Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio's fiery comments on short-term federal budget extensions have earned him an influential supporter, should he consider a presidential run: talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh.
"Marco Rubio says, 'What is this continuing resolution crap? I didn't come in here to fund the government every two to three weeks,'" Limbaugh paraphrased on his program today. "I wish the guy would run for president."
Limbaugh's impassioned, though informal, endorsement can be heard below:
EDITOR'S NOTE: Limbaugh's comments include a couple of minor obscenities.
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Limbaugh was praising Rubio for announcing he would "no longer support short-term budget plans" that float federal spending while Congress continues to debate a fuller budget that – whether counting Republican or Democrat proposals – still includes hundreds of billions in deficit spending, something Rubio called "an absurd pattern that has clearly developed in Washington."
In a Red State editorial, Rubio declared, "All this has led to a very predictable outcome: Washington politicians of both parties scrambling to put together two- and three-week plans to keep funding the government, while not fundamentally changing the behavior that has gotten us into this mess to begin with."
He continued his blasts against the short-term continuing resolutions to extend spending, or CRs, as they're commonly called: "Running our government on the fumes of borrowed spending is unacceptable, short-sighted and dangerous. I commend the efforts of House and Senate Republican leaders to deal with this, but I did not come to the U.S. Senate to be part of some absurd political theatre."
Rubio joins a list of senators, including Rand Paul, R-Ky., Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, who Fox News reports have also vocalized opposition to the stopgap budget measures.
In the House, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., told reporters yesterday that House Republicans "hope and intend" for this week's vote on a three-week budget to be the final such extension.
Last week, Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., went further, pledging the same stance Rubio took yesterday: No more CRs.
"I will NOT be voting for another short-term CR," he tweeted, according to a Politico report. "There is a confrontation coming on this budget, and the sooner we get to it the better."
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