Responding to buzz that President Barack Obama will seek to raise the federal debt ceiling yet again, on Friday Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio -- after vaulting into national prominence during the 2010 campaign cycle and being a leading vice presidential possibility for the 2012 Republican ticket -- called out the Democrat incumbent in a strongly worded letter challenging the president's competence.

Rubio sent a letter to Obama on Friday, asking about reports that the administration plans to ask Congress to raise the debt ceiling to more than $16 trillion.

“This pending request will be the sixth time during your presidency that Congress is being asked to keep allowing government and spending to grow at rates that are unsustainable. In other words, you have made it a routine part of your job to ask for more room to spend without any plan to reduce our debt,” Rubio wrote. “Instead of making debt-ceiling increases a routine Washington exercise, we need to make it routine to actually spend no more than we take in. Until then, I will oppose your request to continue borrowing and spending recklessly.

“I will oppose a debt-ceiling increase unless such an authorization is accompanied by a real plan to tackle our debt,” Rubio continued. “Ideally, such a plan would feature both pro-growth elements and spending restraints, including fundamental tax reform, regulatory reform, meaningful cuts to discretionary spending, a balanced-budget amendment, and reforms to save Social Security and Medicare.”

Rubio insisted that such a plan would have sped up economic recovery.

“If we had done this in mid-2011 when we last debated the debt ceiling, we could have set America on a path to economic growth and prosperity,” Rubio argued. “This would have led to more jobs and, in turn, to more duly employed taxpayers generating more growth-driven revenue to help us pay down our debt. Instead, you failed to lead, punted the tough decisions and, in doing so, our credit rating was downgraded for the first time in our history.

The senator from Florida ripped into Obama, attacking his leadership in the White House and reminding the president of what he had said during his time in the U.S. Senate.
 
“It's a tragic reality but, on your watch, more and more people have come to believe that America is becoming a deadbeat nation inevitably heading toward a European-style debt crisis,” Rubio wrote. “When you served in the Senate in 2006, you called raising the debt limit ‘a sign of leadership failure.’ Using your own standard, this request will mark your sixth ‘sign of leadership failure’ on the debt-ceiling issue alone. Throughout our history, Americans have revered courageous leaders and celebrated them as profiles in courage. Unfortunately, the first three years of your presidency have been a profile in leadership failure.”

Rubio also waded into the 2012 presidential election, offering harsh words for Obama.

“While you may choose to run your re-election campaign against a ‘do-nothing Congress,' your insistence on doing nothing to meaningfully tackle our debt poses a direct threat to America’s exceptional character and is leading us toward a diminished future,” Rubio wrote. “America deserves leaders who will stand front and center, level with the American people about our challenges and offer real solutions to solve them. Instead of simply asking for another debt-ceiling increase, I urge you to come forward with a real plan to tackle our debt in 2012.”

 

Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.