Senator Marco Rubio, who is busy running for president, has the worst attendance record in the Senate and some in his home state are not happy about that.
One of Florida’s largest newspapers, The Sun Sentinel, blasted the freshman senator for continuing to collect a tax-payer funded paycheck while hardly showing up to do his day job and called on him to resign from the Senate. Rubio has missed nearly 60 votes while campaigning for president, according to the Sun Sentinel who endorsed his 2010 election.
“You are paid $174,000 per year to represent us, to fight for us, to solve our problems,” the blistering editorial reads. “You are ripping us off, senator.”
Rubio has made it no secret that he isn't a fan of Washington, D.C., having been elected as part of the 2010 Tea Party wave. During a recent interview, Rubio expressed the degree of his disgust for his current job. “I don’t know that ‘hate’ is the right word,” Rubio said, “I’m frustrated.”
But in a stunningly tone-deaf move, Rubio paid a rare visit to the Senate floor last week to blast federal employees for failing to do their jobs.
"This should actually be the rule in the entire government," he proposed, complaining of Veterans Affairs employees. "If you're not doing your job, you should be fired."
When asked to defend his harsh stance in light of his own voting record, Rubio shrugged off the importance of voting during a CNN interview. "Voting is not the only part of the Senate job. I mean the most important thing a Senator does is constituent service. We're still involved in looking out for Florida's issues."
Looks like The Sun Sentinel isn't buying Rubio's shtick.
Sorry, senator, but Floridians sent you to Washington to do a job. We’ve got serious problems with clogged highways, eroding beaches, flat Social Security checks and people who want to shut down the government.
Let us elect someone who wants to be there and earn an honest dollar for an honest day’s work. Don’t leave us without one of our two representatives in the Senate for the next 15 months or so.
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Two weeks ago, you took to the Senate floor to excoriate federal workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs for failing to do their jobs. You said, “there is really no other job in the country where if you don’t do your job, you don’t get fired.”
With the exception of your job, right?
Look, a lot us are frustrated by our jobs and office politics. But we still show up for work every day to earn a paycheck.
By choosing to stay in the Senate and get the publicity, perks and pay that go with the position — without doing the work — you are taking advantage of us.
[...]
Your job is to represent Floridians in the Senate.
Either do your job, Sen. Rubio, or resign it.
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