media praising how he took on the establishment media, which to me looks more than a little suspect.
The fact is that Marco Rubio wasnt always so poor. Rubio got an $800,000 advance for a book deal, an unheard of sum for a book from a first term senator. It looks more like a payment to Rubio then an advance that a publisher expected to get back; the book sold less than 8,000 hardcover copies, hardly a bestseller. In any event, Rubio got a lot of money from the book, and even more from a billionaire who paid for Rubios salary for some time.
Rubios biggest supporter is a billionaire car dealer named Norman Braman. When Mr. Rubio left state government, determined to shore up his finances before running for the United States Senate, he landed a teaching job at Florida International University, agreeing to raise much of his salary through private donations. Mr. Braman gave $100,000. In the spring of 2010, as Mr. Braman was donating heavily to Mr. Rubios Senate campaign, his company, Braman Management, hired Mr. Rubio as a lawyer for seven months. According to records provided by Mr. Braman, the company paid Mr. Rubio until a week before he was sworn in as a senator. Four months after Mr. Rubio left the payroll, Mr. Braman hired Mr. Rubios wife, Jeanette, who had little professional experience in philanthropy, and her company, JDR Events, to advise the Braman foundation.
And yet, despite all this money coming in, and all his rich patrons, Rubio still had money trouble, and was deeply in debt.
He got an $800,000 advance on a book deal. But instead of using all of the money responsibly, Rubio went out and bought a $80,000 speedboat.
The Times notes that despite the senator's financial woes, Rubio also leased a $50,000 Audi Q7 SUV. In 2006, the Tampa Bay Times describedRubio as 'barely solvent.'
During his run for Senate several years later, the Florida senator was forced to defend his record after revelationsthat he put thousands of personal charges, including hair cuts, liquor-store runs, and a $10,000 family vacation on campaign and Florida Republican Party credit cards.
According to The Times, in the early 2000s, the now presidential candidate bought several homes, putting no money down.
On the eve of his presidential announcement, Rubio cashed out his $68,000 retirement savings to pay bills for a broken refrigerator, air-conditioning unit, and his kids private-school tuition. The transaction incurs a significant tax penalty that could cost Rubio $24,000.
Why does any of this matter? If Rubio cant manage his own personal finances, it is unlikely he will be even more responsible with our finances if he gets elected President.
I view Marco Rubio as a lightweight, not because he had a 2.1 GPA, and not because he sounds nervous when he talks, blinking rapidly and talking a mile a minute, but rather because he has never presented serious solutions to our economic problems. To me it looks like he's been playing around in the Senate, tried to push amnesty, failed, got bored and stopped showing up for work even before he ran for President, and now either wants to be President (or, more likely, VP) or go back into the private sector so he can make enough money to buy more fancy boats and cars. But he doesn't look like Presidential material to me, no matter how many memorized speeches he delivers monotone in front of a camera, blinking constantly as if to put himself into a semi-hypnotic state to remember what he was supposed to say.
Does anybody think this guy needs to be in charge when we’ll have a 20 trillion dollar deficit?
As for right now, he should endorse Ted Cruz.
As for right now, he should endorse Ted Cruz.
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Yes he should....but he won’t. He’ll stay until the bitter end IMHO and pretend to be a conservative. I wouldn’t trust this duplicitous traitor & Amnesty proponent further than I could spit into the wind (which I never do).
Hell, I’ll let anybody balance my checkbook. After seven years of Obama, there ain’t nuthin’ in it, anyhow.
Neglectful accounting and administrative mismanagement is not a problem whatsoever. At least that’s what the justice department concluded regarding the IRS, so I really can’t expect much more of Rubio now can I?
yeah but he’s definitely for amnesty and i fear he can be bought.
i’m not good with my finances but my fiance gives me authority over her portfolio and i NEVER gamble with her money. it is spread around at a healthy percentage for a woman her age.
2.1 gpa? yikes!
bored being senator? maybe?
I sure wish they would’ve vetted Hussein like this.
No. I don’t trust him.
Nope, and it seems there is a lot of dirt on Rubio.
When one of you sources is the Tampa Bay Times you have got a major creditability problem. That rag is a DNC mouth piece.
Balance my checkbook???
On his nose? Like a seal??
I don’t want Rubio, but this is a hit piece. If I get an $800,000 advance, I can buy an $80,000 speed boat. Leasing a $50,000 car does not cost $50,000. And borrowing or using his own retirement funds which he earned is his own damn business.
Obviously, living off rich supporters is a bigger issue. But I wouldn’t care, if he did not support illegal immigration.
Paul Ryan isn’t anyone I would want either.
As for right now, he should endorse Ted Cruz.
If Rubio polled lower then Cruz then yes he should endorse Cruz, but since Cruz is lower then Rubio maybe Cruz should get out and endorse Rubio. No I am not for either of them but it doesn’t make sense for Rubio to leave and give Cruz an endorsement when he is higher. Trump is our guy that needs the nominee.
Never send a Boy to do a Man’s job.
Isn’t that the truth? Some did vet Hussein, but the MSM wasn’t interested.
I’m not so concerned about his personal finances as such; lots of people have surprisingly poorly-run personal lives despite performing very well in their professional ones.
I am more worried about the fact that he seems so desperate for funding that he cozies up to notorious open-borders financiers and other such donors.
And the question is - in exchange for what?
Rubio would hire an illegal to do the job for him...probably using common core.
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