The media was breathlessly covering Dr. Ben Carson last week, leaving Marco Rubio’s time in the spotlight hanging. After all, before they’d caught wind of the slight difference between a “full scholarship” (which military academies do seem to offer, actually, contrary to my earlier statements and according to their websites), and Dr. Carson’s own offer, they were poring over Marco Rubio’s bank statements, scratching their coddled heads and wondering how anyone in America could possibly have five-figure credit card debt.
Rubio had a Republican Party of Florida American Express for approximately four years, January 2005 to December 2008. That amounted to 1,307 charges in that period, for a total of $182,072.55, in total. In the previously unreleased period of January 2005 to October 2006, Rubio spent $64,777.82 on 484 charges.
“Marco paid his personal charges directly to American Express. The Republican Party of Florida did not pay for any of Marco’s personal expenses. Further, taxpayer funds were not used for any political or personal charges on the card,” the report was careful to note.
“These statements are more than 10 years old, and the only people who ask about them today are the liberal media and our political opponents,” senior Rubio strategist Todd Harris said. “We are releasing them now because Marco has nothing to hide.”
When you consider that candidates often pay for their own airfare and hotel, sometimes for multiple people, things can get expensive quickly. According to the report, Rubio used his own personal credit card for personal expenses — or, at least, he separated his own personal expenses and paid those directly — and the majority of the $100K or so was, in fact, campaign expenditures. He did spend a lot, but it’s not as though he was able to get, say, major public universities to foot a quarter million every time he wanted to give a speech.
Like with much of the “dirt” that’s been dug up on Rubio, the credit debt sort of makes him look like your average, everyday American, though according to the media, it’s de facto evidence that he’s not fiscally responsible. I can’t say one way or the other; if he was spending the money on his campaign, and he made smart financial decisions, the number would make sense. If he was spending lavishly on new cars, fancy vacations and a wardrobe of pantsuits, the assessment might be correct. But the important thing here is that media didn’t give Marco the benefit of the doubt. Whereas, when it came to light that Bernie Sanders and his wife racked up tens of thousands in personal expenses on personal credit cards, well, Bernie is just emblematic of the common man.
Bernie Sanders on Thursday reported less than $750,000 in assets — all of it in his wife’s name — according to his presidential personal financial disclosure form.
The Vermont senator, mounting a liberal insurgent campaign against front-runner Hillary Clinton, also listed between $25,002-$65,000 in credit card debt on his Visa cards.
Bernie still seems to make more than Rubio, with a net worth that’s low for Congress but still pushing close to a million in assets. He has a couple of rental properties, his Congressional salary and, apparently, some very interesting — if not wholly socialist — spending habits. On Face the Nation, Bernie insisted that his finances were under control, which it’s possible they are, and that he and his wife were just average Americans looking to claw their way to the top using other peoples’ money.
