Sen. Rand Paul on 'Government Bullies' and Why Obamacare Won't Work
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) sat down with Sean Hannity tonight and discussed his new book, “Government Bullies: How Everyday Americans are Being Harassed, Abused, and Imprisoned by the Feds.” Referring to Sen. Paul’s RNC speech, in which he spoke about waste, fraud and abuse, Hannity asked the senator if now is the time to be gutting defense.
Sen. Paul explained, “I wouldn’t gut defense, but what I would say is that the primary function of the federal government is national defense […] that is the number one preeminent thing we do in Washington, it’s in the Constitution, it’s what we’re supposed to do.”
However, as it stands now, the compromise
is that both welfare and military receive increased spending. Sen. Paul said, “The reverse compromise has to happen. You have to reverse military spending, that’s how you get a compromise, and you have to reduce domestic spending. But you do it without compromising your national defense.”
Hannity asked, “What about the way President Obama is now trying to frame the debate – $10 bucks in cuts, one dollar in tax increases, Romney won’t even go for that.”
Sen. Paul said he’s learned over the years that Washington is a shell game. He noted the irony in that the president was going to pay for Obamacare with student loan money, but then he reduced the student interest which was the money that was supposed to pay for Obamacare. He said, “If you wanted to explain to somebody in one sentence why Obamacare will be a disaster, Medicare has 50 million people, it’s $35 to $40 trillion dollars short. [The president] wanted to ensure 45 new million people with Obamacare, [that] it’s not going to cost you anything, it won’t add to the debt. That’s impossibility.”
In Virginia, where Mitt Romney runs the risk of losing votes to a Constitutional candidate, Sen. Paul says that Romney needs to tell those people that he will be resolute on balancing the budget in a shorter period of time and that he will help people, like the senator himself, who want to introduce a balanced budget amendment.
