Crist, Rubio differ on spending

U.S. senatorial candidate and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's proposals for federal outlays could increase spending by $3.5 billion, while Marco Rubio's plans may decrease federal spending by more than $150 billion, according to a National Taxpayers Union Foundation study.

Meanwhile, candidate Kendrick Meek's plan could increase spending by $100 billion, the NTUF report says. But the group, which calls itself non-partisan, allows that, “all three [candidates] have made many promises with indeterminate costs.” Rubio is a Republican, Meek is a Democrat and Crist is running as an independent.

NTUF researchers compared proposals made during each candidate's campaign with information provided by the Congressional Budget Office. It also used the Foundation's BillTally system, which has tracked Congressional spending since 1991.

In a release, NTUF identified the impact of one key proposal for each Senate candidate:

• Crist's renewable energy proposal would cost $2.837 billion;

• Rubio's “discretionary” spending freeze would save $108.414 billion;

• and Meek's “cap-and-trade” energy plan would cost $51.54 billion.

NTUF is the research foundation associated with the National Taxpayers Union, a nonprofit citizen group with more than 362,000 members.