Marco Rubio Pays Off Student Debt, Says College Should Be Affordable

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Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) announced that he had finally finished paying off his student loan debt this year, reported Yahoo News

Rubio, who got to the Senate riding the Tea Party wave of 2010, said he was able to pay off the debt thanks to proceeds from sales of his autobiography An American Son.

The young and charismatic Cuban-American conservative, who was mentioned as a potential running mate for 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney before he picked Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), was honored Tuesday night at the Jack Kemp Foundation Awards dinner, where he revealed his newly found solvency and stressed the importance of college affordability. 

"We need to reform our federal college grant and loan programs. To me college affordability is an issue that is very personal. Because the only reason why I was able to go to college--the only reason--was because of federal grants and loans.  But when I graduated from law school, I had close to $150,000 in student debt," Rubio said after accepting the award. "That's a debt I just paid off just last year with the proceeds of my book 'An American Son,' the perfect holiday gift and available on Amazon for only $11.99."

Rubio, who recently stepped in controversy when, asked by GQ magazine how old the Earth was, he said he didn't know, still owed between $100,001 to $250,000 in debt when he was elected -- according to Yahoo.