Senator Marco Rubio Bravely Punches Down at a Politico Intern

Marco Rubio told The Economist in an interview last Monday that he was skeptical the GOP tax bill is benefiting working-class Americans. “There’s no evidence whatsoever that the money’s been massively poured back into the American worker,” Rubio, who voted for this bill, said. Then, after facing tons of backlash from his own party, Rubio penned an op-ed in the National Review on Wednesday arguing that, actually, “On the whole, the tax cut bill helps workers.”

Enter some poor Politico intern named Quint, who blogged the very clear news that Rubio had indeed walked back his criticism of the tax bill in a post headlined: “Rubio walks back criticism of GOP tax law.” (And now, the irony is not lost that some poor blogger named Clio is blogging about this blog.)

Rubio decided to respond by punching down at the intern who wrote the post, tweeting his disapproval with a nicely delegitimizing “although.”

To be fair, Rubio tried to clarify in his op-ed that corporate tax cuts aren’t a silver bullet to creating jobs—which is true! But it’s still dubious at best to argue that your work getting a child tax credit into the bill—a benefit that largely leaves low-income families in the dust—and voting for cuts that, a decade from now, will end up raising everyday Americans’ taxes while keeping tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy intact “helps workers.”