Rand Paul's budget proposal

Bart

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Now, this would be a good start! There would need to be a lot of tweaking along the way, but something needs to be done soon.

If his father could get an audit of the Federal Reserve that would be great.

Where did all the stimulus money go? Hundreds of billions squandered or stolen, I'd bet.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20031417-503544.html

February 10, 2011

Rand Paul: Cut Entitlements, Defense Budget

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011.
(Credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon) WASHINGTON -- Kentucky GOP Senator Rand Paul said in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday that the House GOP's budget proposal is "too little, it's not enough, it's too timid, and we must be more bold."

"They're talking about cutting $35 billion," the Tea Party-backed freshman said. "We spend $35 billion in five days. We add $35 billion to the debt in nine days. It's not enough and we will not avoid financial ruin in our country if we do not think more boldly."

Paul's proposal is to cut $500 billion from the budget. He said both Democrats and Republicans need to accept that deep cuts need to be made to balance the budget, stating that the "looming debt crisis" is "worse than you can imagine." He said the Department of Education should be cut, leaving education to the states, and that entitlement reform was necessary, including raising the Social Security retirement age. His suggestion that people be allowed to opt out of Social Security was met with a standing ovation from many in the audience.

Paul elicited what he later acknowledged was a "mixed response" - cheers mixed with boos - when he said "We will have to look long and hard at the military budget," however.

"The most important thing that our government does is our national defense, absolutely," he said. "But you cannot say that the doubling of the military budget in the last ten years has all been spent wisely and there's not any waste in it."

Paul also complained that the government was wrongly using the commerce clause in the Constitution to justify big government programs like the health care law. He said court tests of the law are about "whether or not we believe our government should be constrained by the Constitution."
 

Colonel_Reb

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It would be nice if there was a real chance something like this could get passed. Everyone else is too concerned about politics and power to care what we the people think.
 

Paleocon

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If I'm not mistaken I believe the deficit is three times the amount of Rand Paul's proposal to cut $500 billion. Yet, Rand Paul's idea is not considered a good starting point, but an unrealistic proposal that isn't even an end point. The mainstream GOP is fighting hard to cut a few billion dollars out of the budget then campaign on it for the next decade while blaming the Democrats for the fact that the GOP lacks the imagination, fortitude, and patriotism to rise above their usual craven ineptitude.

My guess that if the GOP wins the Presidency in 2012 their "solution" to the budget problem will be to go start some new Middle Eastern war to distract everyone from our real problems.
 

Highlander

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Nov 28, 2009
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Get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan...and everywhere else. The
"supplemental" (not part of the official budget) spending on these
"wars" alone over the past several years has cost us hundreds of billions of
dollars...and this is not even part of the so-called "Defense"
budget as, again, it's "supplemental".



Congress just a few weeks ago didn't blink when another $120,000,000,000 or
whatever "supplemental" amount was approved for these "wars". Stop the
empire-building. It didn't end well for the Romans and it won't end
well for us, either. It's not rocket science.



In addition, they should get rid of all of the extraneous and fringe
"social" programs that are directly responsible for the cultural
degradation of our country...including all of the "gender-specific"
(read: "women's") programs and affirmative-action programs.

EDIT: And that's only on the "cutting" side. They should also put a small tax on stock transactions that exceed a certain amount, say, 1000 transactions. This would collect tens of billions of tax revenue from those trying to game the stock markets to create the next bubble or manipulate commodities, etc. and maybe put some integrity back into the system again. In addition, slap some tariffs on some of the goods being imported from China and elsewhere. The solutions are simple, the courage to do it is not.
Edited by: Highlander
 

hawkeye

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Sep 4, 2009
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I'm not I big fan of some of the tea party mainly Palin and Bachman, but I like Rand Paul a lot, I hope he runs for president. I supported his father evan before he was well known, and it was a shame how Ron Paul got treated by FOX news.
 
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