Rand Paul: Left and Right Have Made Unholy Alliance to Explode the Debt
(CNSNews.com) - Before the Senate voted on Friday for a budget deal that eliminates any legal limit on the federal government’s debt until March 16, 2017—which is after President Barack Obama will have left office—Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky gave a speech on the floor [1] saying that the right and left in Congress together in “an unholy alliance to explode the debt.
“The number one threat to our country’s future is our debt,” said Paul. “The number one threat to our national security is our debt. This deal gives the president the power to borrow unlimited amounts of money.
“This deal represents the worst of Washington culture,” said Paul.
“The left and the right have come together in an unholy alliance to explode the debt,” he said. “The left gets more welfare, the right gets more military contracts, and the taxpayer is stuck with the deal.”
Paul was especially critical of the element in the bill that completely lifts the debt ceiling until March 2017.
“I will not give this president any power to borrow unspecified amounts of money,” he said. “Our debt now equals our entire economy.”
“The deficit continues to grow because, frankly, many are not serious about reducing the debt,” he said. “Many up here are serious only about increasing spending for their sacred cow.
“The true compromise that is necessary in America is for both right and left to say enough is enough, to say that the particular interests they have in spending money is hurting the country,” he said. “It is time for the right to say: You know what; the country is not stronger by going further in debt. The country actually, I believe, is weaker. We do not project power from bankruptcy court.
“The left needs to acknowledge this as well,” he said. “The left may say this is for humanitarian purposes, we want to help people. I don’t doubt their motives, but I do doubt whether you can help people from bankruptcy court. I think we are weakening our country.
“One of the reasons why we have been able to help so many people in our country is that we are the richest, most humanitarian country in the history of mankind,” said Paul. “In the year 2014 alone, we gave away nearly $400 billion in private charity in this country. I fear that will not continue to last. I fear that as this deficit mounts, as the debt mounts, they will drag us down.”
“This debt ceiling vote does something that is unprecedented,” he said. “It doesn’t even add a certain amount to the debt. It adds an unspecified amount. Over the next year or year and a half, we will add as much debt as can be crammed into the budget, as much money as can be spent. There will be no limit. We are giving an unspecified amount of borrowing power to the president.
“I don’t care whether it is a Democratic president or a Republican president,” he said. “It is unconscionable to give unlimited borrowing authority to the president.”
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