Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio accused President Barack Obama of making "every aspect of life in America today" worse since his inauguration during a talk about the debt ceiling on CBS's "Face the Nation" on July 17, 2011.

Host Bob Schieffer asked Rubio if he literally meant what he said, so Rubio continued:

"Well, first of all, let -- every president has to be judged by the times in which he lives. This president has now been in charge for two and a half years, okay? He has increased federal spending by 28 percent. Washington went along with his prescription for joblessness, which was the stimulus package, and unemployment is higher than it was when he took over, significantly higher. In fact, we have not had unemployment this high for this long since the Great Depression, with no signs of it getting better."

We noticed Rubio evokes a popular historical note of Republicans -- the Great Depression -- to characterize the country's dire jobs outlook. He isn't the first politician to link now with then, though he might be the first whose claim has a ring of truth.

Keep reading to learn how Rubio strays from GOP big-timers Mitt Romney and Reince Priebus.