Rand Paul To Unemployed: Take a Pay Cut, Stop Asking For Handouts, And Get Back To Work (AUDIO)

Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul has a blunt message for the millions of Americans who remain unemployed in the long-term: "Accept a wage that's less than [you] had at [your] previous job" and "get back to work."

According to Paul, the issue is "bigger than unemployment benefits" and the Tea Party-backed Senate hopeful made his position on the matter clear in an interview with talk radio host Sue Wylie on WVLK-AM last week.

"As bad as it sounds, ultimately we do have to sometimes accept a wage that's less than we had at our previous job in order to get back to work and allow the economy to get started again," Paul explained. "Nobody likes that, but it may be one of the tough love things that has to happen."

Paul's advice for the increasing proportion of the long-term unemployed came in response to a question from Wylie on Republicans successfully blocking a measure that would have extended $120 billion in unemployment benefits to jobless Americans in the Senate last week.

The Kentucky Senate hopeful stressed, "It's all a matter of making priorities" and rooted his argument in a comparison between the dismal condition of the United States economy and that of its European counterpart. "I'm not sure what the answer is," Paul said. "In Europe, they give about a year of unemployment. We're up to two years now in America."

Via Talking Points Memo comes audio of Paul's remarks.

LISTEN: Rand Paul To Unemployed: Take a Pay Cut, Stop Asking For Handouts, And Get Back To Work

Comments

[S-Man]

02:01 PM on 06/24/2010

Remember this is from someone who instead of taking a pay cut himself when he couldn't get board certified simply created his own board. Sorry Rand not all of us are rich enough to do that. The way he's digging he'll reach China by August.

[feyangel]

03:29 AM on 06/24/2010

He does realize that unemployed people do still have a vote, right? As he so loudly declares all of them to be "entitled" and lazy and on the dole?"

[SirCoolBreeze]

07:04 PM on 06/23/2010

(not Board Certified) Dr. Paul advertised he was "Board Certified" when he wasn't. An obvious lie.

[rshrink]

04:19 PM on 06/23/2010

Our earth is ill. It is going through changes which are going to dramatically change all of our lives. Everyone on the earth needs to get busy and make changes before it gets even worse. To be preoccupied with how big the government is right now, is like worrying about the furniture on the Titanic. We need leaders and followers now who will fight the real world of the destruction of this planet and Paul is clueless.

If our leaders didn't love wealthy people so much, they would see that it is time to call on them to start paying again, like they did before the last Bush disaster. We need to get out of wars that are draining us and producing nothing. Then we need to invest the money into infrastructure that will allow everyone to benefit and be more productive. There is the real solution. We also need to shrink these big banks and oil companies and weapons manufacturers, because they have a strangle hold on our country.

[S-Man]

02:07 PM on 06/24/2010

Fanned, good observation.

[wlkcrk]

03:55 PM on 06/23/2010

If you're unemployed and making no money , how do you take a pay cut????????

[linksteroh]

01:15 PM on 06/23/2010

Dr. Rand, please keep running your big stupid mouth.

[Five to Nine]

11:49 AM on 06/23/2010

Time for a revolution.

[rshrink]

11:43 AM on 06/23/2010

Randal Howard Paul, a man with three first names, was born into privilege. His father is a doctor trained at Duke School of Medicine and Rand followed in his footsteps. He has never known the daily grind of survival that is the lot of most working middle and lower class families. He grew up in Waco, which has, as we have seen, some strange elements with far out views on religion and how the world works. Having such an intense focus on small government prevents people from seeing the major problems that we face in the present time. Our solutions don't need to come from the government, but leadership or at least support will need to be imposed from our highest authority or else, we are going to be in a very sorry state and in fact we are entering into that sorry state as I write. Banks and Oil Companies have become too big to fail, which means they are too big. They have too much money and too much power. They are corrupting and destroying the world and of lesser importance, they are destroying our democracy. It is really up to the general population to fix these problems, but it won't come from the likes of Paul or any other tea bagger.

[linksteroh]

01:16 PM on 06/23/2010

You are so right...Fanned

[rshrink]

11:04 AM on 06/23/2010

In my opinion, I think we need to view our American workers, much like we do our precious soldiers. We cannot be an effective country with our workers not working. I support American workers, just like I support our soldiers. We need to back all of them up and we all need to demand that all of those who lost their jobs be put back to work and also be paid enough to have a decent living and send their children to college and be able to afford healthcare for their families.

[SirCoolBreeze]

09:31 AM on 06/23/2010

(not Board Certified) Dr. Rand Paul advertised he was "Board Certified". I wonder, can any of his patients sue him for lying? (not Board Certified) Dr. Paul was "Certified" to operate on your eyes by his wife. Hmm.

[Realityism]

10:36 AM on 06/23/2010

"A report published on June 14, 2010 indicated that Rand Paul was not certified by the AMA-approved American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), but rather by a board established by Dr. Paul himself.[15] Paul responded that he had been certified three times by the ABMS-approved American Board of Ophthalmology (ABO), but founded the National Board of Ophthalmology in 1999 along with 200 other ophthalmologists to protest the ABO's recertification practices, which exempted older ophthalmologists.[16]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rand_Paul#Medical_career

I don't like the guy's politics, but I have zero doubt that he is a capable and respected opthamologist.

[rshrink]

02:00 PM on 06/23/2010

Exactly, he just has a problem with authority.

[SirCoolBreeze]

07:03 PM on 06/23/2010

He and his wife "Certified" himself. Why did (not Board Certified) Dr. Paul ADVERTISE he was "Board Certified" when he knew he was LYING at that time? I'd sue had he operated on my eyes.

[MrRobinson]

05:17 PM on 06/26/2010

He is Board Certified. He is not board-certified by quango A but he is board-certified by quango B. Do you have a dog in this fight? Are you connected with quango A?

[jimpager]

08:42 AM on 06/23/2010

Hopefully, Rand Paul will be unemployed after the election so he can experience government unemployment benefits, and what they mean to the unemployed, first hand...up close and personal so to speak.

[ZeraLee]

05:09 AM on 06/23/2010

Talking over the caller instead of listening to him. Slick move, Randy.

Much as it pains me to say it: after listening to what he actually said, it appears to me that what he said in this instance is being misrepresented.

It is an employer's market, and smaller salaries are a part of that.

I would never vote for him, but this audio clip seems to be one of his more rational moments.

[ddanimal]

11:56 PM on 06/22/2010

Its am impossible situation. If the government continues to support the economy, its going to break the credit rating of the government and create a massive financial crisis (think greece in the US). On the other hand, there simply are not enough jobs to go around, and Pauls ideas will lead to chronically high unemployment and deflation for perhaps a decade.

[Amin Khad]

03:00 AM on 06/23/2010

It's a difficult situation but Paul's solution is the less painful of the two.

[rshrink]

04:02 PM on 06/23/2010

Paul's solution is not a solution. It is an ideology devoid of any connection to reality.

[rshrink]

04:06 PM on 06/23/2010

Think Bush, who gave tax incentives to send jobs out of the country and cut taxes for the wealthiest people. Bad idea. Raise the taxes on the wealthy back to where they were and bring home jobs by providing incentives to small businesses that manufacture green products to build our infrastructure for the modern age and get busy before other countries beat us to the punch, which some of them are already.

[Amin Khad]

01:58 AM on 06/24/2010

The tax cut were followed by an expansion of tax revenues, so they were a positive for the government.

You can't always depend on taxing the rich. It's not sustainable. One day, you'll have to let it go. You'll have to stand up on your own.

[ImStuck]

11:52 PM on 06/22/2010

we the small people

[Badger84]

11:34 PM on 06/22/2010

He relates to ideology, not people.