Marco Rubio: The Spin Doctor

Marco Rubio
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By Shawn Logan

Presidential hopeful Marco Rubio, currently a senator for the state of Florida, intends to simplify the tax code and scale back government regulations if appointed to the Oval Office in 2016. In order to decrease national debt, he wants to reform both Social Security and Medicare. At a speech in July, Rubio cited innovation and education as his main solutions for economic growth. He intends to break up the “cartel of existing colleges,” allowing less expensive higher education options to thrive. At the 1871 technology incubator, Rubio also cited the increase of minimum wage as “small thinking” and stated that he believes in scaling back taxes and federal economic regulations.

            While interviewing current university students from all over the country, many took issue with Rubio’s plan to accredit lower cost higher education options. Nicole Williams, a sophomore at Michigan State University, stated accrediting lower tuition schools is not enough to sway students away from the more expensive State schools and universities. “Students are looking at a university’s reputation and success rates in their particular major. Accrediting an institution with a lower tuition won’t be enough to change a student’s mind on an expensive, but high quality state school”.  Loyola University Chicago’s Marrin Gillespie, a freshman, also found a school’s reputation to be far more important than an accredited lower cost institution. Gillespie pointed out that “there are already free city colleges and accredited or not, students aren’t looking for them…students are looking for a college with a name brand, one that would provide them with an adequate education and a promising future ahead, that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg”. Gillespie stated that if Rubio wants her vote, “he should look into making larger state schools more affordable to those without the money to pay for them”. However, if it a faint praise existed amongst the students interviewed, it came from freshman Kiri Youngquist, of Beloit College, who feels as if “Rubio appears to be less radical than his fellow republican candidates”

Older voters have also taken issues with his economic planning, mainly his opinions on minimum wage. When asked about Rubio’s opinion on economics, Juan Calixto, age 43, a Chicago native, stated that Rubio’s thoughts on minimum wage are ridiculous. “It has been shown time in and time out that with an increase in minimum wage comes an increase in household spending, which when you think about it, puts more money back into our economy”. Calixo went on to voice that “Rubio is basically following the tired Reaganomics model of “trickle-down economics, which is not too promising considering how that turned out”. Juan’s sister, Annette, age 45, believes that “Rubio is quick witted, knowing exactly what to say to stir up some support”. However, Annette also feels as if “Rubio is dismissive of what is important”. She cited his comment about political experience not being of much importance as an “avoidance of his own lack of experience, applying misdirection when referring to Hilary Clinton as a bad example of having experience”.

 As for my opinion, while I find some of his ideas are of some substance, I think that he’s clearly pandering the Republican Party, taking jabs at those his Democratic opponents while avoiding questions concerning his own legitimacy. While he can surely spin his own web of possible solutions, I don’t think he really sees what is important to the common, lower to lower middle-class voter.