The man has spine

[Forever_frost]

Rand Paul Holds Up Senate Over Foreign Aid

Today, Senator Rand Paul offered legislation to strip Pakistan, Egypt, and Libya of all $4 billion in foreign aid sent to them each year, redirecting half of that to the veterans’ job bill, with the other half going toward deficit reduction. This would essentially triple the funding for veterans programs. (WKYU FM 9/13/12)

VIDEO UPDATE: Rand Paul on CNN 9/13/12 @7pm. See it here.

All this week, Senator Paul has used every opportunity to bring attention to what he sees as the absurdity of foreign aid and to embarrass establishment senators by forcing them to vote for a very unpopular policy. Needless to say, John McCain and Harry Reid are not amused…and that’s probably a good sign!

Upsetting Daily Kos is usually good too…

RT @occupygreed: RAND PAUL IS A DANGEROUS MAN <> RAND PAUL blocked passage of theVETERANS JOBS BILL <>bit.ly/Uab0F9 via @dailykos

http://iroots.org/2012/09/13/rand-paul-holds-up-senate-over-foreign-aid/

[Snatch Napkin]

At least someone else is bringing attention to this absurdity.

[4bangen]

[like]!!!!!!

[jw33]

Wonder where he got the idea and nerves to act like that? What kind of foreign policy message does that send? He should just fall into line and do what the Republican party says like everyone else.

[Zfan]

I love it!

[Forever_frost]

Wonder where he got the idea and nerves to act like that? What kind of foreign policy message does that send? He should just fall into line and do what the Republican party says like everyone else.

Hey, weren't the Paulbots saying he was the spawn of Satan for supporting Romney?

[Vertnut]

Hey, weren't the Paulbots saying he was the spawn of Satan for supporting Romney?

Yepper. Damn turn-coat!

[slow99]

Think for yourselves - follow dr paul!

[Vertnut]

Think for yourselves - follow dr paul!

Hell, a lot of them still are, and he's d-o-n-e.

[jw33]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/lindsay-graham-rand-paul-foreign-aid_n_1901432.html?utm_hp_ref=elections-2012

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday criticized a fellow Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, for proposing to end aid to Libya, Egypt and Pakistan, suggesting the cuts could damage U.S. national security.

"Rand Paul is one nice fellow, but I bet you he's never talked with CIA Director General Petraeus about what would happen if we cut our aid off to Pakistan," said Graham at a Politico event at the Newseum. "It's 90 percent popular, but I can show you things in history that were 100 percent popular that were really bad ideas."

Paul has threatened to block a six-month government funding bill because he wants to cut off U.S. aid to Pakistan unless the country stops "openly thwarting our objectives in the region" and releases a Pakistani doctor who helped in the search for Osama bin Laden. He urged aid to be cut to Egypt and Libya, unless those countries show "full cooperation" in bringing those to justice who stormed U.S. diplomatic facilities last week. The attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three colleagues.

Paul told fellow senators in a letter on Tuesday that if a full cutoff in aid could not be passed, "significant cuts that are less than the full amount of foreign aid could be considered, coupled with redirecting a portion of the money into the improvement of security at our diplomatic facilities. If these countries cannot secure American lives and property, our increased cost of doing so must come out of the money set aside for aid."

In the State-Foreign Operations budget for the 2013 fiscal year, the Obama administration requested $2.2 billion in foreign aid to Pakistan and $1.56 billion for Egypt, according to a Congressional Research Service report obtained by the Federation of American Scientists.

Graham told those gathered at the Newseum on Thursday that the U.S. should continue to engage with the Mideast to try to shape the region as it goes through political turmoil.

"Here's what I convey to my colleagues: don't be indifferent: the people I want to give the aid to and support to are the ones that I have some hope that I can live with in peace," Graham said. "The radical Islamists know that they cannot win if we stay in the region."

Graham also raised the alarm about automatic spending cuts that are scheduled to take effect in January that would result in a 9.4 percent cut in defense spending. He urged his Republican colleagues to consider revenue increases that would avoid the drastic reductions.

"Why don't we have a deal to avoid sequestration? I think there are a lot on the left who really are reluctant to embrace entitlement reform and people on our side reluctant to embrace revenue generation," he said.

[Nash B.]

Makes sense. Keep paying them, because they'll become even worse if we stop paying them.

[sig239]

Wonder where he got the idea and nerves to act like that? What kind of foreign policy message does that send? He should just fall into line and do what the Republican party says like everyone else.

Still butt hurt?

[D. Lil]

Just like his daddy!

[ceyko]

I get confused over these candidate hating sessions.

Either way, from my simpleton point of view - it does seem sensible to cut "aid" that costs millions/billions from countries. Seems like easy budget cuts to me.

[46Tbird]

I get confused over these candidate hating sessions.

Either way, from my simpleton point of view - it does seem sensible to cut "aid" that costs millions/billions from countries. Seems like easy budget cuts to me.

No shit. Let them request aid from the EU, borrow from China, or how about OPEC fucking stands up to support them if they need more money. For the life of me I can't figure out why any Muslim country would accept aid from the US. Talk about a bunch of fucking hypocrites.