This morning on radio Kentucky Senator Rand Paul joined the program to discuss is new budget proposal, which Glenn may have wished was a marriage proposal after hearing all the details.
Senator Paul ran for office in 2010 in large part because he believes the Congress should have a rule that forces them to balance the budget. The balance budget proposal Republicans in Congress were pushing for late last year said it would accomplish a balanced budget in five years. This exactly what Rand Paul’s budget proposal claims to do, unlike Representative Ryan’s plan, which takes twenty-eight years to balance the budget.
“I like Paul Ryan,” Senator Paul told Glenn. “I think he’s a smart guy, and he’s helping the entitlement reform debate, but his budget doesn’t balance for 28 years—and that’s before you even talk to Democrats. So you’re starting out with your initial plan being 28 years to balance. I just don’t think that’s tenable or should be our position.”
The Senator went on to explain what makes this budget different from the Ryan Plan that is getting so much media attention. Rand Paul’s plan not only does entitlement reform, but also immediately starts Medicare reform.
“We let senior citizens have the Congressional health care plan,” Sen. Paul explained. “And I think this is consistent with the Tea Party platform where we always said we don’t want special privileges for Congressmen, we don’t want special carve-outs for people. We want everybody to get the same sort of attitude from legislation. But, if you give all senior citizens the Congressional healthcare plan, and you do it immediately, it saves a trillion dollars over ten years. It does a lot of the things that Paul Ryan’s does, but his waits ten years, and then give the choice of staying in Medicare.”
The CBO scores the Ryan Plan as zero savings, but that’s assuming people will choose to leave Medicare.
Senator Paul adds that the other big difference between his and Rep. Ryan’s, he explains, is “we do a flat tax of 17%, corporate and individual.”
This was something Glenn and Pat clearly liked the sound of, because within thirty seconds listeners and the Senator were hearing Barry White singing in the background.
Unfazed by Glenn and Pat, Senator Paul continued, “I think what you would see is you would really see the economy grow like it hasn't grown that long time. That would be cutting our corporate tax in half. There would be very few deductions. So, it would be much simpler and I think really that's what with we need to get everybody off the sidelines from basically not investing.”
Glenn agreed with the Senator, his plan would be a huge start to the engine of America’s economy. Knowing that anyone who wants to balance a budget in Washington is an “extremist” he asked, “How can we help you get this done?”
“Letting your 14 million listeners in on the clue is always a big help,” Sen. Paul answered.
Rand Paul also told Glenn he’s been speaking with conservatives in the House this week, and believes that they will be introducing to “conservative alternative” to Paul Ryan’s plan after seeing the five year balanced budget proposal.
Glenn also wanted to know how Sen. Paul’s plan affects the defense budget.
Rand Paul explained to Glenn that because they eliminate four departments, and cut a lot of spending, it allows them not to have a sequester. “Instead of having military spending go down, like the sequester would have, ours actually allows for a gradual increase in military spending over time,” Rand told Glenn.
“So, how does that work?” Glenn asked.
Senator Paul explained that due to the amount they are able to eliminate in spending, through the elimination of the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Education and HUD, that they avoid the sequester.
It was pretty obvious from the return of the Barry White backtrack that Glenn, Pat and Stu really liked the sound of this.
“Wow, that’s amazing,” Stu said.
When Pat asked the Senator what his plan was for dealing with the fit the left will throw over this, he said, “I guess we take it for what it's worth. We realize they're on the other side of this, but we also realize the country is broke, that we are now borrowing $50,000 a second and it's untenable. So, they can squawk all they want, but we're trying to save the country while they're letting Rome burn.”
Next Glenn asked Rand Paul what his thoughts were on Occupy, if he [or anyone in Washington] was paying attention to the radicals that are in bed with Occupy and what they’re planning for the summer.
“I’m concerned about the whole philosophy that if you’ve got three cars and I have a moped, that I should send the President over to your house to get one of your cars,” Sen. Paul answered. “Because the next step is, if you accept that philosophy of redistribution of wealth, why wait for the President to get one of your cars? Why don't I go to your house with a brick and take what I want? Or go to the storefront? So, the idea that it’s the government's job to take from those who succeed and give to those who don't …once we accept that philosophy, it's a short step from that to violence. So, I do worry about accepting this idea of transferring wealth from one group to the next, because in times when there's a crisis and people don't get their checks, like in Greece, then they riot and say it's mine—you promised me my check, and so I'll just go to the storefront and take what I want.”
This may have been one of the first Congressmen Glenn has interviewed that really seemed to understand the Occupy movement, or at least what it is capable of, as he followed that up by asking Rand Paul, “is there a candidate that is running that has a really, really nasty cold that could go off the rails and get really sick and could you be their vice-president?”
“Well, I've told people if there's any kind of secret plan for that happen, it's to secret, they haven't even told me about it,” Sen. Paul answered.
“You are what the Tea Party, I believe, is looking for,” Glenn told the freshman Senator. Later adding, “You've said more in the last eight minutes than I think most of these candidates have said the entire race.”
“I made the mistake of reading this book Broke before I got into office,” Rand Paul replied, “I have all this information bottled in my head.”
Glenn next asked Rand Paul what listeners could do to help support his budget.
“Call your Congressman, your senators. Tell them that we have to balance the budget, and it's the most important thing facing our country. It's the number one threat to our national security, and you have to cut spending. It's not about raising taxes. It's not about punishing your neighbor,” Sen. Paul answered.
