Marco Rubio and wife Jeanette talk of politics, family and faith

WEST MIAMI — Marco and Jeanette Rubio, sitting side by side on their brown sofa in their sunny house, could be any young couple musing about life: juggling four kids, a job that separates them, aging parents, their faith and whether or not to move.

Only they’re not just any couple. At 40, he is the most prominent Latino in national politics today, and a widely touted prospect to be Mitt Romney’s running mate. She is a shy, behind-the-scenes booster married to her high school sweetheart who has never given a speech and bristles when the media reduces her life to a brief stint as a Miami Dolphins cheerleader.

Whether Marco Rubio is on the 2012 ticket this year or not, he and his wife are moving into rarefied air in American politics; he’ll be at the top of the 2016 list of GOP contenders if Romney loses. In an exclusive 90-minute interview with POLITICO — Jeanette’s first-ever extended interview — the couple seems to believe they are ready for the invasive tsunami of press coverage and vetting that could sweep over them at any minute while at the same time realizing they can never truly be braced.

“I’m prepared for the idea that no matter what he does — especially when there’s talk of him being the VP candidate — that (there) are things that are going to come out,” says Jeanette Dousdebes Rubio, 38. “And through the Senate campaign, we already went through a lot. … That really prepared us, or at least me.”

Indeed, Marco Rubio is ubiquitous these days, raising his profile through national television interviews, a foreign policy address and coming to your Kindle soon, his personal memoir, An American Son. There is also an unauthorized biography coming out on the same day by Washington Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia entitled, The Rise of Marco Rubio.

This is definitely Marco’s moment, and regardless of what happens in the next few months, Rubio knows that this “Meet the Rubios” flash is his opportunity to address skeptics and define himself politically and personally before anyone else does it for him. His forthcoming book, he says, will offer details about growing up as the son of Cuban immigrants, meeting his wife and his faith.

His wife has largely eschewed the spotlight, purposefully choosing to focus her energy and time on keeping a “balance” for their children. In fact, so rare were her appearances during the Senate campaign that the local media felt compelled to note when she showed up — even if she failed to utter a word.

“I’m not pushing myself out there. I need to be with (the) kids just to give them that balance,” Jeanette Rubio explains. “If he’s out there, I feel like I have to be here for them, to give them that reality.”

But she says that “in the future, if I have to do it, of course I’ll do it. But in general, I am shy.”

Those who know the couple say that while Jeanette prefers to remain offstage, she is an integral part of everything he does. She says she actually likes campaigning — when she can get away. “You meet a lot of different people and you hear their stories. The part that’s difficult, I think, in campaigning is the part where you have to deal with the negativity that comes,” she says. “It puts a lot of strain on the family.”

Marco Rubio writes in his book that when his long-shot quest for the Senate in 2010 was mired in the accusations of financial malfeasance, Jeanette convinced him not to drop out. “There were times that he said, ‘I don’t want to do this,’ and I just encouraged him,” she says. “I really believe that when things are hardest — those things make you stronger.”

When he is not playing his increasingly large role on the national stage, he and Jeanette and their children, ages 4 to 12, live in this Hispanic enclave, a shielded bubble in a transient world. Their house is a stone’s throw from the recreational center where the couple met as teenagers 22 years ago. His mother and sister live three blocks away, in the house where he grew up. Her mother is a 10-minute drive away. Their children have a dozen cousins living within 5 miles. “At the end of the day, I have a network — I have my family, my friends that help me when I can’t do it,” says Jeanette about her husband being in Washington all week. “I don’t have a nanny or anything like that. I have my family.”

There is nothing opulent about their home, but it is warm and bright and simply decorated with white and brown furniture. In the driveway sits the senator’s black pickup that he uses for weekend errands. “By the way, sorry for the patches (on the wall),” he offers. “They’re painting here.”

They have talked and talked about moving the family to Washington — and even looked at houses to rent in Virginia last year — but it’s a tough call for them. “My mom is older now and I need to get back and see her — and I want to be in touch with our state,” he says. “Our whole support network is here. … I mean, I’d like for them to be there, if we can work it out.”

“It’s hard for him,” she says. “But it’s a question of whether we should uproot everyone when our life is here.”

The Rubios both attended South Miami Senior High School, but they didn’t meet until a couple of years after he graduated, when he was 19 and she was 17.

Their story in their own words:

Her: “I was at the (West Miami Recreation Center) one day playing volleyball and he spotted me.”

Him: “I did the background work first — who is she, what is she all about. I had actually seen her before that.”

Her: “But I didn’t know that he had seen me.”

Him: “Her younger sister was dating a kid who lives two doors down from me, and one day I happened to be with him and he went by his girlfriend’s house, and she answered the door.”

Her: “So he asked questions and friends put something together where we would go to the movies and he would sit next to me and then — you know, coincidentally. Throughout the whole movie he would start talking to me, which I thought was a little annoying.”

They started dating shortly after, but Marco was heading to the University of Florida in Gainesville in the fall, which forced a long-distance romance in an era of few cell phones, no Internet, no Skype.

Him: “It was harder and harder for me even to stay up there on the weekends, just because I wanted to be back here. So I would write these really long letters.”

Her: “One of the letters that he wrote to me, I still have it. It was about how we were building a foundation and we were going through the steps. And he wrote all the steps in comparison to where we were in our relationship.”

Him: “I think the purpose of the letter — I was trying to explain to her how I thought that even though it was tough being apart from each other, we were investing in the early stages of our relationship, which would be the foundation for whatever came of it down the road.”

Rubio went onto the University of Florida law school while Jeanette remained in West Miami and attended Miami-Dade Community College and worked part-time as a bank teller. In 1997, following his sister and her sister, she briefly joined the Miami Dolphins cheerleading squad, practicing her routines four nights a week — while he got the benefit of free tickets to games.

“I always wanted to be an NFL player,” interjects her husband, “and now I’m going to have to tell my kids that the only one of her two parents that ever touched an NFL field was her mom.”

Around that time, Marco proposed and she quit the squad to attend the International Fine Arts College with the intention of getting a degree in fashion design. They married in 1998. “I had only one semester left, and then I got pregnant,” she explains.

“After we got married,” he quickly adds.

And now, she has no interest in being a fashion designer. In the past year, she has been working part-time outside the home, at the Braman Family Foundation — run by wealthy Miami businessman and philanthropist Norman Braman — helping it identify projects and organize its giving. She has also taken an interest in the issue of human trafficking and has pushed her husband to use his platform to address the issue — which he has done.

“I’ve also just never been in a position where she’s had to give stump speeches or do things of that nature. It just hasn’t been what we do,” he says.

“I think that as time went by, I would probably feel more and more comfortable with that role,” she says.

Despite the Rubios’ apparently grounded personal life, and the junior senator’s oratorical and charismatic gifts, there is predictable skepticism about the readiness of a 40-year-old to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Is he intellectually ready at this stage of his life to possibly ascend to the presidency?

Is he ready to be vetted — one of the most grueling, invasive background checks known to man?

He is ready for the questions.

“I certainly feel like I’m qualified to be the United States senator from Florida, not just by virtue of the fact that the people of the state elected me, but what I did leading up to that point,” he says, carefully laying out his resume but refusing to talk about Romney’s selection process. He says his tough Senate race was an eye-opener and a microcosm of national politics. He volunteers that part of the experience he’s gaining is in foreign policy as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — a credential Romney lacks. “You really take away from (official overseas) trips and from those visits with the heads of state and other prominent governmental leaders a real understanding of the issues that nations are facing and the issues in our bilateral relationships with them.”

He is defensive about the suggestion that as a conservative Cuban-American, he doesn’t represent the interests of the larger Hispanic population. “Dividing Cubans against the rest of the Hispanic community is … offensive. I mean, my wife’s not Cuban; her family’s not Cuban,” he said of Jeanette, who is the daughter of Colombian immigrants. The votes of all Hispanics, he says, “has to be earned through a message and a vision and a set of policies that inspire people.”

In addition to his youth and minimal experience in national politics, there is also some political baggage that some say could scare off the ever-cautious Romney. At the forefront are public spending issues. A credit card scandal that erupted in the middle of his Senate campaign — but that has received little national attention — exposed that Rubio and others used a Florida Republican Party credit card for personal purchases. Rubio has said it was a mistake and that he paid American Express for all the personal charges. But it still dogs him. Some expenditures from his political action committees to his wife and other family members have also been questioned. At best, it was a careless commingling of funds that any low-level politician knows not to do.

“There are things I wish we would have done differently, there’s no doubt about it — and would do differently and we now do differently,” he said. “But then again, I’ve never learned from my successes. Everything I’ve ever learned has been from mistakes — I’m saying that with life and not just in politics. “

In his forthcoming book, Rubio addresses another source of curiosity in his life: his unusual spiritual odyssey from Catholicism to Mormonism to the Baptist faith and back to Catholicism. He has at various times in the past decade identified his denomination differently in the Florida Legislature clerk’s handbook. He sees nothing odd about it. He and his mother and sister joined the Mormon church when they were living in Las Vegas in the late ’70s. According to a family member quoted in Roig-Franzia’s book, it was young Marco who convinced his family to return to the Catholicism.

“The truth is I have been a Catholic, and I am again — and I am, and I feel very strongly about the Catholic Church, but the bottom line is we found this (other) church that we liked,” he explains about his decision to attend Christ Fellowship, a megachurch affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

He tries to attend Mass daily while in Washington. Jeanette was also raised Catholic but considers herself more of a devout Christian that a devout Catholic. The family attends two services on weekends, Mass on Sunday and Saturday evening services at Christ Fellowship. He only takes communion at Mass, he says.

Of Christ Fellowship, he says, “they’re excellent teachers of the written word. They’re excellent teachers of applicable — of how you apply the principles of Christianity and the powerful teachings of Christianity not just to your life but to eternity. We just liked the church. And my kids liked it and my wife liked it and our family liked it, and for a time, that’s the only place I went to exclusively, but always felt called back to the Catholic Church and to the Catholic faith.

But for any more detail about his journey and dance with Catholicism, he says, “you’ll have to buy the book.”

POLITICO and the Tampa Bay Times have partnered for the 2012 presidential election.

Let’s Get To Know Mitt Romney

From The Daily.com:

(On) a cold December Sunday in the 1980s Romney got a phone call from a Mormon bishop in Utah who said the adult daughter of one of his members — a single mother who did not belong to the church — needed help. The woman’s heating oil had been turned off in the dead of winter.

Enlisting his young sons to help, Romney loaded up his Gran Torino with firewood and drove the car from the family’s generous house in the leafy Boston suburb of Belmont to the woman’s home in the hardscrabble Dorchester neighborhood downtown..
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Years after a business partner died unexpectedly, Romney helped the man’s surviving daughter go to medical school with loans for tuition — loans he forgave when she graduated.
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Stories like these are legion. Romney gathering neighbors in a quick effort to clear out a burning house until firefighters arrived on the scene. Showing up unsolicited to clear a hornet’s nest near an injured church member’s house. Organizing a New York City search for a business partner’s missing daughter.

The sad part of the story in the Daily.com is that these good works may be being avoided because they are related to Mitt’s Mormon faith. It’s disappointing that just because one may disagree with Mormonism, his campaign feels they can’t paint the full picture of who Mitt Romney really is. Sure, he is a very successful businessman, but he also clearly cared about those around him. The Christian faith (and yes, Mormonism IS Christian) demands that we care for the poor. Not the government. Us. We are called, as individuals, to care for the poor.

Have we agreed as a society to implement programs that can be distributed through the government to help the poor? Yes. And almost all of us agree with helping those who cannot take care of themselves through the government. It is the false narrative of the left that pretends that conservatives want to do away with programs for the poor. We do not. But somewhere along the way these programs became bloated, wasteful, and full of fraud, wasting our money and NOT helping the poor, but creating subculture in our society that is now trapped in generational poverty and dependence on the government. All entitlement programs need to be reevaluated, scaled down, stripped of fraud and waste, and made to work for all those who are truly needy. This is the desire of conservatives, not getting rid of these programs.

But as Christians, our faith asks us to use our resources, personally, to help the poor. And we do. Protestant and Catholic faiths give billions to help the poor around the world. In my faith, Catholic Relief Services helped more than 100 million poor and vulnerable people in nearly 100 countries around the world in just 2010 alone. CRS doesn’t waste it’s money on bureaucracy, fraud, and waste either. It is one of the most efficient organizations in the world. In fiscal year 2010, 95 percent of the money CRS spent went directly to programs that benefit the poor. Catholic Charities provides help from food to basic needs, disaster relief, prenatal services, food pantries and soup kitchens; job training; family counseling; emergency financial assistance for heat, electricity and other needs; shelters for the homeless and battered women; and advocacy for the poor in legislatures and in government agencies.

Mormonism follows the same view. The quote on their humanitarian Aid page says, We are “to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to provide for the widow, to dry up the tear of the orphan, to comfort the afflicted, whether in this church, or in any other, or in no church at all…”-Joseph Smith, “Times and Seasons,” March 15, 1842

In the same way the Catholic faith helps the poor around the world, so does Mormonism: “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has donated more than $1 billion in cash and material assistance to 167 different countries in need of humanitarian aid since it started keeping track in 1985.”

So, let’s ignore the left’s false narrative of Mitt Romney being some greedy guy who doesn’t care about the poor. Clearly he does. He gave more than $7 million to charity in 2010 and 2011. He donated 16 percent to charity from 2010 to 2011. Knowing and stating that the government could do a much better job than it does taking care of the poor, is just stating the truth. The left will always whine about any cuts because it helps them politically. But we have to face the truth of our spending. We have to be grownups and stand firm against waste and fraud. It does no good for the truly needy when our taxpayer money is being thrown down the hole of greed and fraud.

Here is a great review of Mitt Romney’s entitlement reform plan. Here is Mitt’s speech.

Here are some highlights from that speech:

It took 43 presidents over 200 years to accumulate $6.3 trillion of national debt. President Obama is on track to borrow and spend nearly that much in just one term.

His fundamental error is that he believes government creates jobs and opportunity. He’s wrong. He puts his faith in government. I put my faith in people.

That is why I will make government simpler, smaller, and smarter.

This is not only good for the economy, it is a moral imperative. We cannot with moral conscience borrow trillions of dollars that can only be repaid by our children. We cannot so weaken our economic foundation that we jeopardize our ability to preserve freedom.
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I learned how to balance budgets in business. In the private sector, you have no choice—you either balance your budget or you go broke. And you spend every dollar like it’s your own, because it is.

Someone should have told that to Solyndra. The federal government gave them a $535 million loan guarantee to build a factory in Fremont, California. The footprint covered 5 football fields. They had robots that whistled Disney songs. I am not kidding. They had “spa-like showers with liquid-crystal displays of the water temperature.” The company headquarters was called the “Taj Mahal” of office buildings. That’s how government starts a company.

Let me compare Solyndra with Staples, a company I helped get started. Our headquarters was located in the back of an empty food warehouse. We got some used office furniture – old Naugahyde chairs. You had to be an athlete to get out of them. Every penny we had went into selling the product and attracting new customers.

That’s a difference between the private sector and government–fiscal responsibility.
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Today, nine federal agencies run 47 different federal worker retraining programs at a cost of $18 billion a year. Just imagine how much is spent on overhead. I will send those workforce training dollars back to the states, empowering them to retrain workers in ways that fit the needs of their respective economies. In the process, we can save billions of dollars.

Finally, in addition to cutting programs and returning programs to states, there is a third approach to reining-in federal spending. It is to impose far greater productivity and efficiency on government itself, just like is regularly done in every successful business in the country.
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There are still other ways to make the federal government work more efficiently and effectively. We will attack the rampant fraud that exists in numerous government programs by enacting far stiffer penalties for those who steal from taxpayers. Cutting improper payments in half can save more than $60 billion a year. And we can save nearly $11 billion a year by repealing a political giveaway that protects unions from competition and drives up the cost of government contracts: it’s time to repeal Davis Bacon.
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In sum, I will make the federal government simpler, smaller, and smarter by eliminating programs, by sending programs back to the states, and by making government more productive. I will provide for the national defense, enforce our laws, preserve our safety net, and honor all our promises to our elderly. This is the right course for a moral nation.

Read the whole thing. It is excellent. We are finally getting to know Mitt Romney. He has a vision for this country to lead us back to prosperity. That is good for all Americans. Don’t let the false narrative of the left and the media fool you. Romney is a good man, family oriented, generous, caring, and he has a plan to get America back on it’s feet. Let’s not let the media distract us with issues that don’t matter, and stories that aren’t true. Let’s get to know the real Mitt Romney.

Rubio Biography Largely Flattering

A soon-to-be released biography of the Republican vice presidential contender turns out to be a nuanced and largely flattering portrait of one of the most exciting figures on the national stage, rather than the hatchet job some Rubio allies had feared.

“The Rise of Marco Rubio” by Washington Post writer Manuel Roig-Franzia may leave some readers questioning Rubio’s political core on issues ranging from immigration to government spending, but it’s unlikely to dent Rubio’s star power. Nor will it enhance the arguments of those who say Rubio has been inadequately vetted to be seriously considered as Mitt Romney’s running mate.

The unauthorized biography explores Rubio’s remarkable life story as the son of working-class Cuban immigrants whose extraordinary political gifts and instincts helped him rise to West Miami city commissioner, to the first Cuban-American speaker of the Florida House, to a 40-year-old senator overshadowing colleagues with decades more experience.

It’s a complex tale thoroughly reported to the point that Roig-Franzia dug up a 50-year-old recording of the immigration hearing of Rubio’s grandfather, nearly deported from America a decade before Rubio was born.

The Tampa Bay Times obtained a 242-page advance copy of the book, which is scheduled for release June 19. Rubio has his own memoir scheduled for publication at the same time.

For Americans just getting to know Rubio, there is plenty in the book to raise eyebrows — criticism that he used Republican Party credit cards and political committees for personal expenses, for instance — though most of that has been detailed by the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald. Those allegations did little to damage Rubio’s Senate campaign in 2010.

The book recounts his longtime friendship with U.S. Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, who has been engulfed in assorted investigations into his personal finances and consulting work. And it delves into Rubio having often said or implied that his parents fled Fidel Castro, when in fact they immigrated to Miami before Castro took power.

Roig-Franzia writes: “Whether Rubio intended to mislead voters or simply never investigated the circumstances of his family’s arrival is a question only he can answer. What is clear is that during his rise he placed great emphasis on his family’s narrative, and he was eager to identify himself as the son of exiles.”

Likewise, tea party conservatives unfamiliar with Rubio’s legislative record may be surprised he often supported big spending, whether it was public money for a new baseball stadium or local projects.

Rubio did not speak to the author. Plenty of friends, legislative colleagues and relatives did, however.

They help him write a rich portrait of a thoroughly likable and ambitious politician, who outhustled political rivals to rise to the speakership of the state House and to the U.S. Senate. Rubio had a knack for landing plum positions — working on redistricting in the Legislature or landing on South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint’s conservative policy committee — to help him advance.

In Washington, the author notes, Rubio’s star power and media savvy helped him rise above the seniority system that usually establishes power.

Of Rubio’s start in Washington, he writes: “Power came to those who waited. But Rubio was not one who waited. Validation outside the building — on blogs, among conservative activists, on Twitter and Facebook — gave him more stroke inside it. More stroke inside the building gave him more validation outside it.”

He also notes the hardball tactics Rubio’s media handlers use to guard his image, including a well-publicized skirmish with Univision when it started to report about an old criminal arrest of Rubio’s brother-in-law. Rubio’s team argued that the network was going after a private citizen and said Univision offered to spike the story if Rubio agreed to an interview with their star anchor, Jorge Ramos. Univision denies that.

Roig-Franzia recounts a heated conference call about the story between Univision editors and Rubio’s staff, including political adviser Todd Harris. Harris, the book says, at one point asked if the editors thought it would be appropriate to ” poke into the private life of Jorge Ramos.”

Roig-Franzia writes: The Univision staffers heard the question as a threat. For a consultant who represents a senator who sits on committees with subpoena power to make such a suggestion made … those journalists uncomfortable.

Harris called that ” insane” and said he never said that.

The book also delves into Rubio’s unusual religious journey, which included being baptized as a Mormon at age 8 when his family lived in Las Vegas: He was the little boy who went to Catholic Mass. Then the adolescent who embraced Mormonism. He was the teenager who circled back to Catholicism. Then the thirty-something who defined himself as a Baptist. He was the ascendant politician who wanted to be Catholic again.

A cousin told the author that Rubio was always deeply focused on religion and as an adolescent persuaded his family to leave the Mormon church.

Most of the people quoted by name say flattering things about the senator, though former Hialeah mayor and onetime political ally Raul Martinez was stunned when Rubio endorsed Arizona’s tough immigration law while running for U.S. Senate.

Writes Roig-Franzia: ”This is the new Marco,” Martinez thought to himself. ”The I-want-to-be-a-senator-at-any-cost Marco.”

Former House Speaker Johnnie Byrd weighs in as well, suggesting that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush had selfish motives for deepening his friendship with Rubio as he became speaker.

Byrd has heard the stories that ”Bush helped Marco.

” I think the opposite is true. As Bush was waning, Jeb seized upon Marco as someone he should hitch to.”

[ Adam C. Smith can be reached at asmithtampabay.com. ]

A faith-based budget lesson for Paul Ryan

There is something un-Christian about the Gospel According to Paul Ryan. So, at least, says Ryan’s Catholic Church.

In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody last month, Rep. Ryan, R-Wis., the author of the House Republican budget endorsed by Mitt Romney, said his program was crafted “using my Catholic faith” as inspiration. But theU.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was not about to bless that claim.

A week after Ryan’s boast, the bishops sent letters to Congress saying that the Ryan budget, passed by the House, “fails to meet” the moral criteria of the Church, namely its view that any budget should help “the least of these” as the Christian Bible requires: the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the jobless. “A just spending bill cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor and vulnerable persons,” the bishops wrote.

In fact, Ryan would cut spending on the least of these by about $5 trillion over 10 years — from Medicaid, food stamps, welfare and the like — and then turn around and award some $4 trillion in tax cuts to the most of these. To their credit, Catholic leaders were not about to let Ryan claim to be serving God when in fact he was serving mammon.

“Your budget,” a group of Jesuit scholars and other Georgetown University faculty members wrote to Ryan last month, “appears to reflect the values of your favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand, rather than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Her call to selfishness and her antagonism toward religion are antithetical to the Gospel values of compassion and love.”

Ryan didn’t turn the other cheek. He showed up at Georgetown on Thursday to deliver a previously scheduled lecture, and lecture he did. He said the faculty members would benefit from a “fact-based conversation” on the issue. “I suppose that there are some Catholics who for a long time thought they had a monopoly … on the social teaching of our church,” he said, but no more. “The work I do as a Catholic holding office conforms to the social doctrine as best I can make of it.”

From the balcony, a group of young demonstrators answered Ryan by holding up a banner with the message “Stop the War on the Poor: No Social Justice in Ryan’s Budget.” On the plaza outside, more protesters held a banner asking: “Were you there when they crucified the poor?” A man wearing a bedsheet, sash and sandals, with a name tag identifying him as “GOP Je$us,” read a new version of the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the rich: The reign of the world is ours. … “

For the young chairman of the House Budget Committee, it was a timely lesson: However much Ryan may wish it, God does not take sides in politics. Ryan, transparently positioning himself to be Romney’s running mate, may well believe that he is on a mission from God. But in a democracy, such fanaticism makes people such as Ryan unable to make necessary compromises.

The rebuke of Ryan is a credit to the Catholic leaders, because they are displaying their doctrinal consistency even as politicians embrace church teachings selectively. Republicans hailed the Catholic bishops when they were opposing the Obama administration’s policy to expand contraceptive coverage; likewise, they cite the church’s opposition to abortion. But these same lawmakers have little interest in the church’s position against the death penalty or its opposition to the Arizona immigration law.

The bishops, in opposing Ryan’s budget, called for “shared sacrifice by all, including raising adequate revenues.” But Ryan challenged the theologians’ theology. “The holy father himself, Pope Benedict, has charged that governments, communities and individuals running up high debt levels are, quote, ‘living at the expense of future generations,’” he said from the pulpit in Georgetown’s ornate Gaston Hall.

Ryan argued that government welfare “dissolves the common good of society, and it dishonors the dignity of the human person.” He would restore human dignity by removing anti-poverty programs. The moderator asked the chairman about “the moral dimension” of a budget that gives tax cuts to the wealthy and cuts spending for the poor. Ryan’s answer included the phrase “subchapter S corporations.”

Spending on programs such as food stamps and college Pell Grants is “unsustainable,” he said. If government does too much for the poor, “you make it harder” for churches and charities to do that work.

It was a bold economic — and theological — proposition. Even Jesus said to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. Ryan would rather give the rich a tax cut.

Washington Post Writers Group

Dana Milbank is a syndicated columnist based in Washington.

danamilbank@washpost.com

Milbank: For Paul Ryan, a faith-based lesson

WASHINGTON — There is something un-Christian about the Gospel According to Paul Ryan. So, at least, says Ryan’s Catholic Church.

In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody this month, Ryan, the author of the House Republican budget endorsed by Mitt Romney, said his program was crafted “using my Catholic faith” as inspiration. But the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was not about to bless that claim.

A week after Ryan’s boast, the bishops sent letters to Congress saying the Ryan budget, passed by the House, “fails to meet” the moral criteria of the Church, namely its view that any budget should help “the least of these” as the Christian Bible requires: the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the jobless. “A just spending bill cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor and vulnerable persons,” the bishops wrote.

In fact, Ryan would cut spending on the least of these by about $5 trillion over 10 years — from Medicaid, food stamps, welfare and the like — and then turn around and award some $4 trillion in tax cuts to the most of these. To their credit, Catholic leaders were not about to let Ryan claim to be serving God when in fact he was serving mammon.

“Your budget,” a group of Jesuit scholars and other Georgetown University faculty members wrote to Ryan last week, “appears to reflect the values of your favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand, rather than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Her call to selfishness and her antagonism toward religion are antithetical to the Gospel values of compassion and love.”

Ryan didn’t turn the other cheek. He showed up at Georgetown on Thursday to deliver a previously scheduled lecture, and lecture he did. He said the faculty members would benefit from a “fact-based conversation” on the issue. “I suppose that there are some Catholics who for a long time thought they had a monopoly … on the social teaching of our church,” he said, but no more. “The work I do as a Catholic holding office conforms to the social doctrine as best I can make of it.”

From the balcony, a group of young demonstrators answered Ryan by holding up a banner with the message “Stop the War on the Poor: No Social Justice in Ryan’s Budget.” On the plaza outside, more protesters held a banner asking: “Were you there when they crucified the poor?” A man wearing a bedsheet, sash and sandals, with a name tag identifying him as “GOP Je$us,” read out a new version of the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the rich: The reign of the world is ours. … ”

For the young chairman of the House Budget Committee, it was a timely lesson: However much Ryan may wish it, God does not take sides in politics. Ryan, transparently positioning himself to be Romney’s running mate, may well believe that he is on a mission from God. But in a democracy, such fanaticism makes people such as Ryan unable to make necessary compromises.

The rebuke of Ryan is a credit to the Catholic leadership, because they are displaying their doctrinal consistency even as politicians embrace church teachings selectively. Republicans hailed the Catholic bishops when they were opposing the Obama administration’s policy to expand contraceptive coverage; likewise, they cite the church’s opposition to abortion. But these same lawmakers have little interest in the church’s position against the death penalty, or its opposition to the Arizona immigration law.

The bishops, in opposing Ryan’s budget, called for “shared sacrifice by all, including raising adequate revenues.” But Ryan challenged the theologians’ theology. “The holy father himself, Pope Benedict, has charged that governments, communities and individuals running up high debt levels are, quote, ’living at the expense of future generations,’” he said from the pulpit in Georgetown’s ornate Gaston Hall.

Ryan argued that government welfare “dissolves the common good of society and it dishonors the dignity of the human person.” He would restore human dignity by removing anti-poverty programs. The moderator asked the chairman about “the moral dimension” of a budget that gives tax cuts to the wealthy and cuts spending for the poor. Ryan’s answer included the phrase “subchapter S corporations.”

Spending on programs such as food stamps and college Pell Grants is “unsustainable,” he said. If government does too much for the poor, “you make it harder” for churches and charities to do that work.

It was a bold economic — and theological — proposition. Even Jesus said to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. Ryan would rather give the rich a tax cut.

Dana Milbank can be reached at danamilbank@washpost.com.

Ryan’s faith-based budget plan doesn’t fly with Catholic bishops

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Ryan’s faith-based budget plan doesn’t fly with Catholic bishops

Dana Milbank

There is something un-Christian about the Gospel According to Paul Ryan. So, at least, says Ryan’s Catholic Church.

In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody this month, Ryan, the author of the House Republican budget endorsed by Mitt Romney, said his program was crafted “using my Catholic faith” as inspiration. But the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was not about to bless that claim.

A week after Ryan’s boast, the bishops sent letters to Congress saying the Ryan budget, passed by the House, “fails to meet” the moral criteria of the church, namely its view that any budget should help “the least of these” as the Christian Bible requires: the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the jobless. “A just spending bill cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor and vulnerable persons,” the bishops wrote.

In fact, Ryan would cut spending on the least of these by about $5 trillion over 10 years — from Medicaid, food stamps, welfare and the like — and then turn around and award some $4 trillion in tax cuts to the most of these. To their credit, Catholic leaders were not about to let Ryan claim to be serving God when in fact he was serving mammon.

“Your budget,” a group of Jesuit scholars and other Georgetown University faculty members wrote to Ryan, “appears to reflect the values of your favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand, rather than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Her call to selfishness and her antagonism toward religion are antithetical to the Gospel values of compassion and love.”

Ryan didn’t turn the other cheek. He showed up at Georgetown on Thursday to deliver a previously scheduled lecture, and lecture he did. He said the faculty members would benefit from a “fact-based conversation” about the issue.

“I suppose that there are some Catholics who for a long time thought they had a monopoly … on the social teaching of our church,” he said, but no more. “The work I do as a Catholic holding office conforms to the social doctrine as best I can make of it.”

From the balcony, a group of young demonstrators answered Ryan by holding up a banner with the message “Stop the War on the Poor: No Social Justice in Ryan’s Budget.” On the plaza outside, more protesters held a banner asking: “Were you there when they crucified the poor?”

A man wearing a bedsheet, sash and sandals, with a name tag identifying him as “GOP Je$us,” read out a new version of the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the rich: The reign of the world is ours. … “

For the young chairman of the House Budget Committee, it was a timely lesson: However much Ryan may wish it, God does not take sides in politics.

Ryan, transparently positioning himself to be Romney’s running mate, may believe that he is on a mission from God. In a democracy, however, such fanaticism makes people such as Ryan unable to make necessary compromises.

The rebuke of Ryan is a credit to the Catholic leadership, because they are displaying their doctrinal consistency even as politicians embrace church teachings selectively.

Republicans hailed the Catholic bishops when they opposed the Obama administration’s policy to expand contraceptive coverage; likewise, they cite the church’s opposition to abortion. These same lawmakers, however, have little interest in the church’s position against the death penalty, or its opposition to the Arizona immigration law.

The bishops, in opposing Ryan’s budget, called for “shared sacrifice by all, including raising adequate revenues.”

Ryan, however, challenged the theologians’ theology.

“The holy father himself, Pope Benedict, has charged that governments, communities and individuals running up high debt levels are, quote, ‘living at the expense of future generations’,” he said from the pulpit in Georgetown’s ornate Gaston Hall.

Ryan argued that government welfare “dissolves the common good of society and it dishonors the dignity of the human person.” He would restore human dignity by removing anti-poverty programs.

The moderator asked the chairman about “the moral dimension” of a budget that gives tax cuts to the wealthy and cuts spending for the poor. Ryan’s answer included the phrase “subchapter S corporations.”

Spending on programs such as food stamps and college Pell Grants is “unsustainable,” he said. If government does too much for the poor, “you make it harder” for churches and charities to do that work.

It was a bold economic — and theological — proposition. Even Jesus said to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. Ryan would rather give the rich a tax cut.

Dana Milbank is an American political reporter and columnist for The Washington Post. Email to danamilbank@washpost.com.

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Paul Ryan’s Budget Inspired by Ayn Rand, Not Jesus Christ

Republican politicians like to wear their faith on their sleeves and talk about their Christian values. But when it comes to practicing what you preach, the GOP has a long way to go.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the Republican party.]

Republicans don’t have any more respect for the Bible than they do the Constitution. Conservatives talk about their dedication to the Constitution but they support the Arizona anti-immigration law which is a mockery of our founding document. Right wingers talk about their the importance of their faith but they completely ignore the biblical injunctions to help the poor.

On Tuesday, 90 faculty members and priests at Georgetown, the Jesuit University in Washington, criticized Mitt Romney’s budget buddy, Rep. Paul Ryan, for saying his budget plan which includes cuts in antipoverty programs and school lunches and tax breaks for bankers and billionaires—was inspired by his Catholic faith. The letter to Ryan reads, “Your budget appears to reflect the values of your favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand, rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

The letter goes on to say, “We would be remiss in our duties to you and our students if we did not challenge your continuing misuse of Catholic teaching to defend a budget plan that decimates food programs for struggling families, radically weakens protections for the elderly and sick and gives more tax breaks to the wealthiest few.”

[Read Study: Conservatives' Trust of Science Hits All Time Low.]

The New Testament chronicles Jesus Christ’s concern for the poor. In his haste to devour “The Fountainhead,” Ryan apparently didn’t have time to read it. So here are some of the highlights for Congressman Ryan courtesy of Jim Wallis, the author of God’s Politics.

In the Magnificant, Mary discusses the meaning of the coming of Jesus when she says, “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly: he has filled the hungry with good things; and sent the rich empty away.”

In his gospel, Matthew writes, “Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing,  I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”

You get the idea. A little more Bible study and a lot more compassion for the poor would go a long way for Romney, Ryan and other Republicans.

• Read the U.S. News debate: Is There a Republican ‘War on Women’?
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Breaking Down The News

I confess. Some weeks, I have a tough time trying to figure out what topic to address for my Thursday Patch contribution. This week was one of them. I considered writing about nothing, seeing as how fruitful that was for Jerry Seinfeld all those years. But before resorting to that, inspiration mercifully arrived…

It was gift-wrapped in the prose of a busy news cycle. Lucky for me, some crazy stuff went down this past week. Here’s a look at the highlight reel, in no particular order:

Did you hear? I know it didn’t get much media coverage (!), but the Space Shuttle Discovery flew over D.C. and landed at Dulles Airport on Tuesday morning. My perch that day was the park that straddles the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. I almost missed the flyover itself because I was equally riveted by the effect it had on traffic. Cars stopped with no warning (I heard lots of squealing brakes and some instances of contact between vehicles), and the right lane of the bridge became an impromptu parking lot.

On that historic day, the air on the bridge felt festive. For a refreshing change, people actually made eye contact and talked to each other…and high-fived and shared photos/videos, too. There were collective oohs, ahs and, “Look, there it is’” (a fun party trick is to sing it to the tune of, “Whoomp, There It Is”) as Discovery made its two passes. 

Interesting sidebar—I’m almost positive the pilot winked at me on one of his fly-bys. Afterall, he is a federal employee and we all know what they’re like.

That aside, patriotism and nationalism did run rampant that day. In fact, I was fully expecting Mitt Romney to pull up on the bridge, with his dog, Seamus, strapped to the top of one of his Cadillacs. If they made an appearance though, I must have missed them. But I did enjoy my sighting of a lone woman who unselfconsciously sprawled on the hood of her SUV with her head-full of curlers.

On the subject of the Romneys, Ann Romney got in on the action this week, too. Political pundit Hilary Rosen made a pointed statement challenging Romney’s credibility as a voice for women who work outside the home. And like that, it was game on for both the Mommy and Twitter Wars. 

In response, one of Romney’s tweets to Rosen allegedly said, “I will cut you.” (No, it didn’t, but you know that’s what she really wanted to say.)

Even political candidate (I wish I was joking) Roseanne Barr entered the fray, “calling [bull-expletive] on your Big Mama story, girlfriend,” to Romney.

Misbehaving federal agencies have been a recent trending topic, too. I’ve seen some of the Vegas footage of the GSA conference. Their money, er, I mean, our taxpayer’s money, would have been better spent on a personal stylist instead of the mind reader. Tearing up the dance floor in a short-sleeved shirt and First Communion tie, while furtively repositioning a comb-over, isn’t how any self-respecting rock stars I know, party. C’mon GSA. If you wanna play the game, you gotta get some first.

Speaking of the GSA, I just learned what it actually stands for—Gonna Spend A Lot!

Not to be outdone, the Secret Service also participated in their own variety of high jinks—starring ladies of the evening. And if you believe the rumors, all “transactions” occurred while running beside a limo and wearing mirrored shades and ear pieces. Kink-y! 

News abounded in literary circles as well. Pulitzer Prize winners were announced, but curiously, one wasn’t selected for fiction this year. I heard that there were some challenges during the selection process. It was a dark and stormy night, so judges probably had difficulty concentrating and reaching a consensus.

The sporting world brought some interesting notables as well. In shocking news, Kenyans swept the Boston Marathon. Kenyan men and women demonstrated their fierceness and claimed the top three spots in record-breaking heat. Forget the frivolous book about the French demonstrating how to best raise children. It’s time to find out how to get it done, Kenyan-style. I bet there’s no helicopter nonsense on that continent.

Playoff hockey is alive and well, too. And Washington still has a dog in this hunt with our Caps continuing to duke it out against the Boston Bruins. Every game teeth get lost, stitches get sutured and fists are a-flying. How fortuitous that the Red Cross is headquartered in D.C. That makes the logistics for setting up their new blood bank at the Verizon Center less cumbersome. 

And finally, I’d be remiss to not mention the announced, pending union of “Brangelina.” It’s official—Brad asked Angie to marry him and gave her a $750,000 ring to help seal the deal. Maybe next week I can explore Jennifer Aniston’s reaction to the news.    

Marco Rubio, a Catholic, Remembers Little of His Time in the Mormon Church

Bill Clark/Roll Call/Getty Images

Florida governor Marco Rubio,  whose name is being floated as a potential top pick running mate for Republican Mitt Romney, says he doesn’t remember much about his family’s time in the Mormon church.

“Well, I was very young,” Rubio said in an interview with Miami CBS affiliate CBS4. “I don’t remember a lot other than the fact that my parents, especially my mom, really wanted to put us in a very wholesome environment.”

Rubio is expected to discuss his connection to the Mormon Church in his upcoming autobiography “An American Son,” to be released June 19.

Rubio now identifies himself as Catholic, despite reportedly attending evangelical churches at times.

“On the question of my religion, I’m a Roman Catholic,” he said. “I’ve been a Roman Catholic, baptized and confirmed, and we go to church on Sundays. And I enjoy my Catholic faith.”

Rubio said he respects those who have adopted the Mormon faith and believes they are Christians.

“Yeah, look, I don’t get into that whole debate, I’m not a theologian,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for the Mormon Church; I have a lot of respect for members of the Mormon faith. They believe in Jesus Christ, and they consider themselves Christians and I consider them Christians.”

Rubio’s ties to Mormonism first surfaced in February when a report by Buzzfeed indicated he was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as a child. According to family members, the conversion occurred while his family lived in the same Nevada neighborhood as his aunt’s family, who had converted to Mormonism years before. Michelle Denis, a cousin of Rubio, recounted the young Rubio encouraging his family to be active participants in their new church.

“He was totally into it,” Denis told Buzzfeed. “He’s always been into religion. Football and religion. Those were his things.”

Family members told Buzzfeed the Rubios left the church when they relocated to Miami. Alex Conant, a spokesman for Rubio, said the family left the church before they moved from Nevada.

But Denis said he was the instrumental force in moving the family back to Catholicism, receiving his first communion at age 13.

“He really convinced the whole family to switch religions,” she told Buzzfeed. “He’s very vocal so he convinced them all to become Catholic.”

Poll shows political woe for lawmakers who regularly talk religion

Politicians may want to abstain from talking about religion, a new poll showed.

The Pew Research Center found that 38% of Americans questioned in a recent survey felt that lawmakers and campaigning politicians bring up their faith too often.

That was the highest percentage for that answer in the annual Pew religion-in-politics poll, which was first launched in 2001, when just 12% failed to give their blessing to faith-based political chatter.

But the poll, released Wednesday, also revealed that 30% of Americans believe there is not enough talk about religion in the political arena.

The results could signal that some of the Republican presidential candidates this year are taking an unholy risk in the campaign battles over government-mandated birth control, gay marriage and funding for Planned Parenthood.

Rick Santorum, whose Catholic faith represents the backbone of his political ideology, has courted religious conservative voters — and won key victories in the Deep South as a result. He’s argued on the stump that religion ought to play a much larger role in the public square.

Newt Gingrich often trumpets his faith, too. The twice-divorced former House Speaker credits his conversion to Catholicism with turning around his messy personal life.

Front-runner Mitt Romney is a Mormon, who has often spoken generally about his faith without getting into specifics — an approach likely intended to not alienate the Christian voters he would need to win the party’s nomination.

Romney’s supporters are more likely than Santorum’s to say there’s too much expression of faith by political leaders, the poll found. Some 55% of the ex-Pennsylvania senator’s backers indicated they believe there is too little talk about faith and prayer by lawmakers, compared to just 24% among Romney supporters.

The survey found “some important signs of public uneasiness with the mixing of religion and politics,” Greg Smith, a senior researcher at the Pew Forum, told the Daily News.

The survey was conducted between March 7 and March 11, a month after the Obama administration directed some religious institutions to cover contraceptive services in their employees’ health care plans.

The move provoked furious opposition from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and sparked an unsuccessful effort by Senate Republicans to overturn it.

But the Obama Administration later softened its stance, determining that insurance companies would pay for the coverage and not religious employers.