Many political experts are saying that Florida Senator Marco Rubio was one of the big winners at the last GOP debate. From his deft handling of criticisms issued by Jeb Bush regarding his missing so many votes in the Senate to his strong rhetoric about the questions asked by the panel, Rubio seemed to have a breakout performance.

But he also attempted to swat away a line of questioning about his financial mismanagement over the years, calling them “discredited attacks.”

However, Poltifact had this to say about Rubio’s quick dismissal of the queries into his lack of money skills:

“Rubio’s response was to dismiss all of Quick’s examples as partisan smear tactics: ‘Well, you just listed a litany of discredited attacks from Democrats and my political opponents, and I’m not gonna waste 60 seconds detailing them all.’ He then went on to detail his blue-collar upbringing with immigrant parents. The response made us pause, because we wondered what had been “discredited” about Rubio’s widely reported financial mishaps. In this context, ‘discredited’ means the things Quick said are not true or accurate.”

But Rubio has at least four skeletons in his closet which will no doubt come to light as his competitors begin to turn up the heat on him. And should Rubio wind up as the GOP nominee, these four facts could well give voters second thoughts about entrusting the Senator with the finances of the largest economy in the world. No doubt the Senator was hoping these facts had never sufaced:

1. When he was in the Florida legislature, Rubio commingled his personal finances with the finances of his political committees. An investigation found that Rubio paid his wife Jeanette $5,700 for “gas and meals” while giving his relatives another $14,000.

2. Rubio also charged thousands of dollars worth of restaurant meals to a credit card issued to him by the Republican Party of Florida while the cost of his meals was being covered by Florida taxpayers. That is called double billing.

3. Rubio bought a house in Tallahassee, Florida, with his friend state Rep. David Rivera. Rivera failed to make mortgage payments on the house, and was then sued by Deutsche Bank for $136,000 as foreclosure proceedings began, soon to be stopped by a quick payment from Rivera. Rivera ended up in an ethics investigation and Rubio nationally. 

4. Rubio liquidated a $68,000 retirement fund in 2014, costing himself thousands and taxes and penalties – apparently because he needed access to the cash despite his $174,000 Senate salary. When he was asked about this by Fox News, Rubio said he needed the money to replace an air conditioning unit and for “college” for his children (his oldest child is 15, the others are 13, 10, and 8).

And now this guy wants to be handed the keys to a $17 trillion economy? I wouldn’t trust him to balance my checkbook!

h/t AddictingInfo

This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.