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Rubio launches blast at Obama on debt

Posted Jan 6, 2012 by William March

Updated Jan 6, 2012 at 07:28 PM

Acting much like the presidential running mate he says he isn’t, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has sent a scathing open letter to President Barack Obama vowing to oppose any further increase in the U.S. debt ceiling, and that the country is coming to be viewed as “a deadbeat nation.”

“The first three years of your presidency have been a profile in leadership failure,” Rubio said in the letter, published in a news release by his Reclaim America PAC. “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 to a diminished future.”

As result of the debt, Rubio said, “more and more people have come to believe that America is becoming a deadbeat nation.” and that he’ll oppose any debt ceiling increase unless it is “accompanied by a real plan to tackle our debt.”

According to news reports, Obama plans to ask Congress for a $1.2 trillion increase in the debt ceiling, allowing the national debt to go as high as $16.4 trillion. The increase is the third of three allowed under the budget agreement reached by the administration and Congress after the “debt ceiling crisis” in August, in which Congress nearly refused to approve a new debt ceiling, threatening U.S. default on debts.