Sen. Marco Rubio returned to Washington D.C. last night to vote against the McConnell/Reid/Boehner/Obama budget deal that raised the debt limit for the remaining two years of President Obama’s presidency and ended the threat of a government shutdown in 2015.
Rubio canceled a lunch in Council Bluffs, Iowa as a result of his late trip.
“Given the nation’s debt crisis, Marco is hitting the campaign trail later than initially planned,” read the notice notifying reporters of the schedule change.
Rubio joined fellow presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) by voting against the proposal, while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) voted for the package.
The deal passed, however, as senators voted 64-35 to approve the legislation just after 3 a.m. this morning.
Rubio has face fierce criticism from his primary opponent Jeb Bush for missing votes in the Senate while on the campaign trail.
Although Rubio deflected Bush’s attacks during Wednesday night’s debate, the former Florida governor continued the line of attack on the campaign trail the next day.
“I’m not demonizing Marco Rubio to point out that he has the worst attendance record in the United States Senate,” Bush said on Fox News. “Pursuing your own ambitions at the expense of service of others is wrong.”
Rubio’s defense is that that historically any Senator running for President misses votes – citing campaign voting records of 2008 candidates Sen. John McCain, Sen. Barack Obama, and Sen. Hillary Clinton as well as the 2004 record of Sen. John Kerry.
“If there’s a vote where my vote is going to make a difference or an issue of major national significance and importance, we do everything possible to be there,” Rubio said in an interview with CNBC earlier this month, defending his absence in the Senate.
Rubio also returned to Washington D.C. last week to vote for a bill that would defund Sanctuary Cities, a bill that was filibustered by Democrats.