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Rand Paul Assails Corrupt ‘Washington Machine’ as He Opens White House Bid
TND Guest Contributor: Ken McIntyre |
Sen. Rand Paul today entered the race for president by urging voters to join him in fighting for “restrained” government and “maximized” freedom.
Please RETWEET if I have your support! http://t.co/ihlYYfP9wp https://t.co/VQAA0uMcbN
— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) April 7, 2015
Asking help from God and “lovers of liberty,” the Kentucky Republican pledged if elected to shut down “the Washington machine” he said thrives on cronyism while fleecing taxpayers and invading their privacy.
“We’ve come to take our country back from the special interests that use Washington as their personal piggy bank,” Paul said. “The Washington machine that gobbles up our freedoms and invades every nook and cranny of our lives must be stopped.”
Speaking to a flag-waving crowd inside the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky’s junior senator with the libertarian streak became the second major Republican to announce he would seek the party’s nomination for president.
His rivals include two other first-term GOP senators elected in the swell of “tea party” activism in 2010: Ted Cruz of Texas, who announced his candidacy March 23, and Marco Rubio of Florida, who is expected to announce April 13.
In a field expected to include Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and as many as 10 other GOP hopefuls, Paul set out to prove he could take on presumed Democratic favorite Hillary Rodham Clinton. He comes in third behind Walker and Bush in most recent polls, nearly a year before the first votes are cast.
Paul railed in his speech against “career politicians,” corporate cronyism and runaway government spending.
He embraced term limits for members of Congress and a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. He also plugged his legislation requiring lawmakers to read a bill before they pass it.
“Too often when Republicans have won,” Paul said, “we’ve squandered our victory by becoming part of the Washington machine.”
Following a procession of warm-up speakers, commentators noted that Paul—the ophthalmologist son of libertarian firebrand Ron Paul, a retired Texas congressman—was the first white man to take the stage.
Among his predecessors at the podium: J.C. Watts, the former Oklahoma congressman who is one of the nation’s most familiar black Republicans. Watts, head of a government relations firm in Washington, D.C., is poised to be a key surrogate for Paul on the campaign trail.
In a section of Paul’s remarks designed to convince younger and minority voters—many of them independents or Democrats—to give him a look, Paul said less government spending, regulation and taxation would spur job creation and spread prosperity to more Americans.
So, he said, would expanded school choice for low-income parents whose children go to failing public schools.
At one point he invoked the rhetorical picture of “two starkly different American experiences that exist side by side,” a favorite phrase of Martin Luther King Jr.
“The message of liberty, opportunity and justice is for all Americans, whether you wear a suit, a uniform or overalls, whether you’re white or black, rich or poor,” he said, adding:
Many Americans, though, are being left behind. The reward of work seems beyond their grasp. Under the watch of both parties, the poor seem to get poorer and the rich get richer. Politically connected cronies get taxpayer dollars by the hundreds of millions, and poor families across America continue to suffer. …
Liberal policies have failed our inner cities. Our schools are not equal and the poverty gap continues to widen. … My trips to Detroit, Appalachia and Chicago have revealed what I call an ‘undercurrent of unease.’
Critics of Paul’s non-interventionist leanings on foreign policy and national security will scrutinize the passages he devoted to confronting the nation’s enemies, standing by its friends and reversing President Obama’s “position of weakness.”
Some excerpts from the complete transcript:
On his defense and foreign policy strategy: “We need a national defense robust enough to defend against all attack, modern enough to deter all enemies and nimble enough to defend our vital interests. But we also need a foreign policy that protects American interests and encourages stability, not chaos. I envision an America with a national defense unparalleled, undefeatable, and unencumbered by overseas nation building. I envision a national defense that promotes, as Reagan put it, ‘peace through strength.’”
Critics of Paul’s non-interventionist leanings on foreign policy and national security will scrutinize the passages he devoted to confronting the nation’s enemies, standing by its friends and reversing President Obama’s “position of weakness.”
Some excerpts from the complete transcript:
On his defense and foreign policy strategy: “We need a national defense robust enough to defend against all attack, modern enough to deter all enemies and nimble enough to defend our vital interests. But we also need a foreign policy that protects American interests and encourages stability, not chaos. I envision an America with a national defense unparalleled, undefeatable, and unencumbered by overseas nation building. I envision a national defense that promotes, as Reagan put it, ‘peace through strength.’”
About the author:
Ken McIntyre, a 30-year veteran of national and local newspapers, serves as chief political correspondent at The Daily Signal and The Heritage Foundation’s Marilyn and Fred Guardabassi Fellow in Media and Public Policy Studies. Send an email to Ken.
This article was published at The Daily Signal and is reprinted with permission.
Source: http://thenewsdoctors.com/rand-paul-assails-corrupt-washington-machine-as-he-opens-white-house-bid/
