Marco Rubio Is In …

… BUT HE’S NO FRIEND OF FREEDOM OR FREE MARKETS

|| By FITSNEWS ||  Three years ago, this website would have viewed a presidential announcement from U.S. Senator Marco Rubio as a good thing.  Along with fellow Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul – who have already announced their 2016 candidacies (here and here) – Rubio entered the U.S. Senate in 2010 with a head of steam.

And to his credit, he’s been far more consistent on fiscal issues than the vast majority of “Republicans” when it comes to fiscal policy.

But the more we learn about this “conservative,” the less we like.

First, we discovered Rubio’s support for market-distorting government sugar subsidies – which is ostensibly explained away by the fact Rubio represents Florida, which is home to a powerful sugar lobby.

Rubio’s sugar subsidy sellout is eerily similar to U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford‘s recent sellout on subsidies for aircraft manufacturer Boeing – which operates a manufacturing facility in his district.

Both of these politicians like to talk a big game about being “conservative” and “pro-free market,” but when it came time to actually stand on those principles – they whored themselves out to the crony capitalists.

That’s not leadership … it’s cowardice.  And betrayal.  And one of the main reasons nothing ever changes in Washington, D.C.

Rubio’s lack of consistency on free markets has been accompanied by an even more disturbing lack of consistency on liberty.

Last year, for example, he attacked whistleblower Edward Snowden for having the audacity to let Americans know that their government was spying on them.

Then there’s Rubio’s anti-freedom, anti-free market position in support of America’s failed war on drugs … and his anti-taxpayer foreign policy (like U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, Rubio is a rabid “neoconservative”).

“I disagree with voices in my own party who argue we should not engage at all, who warn we should heed the words of John Quincy Adams not to go ‘abroad, in search of monsters to destroy,'” he said.

Again … no one is saying America should “not engage at all,” we’re simply saying the current “invade everybody” doctrine espoused by Graham, Rubio and others is something American simply cannot afford.  Something that hasn’t – and will not – make us safer.

But Rubio doesn’t see it that way …

Despite a struggling economy and skyrocketing debt, he still sees visions of empire.

“In every region of the world, we should always search for ways to use U.S. aid and humanitarian assistance to strengthen our influence, the effectiveness of our leadership, and the service of our interests and ideals,” he said.

That’s scary … and delusional.

Add it all up and Rubio – who was swept into office on a Tea Party wave – has become a part of the establishment.  Which is probably why he’s hired the preeminent establishment “Republican” to run his South Carolina campaign.

The only good thing we can say about the guy?  He’s been an effective critic of Hillary Clinton – the presumed Democratic nominee.

“Just yesterday, a leader from yesterday began a campaign for President by promising to take us back to yesterday,” Rubio said of Clinton – whose presidential announcement was made the day before his. “But yesterday is over, and we are never going back.”

Actually, yes we are going back … whether a Democrat or establishment “Republican” wins in 2016 … we are going backward in every way imaginable in this country.

And a big reason for the backwardness is because “conservatives” like Marco Rubio simply aren’t that much different than the “liberal” Democrats they’re attacking.

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