Tuesday night's Republican debate featured a sideshow exposing the mutual contempt Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz hold for each other, which is true for pretty much everybody who was on that stage, but mostly not let out on display like it was between the two senators. There was one flashpoint, though, that highlighted what a duplicitous little shit Rubio is. In this instance, it was over Cruz's votes against defense authorization bills.
"Three times, [Cruz] voted against the Defense Authorization Act, which is a bill that funds the troops. It also, by the way, funds the Iron Dome [Israeli missile defense system] and other important programs," the Florida senator said in one of several direct confrontations he had with Cruz in Tuesday night's CNN debate. "And I have to assume that if you vote against it in the Senate, you would also veto it as president."
The problem with that accusation? It's based on a false premise. The NDAA is, as its title indicates, an authorization bill, meaning that it approves programs and general initiatives for the military. It does not fund the military. The troops are funded through the annual appropriations process, and since both men have arrived in Washington, that has been done through larger spending packages that fund the entire government.
Both Rubio and the senator from Texas have consistently voted against those bills.
So Rubio lies about what the defense authorization does, and implies that Cruz votes against the troops while he's doing exactly the same thing!
But it gets even better, because it turns out that the last time the defense authorization came up—the bill Rubio is blasting Cruz over—the junior senator from Florida didn't even bother to show up to vote. He was too busy campaigning in New Hampshire.
Not bothering to do your job is one way to inoculate yourself from taking the rap for bad votes, but it's not necessarily a good way.