Rand Paul On Bush Tax Cut Debate: 'You Can't Punish Rich People' (VIDEO)

Kentucky Republican Senate Candidate Rand Paul fired a line of defense on behalf of wealthy Americans on Friday night in arguing why he thinks tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush should remain in place.

When asked to weigh in on how Democrats are handling the issue by Fox News host Sean Hannity, Paul said, "Well, my guess is they think they will lose on the issue and they see that the American public doesn't buy this 'soak the rich' or 'tax the rich.'"

The Tea Party-backed hopeful added, "What I've been saying in my speeches is 'do you remember when they said they wanted to tax the yachts?' They were going to tax these big boats that the rich people bought. Well, guess what? The rich people went to the Virgin Islands and bought their boats down there. But, you know who was hurt? The ship builders in Connecticut. You can't punish rich people. You end up punishing the people who work for them, or you punish the people who they buy things from. It makes no sense to soak the rich."

Whether or not the tax cuts approved by Bush -- which are set to expire at the end of this year -- should be extended for the wealthy has emerged as a hot topic for debate among lawmakers and candidates running for office in the midterm election cycle.

The White House, as well as many Democrats, have voiced support for leaving the reduced rates in place, with the exception of for the top income bracket, or individuals earning more than $200,000, and families making more than $250,000, each year.

On CNN's 'State of the Union' on Sunday, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) predicted that Congress would permanently reinstate the tax cuts for middle class Americans while temporarily extending the cuts for wealthy Americans for one or two years.

A CNN/Opinion Research poll released last month found that just over half the country agrees with the plan. According to the survey, 51 percent say the tax breaks should remain instated for families making less than $250,000 each year, but not for households bringing in more than that income amount. By contrast, 31 percent favor allowing the cuts to continue for all taxpayers, regardless of annual earnings.

Comments

[parags20]

05:03 AM on 11/25/2010

Democrats should be hammering the point home that they have actually supported and passed tax cuts, both for individuals and businesses over the past year or so…and stop defending against right wing lies and childish ranting !! Democrats need to get aggressive and take some initiative in this debate and wake up or November will be a very, very cold month indeed !!
http://www.guidetoinvest.net/bush-tax-cut-debate.html

[MrUniteUs]

02:51 PM on 10/21/2010

So that's how the self-certified opthamalogist sees it.

All this hullaboo on weather or not the top income bracket goes back to 39.6 or stays
at the deficit generating 36%, Keep the tax cuts and the deficts will expand greatly,
those rich dollars will sink in value.

[ELIALI]

11:54 PM on 10/18/2010

Rand should be honest and man enough to say, "Do not punish the rich by taxing them because I am one of them!!!".
Do you know that if you are poor, you are better off living in Europe. They will give you money to survive there for years but not here in the U.S. However, if you are rich, you are better off living in the U.S. The tax system has a lot of holes to hide your income and the politicians will beg for your election donations so they can legislate in your interest.

[ZeraLee]

01:41 AM on 09/29/2010

You cannot run a prosperous economy by sucking most of the wealth out of circulation. The economy has always worked best when distribution of wealth was not heavily concentrated. If consumers do not get enough of the wealth, the economy dries up.

[alreadyfamous]

04:46 PM on 09/28/2010

rand paul, is just another person interested only in the top two percent of americans and a hater of anything that resembles humanity. but then, you must have a heart to feel things.

the GOP are an evil group of people and it has never been more evident, more vivid ,since President Obama took office.

the republicans are so insulting, but they laugh at all the middle class conservatives, who are buying there moronic ideology while screaming loudly "lets keep government out of our lives"

ask those tea partiers, who have been brainwashed, within an inch of their own survival that they would never be able to answer the question of "where do you want your taxes to go"?

i keep wondering how anyone would or could imagine that the new 45 page GOP pledge to America says anything but the SAME sh*t they always say. there are no ideas within this party and they are counting on all those idiots who will agree with them.

i still have a bit of faith that people will wake up and see the horror the Republicans are planning for this country and would do even more damage to America now that they have stirred themselves up even more in a whirlwind of hate.

i do not believe in "anything" any republican says in an interview.

[ctman47]

01:03 PM on 09/28/2010

So if we ask the wealthy to pay their fair share they will take they purchases and go to the Virgin Islands to get out of the tax? Isn't that illegal to begin with. Secondly, I am not so sure most of the wealthy are whining little kids like Rand.

[Janedough1]

03:27 PM on 09/28/2010

Who are "the wealthy?" Using blanket terms like "the wealthy" is a broad generalization. Just exactly who are you talking about. If you look at the Forbes top 400, whom I would have to assume is who you are talking about, you need to think about who you are talking about. Do you wish to bankrupt Ted Turner and have no more cable? That is fine with me. I'm not real fond of Ted Turner. Do you wish to bankrupt the founders of Apple and Microsoft, and have no more computers? I'm good with that. We won't have any more Huffington Post. How about Oprah and George Soros? I'm good with that. And hey, you can bankrupt every current member of Congress as far as I'm concerned, but I doubt they'll include themselves in whatever taxes they pass. But you've got to be realistic here. Who do you think put the current congress and president in office? Do you really think they are going to bite the hand that feeds them? Or do you think those taxes will include everyone except those that they owe favors to? If you want that to change, then I think you want Rand Paul IN congress, not out.

[DeanAdams]

06:07 PM on 09/28/2010

So a 3% increase in their marginal tax rate would bankrupt someone like Oprah. Lets say her annual income, just for giggles, is $100 million. Returning to the tax rates of the Clinton era (gosh remember how bad the economy was then) would increase her federal income taxes by a whopping $2.992,500 assuming the top marginal tax rate was increased by 3%. So Oprah would go from paying about $35million in income taxes to $38.5 million or in other words her net income would go from $65 million to $61.5 million. I am guessing she will still be able to get by.

[nothingchanges]

11:32 AM on 09/28/2010

The middle class has been shrinking for decades. The majority of us are not moving up, we're becoming the new working poor. The poor have no disposable income to pay the taxes needed to run any government.

When the middle class is gone. Only the rich will have enough money to pay taxes. If they're complaining now about having to pay the same tax rate as middle class tax payers, (35% Vs the 20% they now pay) wait until their income becomes the ONLY pool of funds available for taxation.

You can pay now, or you can pay later, generally speaking, paying later costs a whole lot more money. The choice is theirs, they own the government, bought and paid for.

[NitramNos]

11:24 AM on 09/28/2010

Oh, poor rich people. Asking them to contribute their fair share is "punishment". Oh, boo hoo.

[Janedough1]

03:28 PM on 09/28/2010

Which "rich people" are you talking about? Honest intellectuals define their terms.

[ladybugmagic]

11:17 AM on 10/03/2010

I am going to guess, for the sake of argument, individuals earning $200,000 or couples earning $250,000. Of which they will be given equal tax cuts for. Anything in excess, they won't.

Honest intellectuals clearly are treating the "rich people" fairly.

[NitramNos]

12:35 PM on 10/20/2010

I'm referring to the rich people Rand Paul refers to in the article. Honest intellectuals read an article before commentting on it.

[INDYBIGT]

11:21 AM on 09/28/2010

Let the rich and wealthy take their money overseas. But if they make their money in this country, they should pay taxes here. The wealthy haven't suffered in this great recession like the rest of us. Take away their tax cuts and give them a taste of the problems polarization of wealth has caused. Dynastic wealth is not the American Ideal. Achievable financial security for an honest life's work is.

[ladybugmagic]

11:19 AM on 10/03/2010

Where I am confused - the tea party proclaims to be "patriots". Shouldn't these patriots be repelled by people taking their business overseas? This is one big bunch of people chronically fighting against their own causes.

[Cheryl2]

10:58 AM on 09/28/2010

Amazing that he would indicate it is OK to soak everyone but the rich.

[Mafdet]

10:18 AM on 09/28/2010

Evidently, you CAN'T punish rich people.  Under ANY circumstance.  Not even when they decide to gin out predatory loans, bundle them into valueless securities, pay off corrupt government officilas to certify them as AAA, and dump them through overseas shell companies on unsuspecting consumers like you and me for nearly a decade collapsing our econonmy, and European economies, and leaving us to pay for it all...WHILE LEAVING US THE BLAME FOR IT BECAUSE WE "LIVED BEYOND OUR MEANS."

[Janedough1]

02:54 PM on 09/28/2010

Now, which "rich" would that be? Because I believe that practice came from Acorn and Barney Frank. Some of the other practices you are mentioning came from Congress. I'm with you on that "rich." That is why I can't wait to get career politicians like Jack Conway out of our government and go back to having citizens in congress who serve one or two terms and go home before they learn to manipulate the system. That is why so many of us want term limits on Congress.

[Mafdet]

03:15 PM on 09/28/2010

You know, when the Tea Party emerged, I thought that it was going to be a party that stood for term limits, small government (meaning limiting the intrusion of government into individual lives + shrinking the federal bureaucracy + shirinking the military), campaign reform...  After Massachusetts, I thought the crazies would recede and the THESE issues would crystalize and galvanize the grassroots.

But that didn't happen.  Now the Tea Party is just another faux-militarist movement being inculcated into a mainstream party.  Rand Paul, a kind of Dan Qualye with a dynasty behind him, is this Party's future standard-bearer and he's looking more like Jim Bunning ever day and less like his dad.

 

[gwinegarden]

10:16 AM on 09/28/2010

Especially now that the gap between rich and poor has widened.

[babyboomerorig]

10:13 AM on 09/28/2010

Don't punish the rich.....let the rich continue punisheing the workers of this country.....it's the 'Merican way!

[ZappaFreak]

10:09 AM on 09/28/2010

No...but we can beat the living he// out of the middle-class who made them all rich!

What a jurk!

ZF

[katylied]

09:32 AM on 09/28/2010

This is from last week. FF to the 26:30 mark and listen the caller from AZ when she calls him a communist and accuses the Dems of waging 'class warfare' (talking point du jour)

http://www.cspan.org/Watch/Media/2010/09/16/HP/A/38180/Sen+Bernie+Sanders+IVT+Budget+Committee+Member.aspx

The entire segment is great, BTW.