Rand Paul CPAC Speech: Calls For Cuts From Entitlements, Defense Spending

Freshman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) went against the grain in his speech at CPAC Thursday, slamming the GOP for pursuing budget cuts he deemed insignificant and arguing for much more more aggressive action -- slashing entitlement and defense spending.

"We face a looming debt crisis. It's worse than you can imagine," Paul said, claiming that the nation was approaching a "point of no return."

The Tea Party-backed senator then accused Republican leadership's budget solution of being "too little, it's not enough, it's too timid, and we must be more bold."

"We will have to have entitlement reform," Paul said, before floating a more controversial, but not new proposal for the senator and his libertarian-leaning father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). "We will have to look long and hard at the military budget."

After a volley of approving yells and reproachful jeers, Paul went on: "The most important thing that our government does is our national defense, absolutely. But you cannot say that the doubling of the military budget in the last 10 years has all been spent wisely and there's not any waste in it."

While the issue of including the defense budget in calls to dramatically cut spending has been a particularly divisive issue in the GOP, Paul also threw out a few other controversial suggestions.

"It's time we go back to the Republican roots that says, 'We believe in abolishing the Department of Education," Paul said, arguing that institutions not provided for in the Constitution should be eliminated. And, he said, "The age of Social Security will have to gradually rise," implying later that he would be open to a complete retool of the program.

WATCH Paul's Speech:

Comments

[Twiggy 500]

02:55 PM on 03/24/2011

Good for him they need to get back in touch as well

[Imno Genius]

08:11 AM on 02/15/2011

...Baloney-nose for Prez...

[rainkitty]

02:26 PM on 02/13/2011

"Paul and other libertarians are not merely advocates of limited government; they are anti-government. Their objective is not the correction of error but the cultivation of contempt for government itself. There is a reason libertarianism has never been -- and probably will never be -- a national political force: because too many would find its utopia a nightmare."
- Michael Gerson

[Amin Khad]

01:23 AM on 02/16/2011

Libertarianism is as not anarchism. Libertarians want a limited government that focuses on core functions it's best suited at. In the case of Rand Paul, he wanted a limited federal government, so that states have the freedom to try their own policies, which would allow a diversity set of policies across America.

[Frog in a pot]

03:02 PM on 02/12/2011

The War On Waste



"We know it's gone. But we don't know what they spent it on," said Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service.

Minnery, a former Marine turned whistle-blower, is risking his job by speaking out for the first time about the millions he noticed were missing from one defense agency's balance sheets. Minnery tried to follow the money trail, even crisscrossing the country looking for records.

"The director looked at me and said 'Why do you care about this stuff?' It took me aback, you know? My supervisor asking me why I care about doing a good job," said Minnery.

He was reassigned and says officials then covered up the problem by just writing it off.

"They have to cover it up," he said. "That's where the corruption comes in. They have to cover up the fact that they can't do the job."


Twenty years ago, Department of Defense Analyst Franklin C. Spinney made headlines exposing what he calls the "accounting games." he believes the problem has gotten worse.

"Those numbers are pie in the sky. The books are cooked routinely year after year," he said.

Another critic of Pentagon waste, Retired Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan,

In his opinion, "With good financial oversight we could find $48 billion in loose change in that building, without having to hit the taxpayers."



www.cbsnews.com/.../01/.../main325985.shtml - Cached - Similar - Add to iGoogle

[lw1]

11:45 PM on 02/12/2011

You come up with a lot of good stuff frog!

[Frog in a pot]

02:50 PM on 02/12/2011

The War On Waste
Defense Department Cannot Account For 25% Of Funds — $2.3 Trillion


(CBS) On Sept. 10, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war. Not on foreign terrorists, "the adversary's closer to home. It's the Pentagon bureaucracy," he said.

He said money wasted by the military poses a serious threat.

"In fact, it could be said it's a matter of life and death," he said.

Rumsfeld promised change but the next day – Sept. 11-- the world changed and in the rush to fund the war on terrorism, the war on waste seems to have been forgotten.

Just last week President Bush announced, "my 2003 budget calls for more than $48 billion in new defense spending."


"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.

$2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America.


www.cbsnews.com/.../01/.../main325985.shtml - Cached - Similar - Add to iGoogle





Rumsfeld promised change but the next day – Sept. 11-- the world changed and in the rush to fund the war on terrorism, the war on waste seems to have been forgotten.


Hmmmmm........

[bobncar]

02:40 PM on 02/12/2011

The self certified eye doctor has become the self certified accounting specialist

[Amin Khad]

01:23 AM on 02/16/2011

He's more competent than the rest of the politicians in Congress!

[Frog in a pot]

02:38 PM on 02/12/2011

9 BILLION disappeared in Iraq.......poof.....gone.Thats not the many more BILLIONS of waste and fraud.

[DanBeach]

12:21 PM on 02/12/2011

…”F it” we’re broke lets go home!

[Viper]

12:12 PM on 02/12/2011

First cutting the department of education which sends its budget to the states...saves nothing!

The countries beating us have centrailized education and just like helatcare its more efficient. Have 1000s of local school boards where educations and what is taught is decided based on politics, even rewriting science and history.. is a joke.

None of this address the problems. Trade deficits and 750 foreign bases, spending 20 times more on defense than any other country while we have a 3.5 trillion infrastructure problem and a trillion dollar trade deficit, make nothing and have no jobs.

Any cuts, just means less demand for goods and services in a country, that created no jobs in a decade. You must move funds to productive reindustrialization and industry, Otherwise via the multipler effect, your tax revenue will drop and offset your cuts... No resulting deficit reduction.

Regards

[Amin Khad]

01:26 AM on 02/16/2011

----The countries beating us have centrailiz­ed education and just like helatcare its more efficient. Have 1000s of local school boards where educations and what is taught is decided based on politics, even rewriting science and history.. is a joke.---

Centralized education is not better than local education. The DoE was created in 1979 and education has gone downhill since then. Many state governments are larger than most European countries, so there is sufficient size to created highly scaled state-wide education programs. There's no excuse for the federal government getting involved. 'No Child Left Behind' is a huge waste of money and interferes with education.

---- None of this address the problems. Trade deficits and 750 foreign bases, spending 20 times more on defense than any other country while we have a 3.5 trillion infrastruc­ture problem and a trillion dollar trade deficit, make nothing and have no jobs.---

Paul addresses all of this, you are just not informed about him.

[extreme eugene]

12:03 PM on 02/12/2011

Is that a new rug?

[Pagandrummer]

11:49 AM on 02/12/2011

On Social Security Mr Paul, i paid into that, so tell me why do you want to take it away. Its my money, and how high do we raise retirement age. Guess Americans just arent allowed to enjoy there Golden years. But for the GOP no one needs em, not when you have to retire at 85

[heymack]

12:22 PM on 02/12/2011

Problem is that you will take everything "you paid in" within 4 years of retirement and you will probably live another 9-12 years or even more after that.  This is a problem with every SS recipient and while we had a labor force growing faster than the retirement group we were able to sustain this inequality.

Now the retirement group is growing faster than the labor group (baby boomers) which means it is draining faster and faster now.

True, you should get in what you paid but under the current system you will get a heck of a lot more than you put in.

[lw1]

11:56 PM on 02/12/2011

To bad the government didn't invest that money paid in - then we would be flush!
"Take the money that’s now coming in from this generation of workers and INVEST it in secure instruments.

Within 10 years, the system would be able to cover all new costs from existing revenues. Within twenty years, the system would achieve permanent solvency.

If we did that RIGHT NOW, we would find that we have all the money we need to cover everyone who has ever paid into the system in perpetuity….as long as we pass and sustain laws that require the Social Security Administration to administer the funds it receives in this manner."

http://www.open.salon.com/blog/sagemerlin/2010/07/07/when_did_social_security_become_an_entitlement

[mjtaylor22]

11:37 AM on 02/12/2011

this whole abolish the dept of education...we need national standards of education badly......if our citizens are to compete inthe global economy we must ensur eour education levels are higher and of better quality....no lessening them...almost all states are broke....and conservatives keep argueing to eliminate education

[Amin Khad]

01:31 AM on 02/16/2011

Each state should deal with education on its own. Homogenizing policy through the federal government reduces the number of avenues that are tried, leading to a lower likelihood of hitting upon education policies that work

[mjtaylor22]

02:13 PM on 02/16/2011

yea state based planning and funding....yea that works real well to compete ina global economy...I am talkign about competing with other nations that are kicking our tails ......
what part fo federal standards, for the big picture... but administered and programed at the state level is a dam problem for you people.......
it is nto just all or freakign none.....state based, the dam state are broke as hell..they got swindled by wall street. we are all better when we work together as a nation..
but

[Tom Langley]

11:31 AM on 02/12/2011

Yeah, we wouldn't want to raise the income threshold with inflation, which would MORE than cover the projected run-out of the trust fund. Although there are economic things that Rand and his daddy espouse that I believe in, this SS nonsense seems miserably uniformed and nothing more that rhetoric and hyperbole.
Check it out.
http://zfacts.com/p/871.html

[bobncar]

02:43 PM on 02/12/2011

Rand....just give us back what Reagan took in his raid on the social security fund. That problem solved.

[murphysgirl]

10:55 AM on 02/12/2011

If Conway hadn't run that AquaBuddha ad he may have won the Senate instead of this "strict constitutionalist." Although I do agree with Paul on spending less on Defense, I am so sick of Paul's sanctimonious blatherings on the Constitution and the founding fathers...

[bobncar]

02:45 PM on 02/12/2011

Father to son propaganda. That comes from home schooling. He needs to read a real history book, not an abridged john birch styled history book

[Amin Khad]

01:28 AM on 02/16/2011

Since when did the constitution become an object of scorn among the socialists?

[cowpunkrva]

11:49 AM on 03/03/2011

Rand Paul wasn't home schooled, and either way, he graduated from one of the top 10 medical schools in the country, so I imagine he's pretty educated.

[lw1]

11:59 PM on 02/12/2011

here are 2 things Rand doesn't seem to get from the founders:

http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/01/17/congress-passes-socialized-medicine-and-mandates-health-insurance-in-1798/

http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_accountability/history_corporations_us.html

[Amin Khad]

01:29 AM on 02/16/2011

The 1798 bill covers the merchant marine, which is a branch of the navy and therefore can be dealt with by the federal government.