Marco Rubio: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:36, 14 June 2017

Iraq War Falsehoods

At a 2016 last Republican debate, he attempted to justify George W. Bush invading Iraq: “No matter what you want to say about weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein was in violation of UN resolutions, in open violation, and the world wouldn’t do anything about it, and George W. Bush enforced what the international community refused to do.”

Stephen Zunes is a professor of politics and coordinator of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco. He debunked Rubio's claim: "Sen. Marco Rubio’s claim that at the time of the March 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq that Saddam Hussein was ‘in open violation’ of U.N. resolutions and that the international community refused to act is completely false. The Iraqi government had in fact been in full compliance with UN Security Council resolutions regarding the elimination of their chemical and biological weapons, their chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs, their long-range missiles, and other proscribed weapons and weapons systems and were allowing United Nations inspectors unfettered access to confirm they had done so." From IPA news release http://www.accuracy.org/release/48475/

Top Donors

Here is a list of Rubio's top donors over the course of his political career, going back to 2009.

1. Club for Growth-$362,826

2. Elliott Management-$117,620

3. Senate Conservatives Fund-$105,494

4. Goldman Sachs-$90,642

5. Florida Crystals-$81,100

6. MCM Corp-$58,400

7. NextEra Energy-$44,290

8. Koch Industries-$42,200

9. Sun Capital Partners-$41,600

10. GEO Group-$41,500

On Climate Change

Rubio has evolved on the issue of climate change, running toward the right wing, climate change denying faction of the Republican Party as his national prominence has grown. In 2007, Rubio, then a member of the Florida Legislature said about the issue of climate change. "Global warming, dependence on foreign sources of fuel, and capitalism have come together to create opportunities for us that were unimaginable just a few short years ago...Florida has the opportunity to pursue bold energy policies, not just because they are good for our environment, but because people can actually make money at doing it. This nation, and ultimately the world, is headed towards emission caps and energy diversification." 2007

However, by 2009, Rubio had walked back his initial views on climate change, stating: "I'm not a scientist. I'm not qualified to make that decision. There's a significant scientific dispute about that [climate change]." 2009

"I don't think there's the scientific evidence to justify it [climate change]," 2010

By 2014, Rubio had gone even farther along the climate change denial spectrum saying, "I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it," he said. "And I do not believe that the laws that they propose we pass will do anything about it. Except it will destroy our economy." 2014

"Humans are not responsible for climate change in the way some of these people out there are trying to make us believe, for the following reason: I believe the climate is changing because there’s never been a moment where the climate is not changing. The question is, what percentage of that … is due to human activity? If we do the things they want us to do, cap-and-trade, you name it, how much will that change the pace of climate change versus how much will that cost to our economy? Scientists can’t tell us what impact it would have on reversing these changes, but I can tell you with certainty, it would have a devastating impact on our economy." 2015 on Face The Nation