For the press, Rubio is a spendthrift, Hillary Clinton is a miser

For the Washington Post, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is a penny pincher. For the New York Times, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is an extravagant spender.

Clinton’s campaign team is cutting back on expenses whenever possible, the Post reported Tuesday morning in an article titled “How cheap is Hillary Clinton’s campaign? This cheap.”

Perhaps having learned from her expensive mistakes in 2008 when she lost to then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Clinton staffers are being asked now to help keep costs at a minimum. Members of Team Clinton use their own phones and they take the bus – even campaign chairman John Podesta.

“The tightwad mentality is partly out of necessity, since the campaign is confining operating expenses to a budget built from individual donations that cannot top $2,700 per person during the primary season,” the Post reported. “But it’s also partly for show — to demonstrate that Clinton is buckling down and making a 180-degree turn away from the dysfunction of her failed 2008 campaign.”

The call in the Clinton camp to keep costs at a minimum comes from campaign manager Robby Mook, who boasts often and loudly that he is “really, really cheap.” Clinton’s 2008 campaign was famous for being a cash drain, resulting in a disappointing finish for the former first lady.

This time, however, they swear it’s going to be different.

“A cheap bus ride has become an inside joke and something of a merit badge for Clinton staffers, many of whom commute frequently for meetings and other work in Washington,” the Post reported. “There is a hand-lettered, bus-shaped honor roll on the wall at the campaign’s Brooklyn headquarters, listing those who have eschewed cushier train or plane rides customary for business travel.”

Further up the East Coast, however, things were a bit different Tuesday morning as the Times took another crack at reporting on the personal life of Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio.

“For years, Senator Marco Rubio struggled under the weight of student debt, mortgages and an extra loan against the value of his home totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars,” the Times reported, noting also Rubio’s penchant for preaching fiscal responsibility.

The Florida senator was paid $800,000 in 2012 to write about his experiences growing up the son of a Cuban immigrant. Rubio would later brag that he used the money to pay off longstanding debts.

However, it’s possible that the Florida senator was less-than-prudent with his money, the Times’ Michael Barbaro reported in an article titled “Struggles With Finances Track Marco Rubio’s Career.”

“[H]e splurged on an extravagant purchase: $80,000 for a luxury speedboat,” the Times reported. “At the time, Mr. Rubio confided to a friend that it was a potentially inadvisable outlay that he could not resist. The 24-foot boat, he said, fulfilled a dream.”

The newspaper reported that Rubio made several other financial decisions that seemed “simply unwise.”

“A few weeks ago, he disclosed that he had liquidated a $68,000 retirement account, a move that is widely discouraged by financial experts and which probably cost him about $24,000 in taxes and penalties,” the Times reported.

The two separate 2016 campaign stories — the Times’ detailing of Rubio’s finances and the Post’s coverage to Team Hillary’s cost-cutting measures — were received differently by media figures.

Media treated the Post’s Clinton exposé as fun flavoring to the 2016 election season, with journalists and commentators alike sharing the story and some laughs on social media. The Times report, on the other hand, was met with eye-rolling and head-scratching.

“Starting to think Rubio has some plant in the NYT and these supposed ‘hit-jobs’ on him are false flags made to make him look sympathetic,” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes said on Twitter.

On Friday, the Times reported that Marco Rubio has received four traffic citations since 1993.