In GOP, Rubio Best for Middle Class

It is a shame that the Republican most helpful to the middle class has been dwarfed by the supposed populist Donald Trump. Senator Marco Rubio has crafted the tax-cut plan most helpful for Trump voters. Rubio’s expanded child credit would reduce the tax burden of working-class families. Rubio has also acknowledged the reality that vocational training may be a better financial investment for some than college. He has crafted plans to allow for more financial assistance to those types of programs.

Rubio has become better known for his specific plan to defeat ISIS, or explaining the nuclear triad to Mr. Trump during a recent debate. The Senator’s pro-life convictions are also abundantly clear. If he wins Florida, Rubio may even steal Bill Clinton’s comeback kid reputation. Yet, it is a travesty that Rubio’s economic proposals are not better known, in part, due to a media obsessed with the New York billionaire.

Sure, Trump’s vague promises to stick it to China feel good, but will he really be able to undo NAFTA and magically bring back millions of manufacturing jobs? I grew up in Michigan and I wish he would, but he can’t and he knows it. Yet, he preys on people who have lost hope about our country’s economy. Trump’s lack of specific proposals indicate how little good he would achieve as President on behalf of the American people. [How much evil he would do is unknown but depends on how seriously we should take his quoting Mussolini and keeping Hitler next to his bedside.]

With $19 trillion worth of national debt, a debt crisis is not out of question in the next five years. Yet, in comparison to Rubio’s tax plan, Trump’s would add an additional $2.7 trillion of debt over the next decade. Should the U.S. government be unable to pay the interest on debt, the default will hit the working and middle classes most. Is Trump’s tax cut so expensive to help the middle class? No. As opposed to Rubio’s 35% top tax bracket, Trump lowers the tax on the wealthiest to 25%. Whereas Rubio lowers the corporate tax rate to 25%, Trump would take it down to 15%. Trump is no friend of the middle class or of the working class. Mitt Romney’s recent call to have Mr. Trump release his tax records was significant. Trump’s tax records would probably shine more light on how helpful Mr. Trump is to himself at the expense of hard-working Americans who pay their fair share of taxes.

Trump’s rhetoric somehow suggests that he will fight for average Americans. This is not true. He will only fight for himself and his fellow billionaires. That is fine but let us not pretend otherwise. But, if somebody wants a champion for hard-working American families, that man is Marco Rubio, not the celebrity clown posing as a populist.