Rand Paul Mocks Hurricane Sandy Victims, Eliminates Any Chance at a Presidential Bid
July 30, 2013 By
There are inappropriate statements, there are disgusting statements—and then there’s what Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said while responding to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s comments about Paul’s “dangerous brand of libertarianism.”
A few days ago Governor Christie made comments attacking Paul’s brand of libertarianism. Christie called it dangerous, and challenged Paul’s positions on our national security—essentially calling his positions concerning how our nation battles terrorism naive and ignorant
Well, Paul decided to respond.
While speaking at a fundraiser in Tennessee, Paul said about Christie and New York Representative Peter King, “They’re precisely the same people who are unwilling to cut the spending, and their ‘Gimme, gimme, gimme—give me all my Sandy money now.’ Those are the people who are bankrupting the government and not letting enough money be left over for national defense.”
Apparently to Rand Paul, people who’ve lost their homes and have had their lives destroyed by a massive natural disaster are just people who want the government to, “gimme, gimme, gimme—give them all their Sandy money.” To Paul, they are a big part of the reason why we’re not leaving enough money for our national defense.
Excuse me? Our defense budget dwarfs every other nation on earth. In fact, our defense budget is bigger than that of the next 13 nations—combined.
Adequate funding is definitely not an issue when it comes to our national defense.
But even beyond his apparent ignorance as it pertains to just how much we spend on national defense, these comments by Paul are absolutely reprehensible.
Hurricane Sandy destroyed homes and ruined lives. For many who were impacted by the storm, the funding they received from our government was the difference between their children eating or starving, between shelter and homelessness—between life and death.
Yet Rand Paul has the nerve to mock those Americans who asked for help following this storm. He had the audacity to try and claim that our bloated national defense budget lacks funding because we were too busy spending money—helping Americans.
If some kind of natural disaster devastated the citizens of Kentucky, I wonder just how fast this pompous ass (excuse my language) would be calling President Obama for “expedited help” from the government.
But like with most Republicans, when it’s money they want or need—then that’s not wasteful spending. It’s “vital for the health of Americans”—and of course their political career next time they’re up for re-election.
The good news, however, for sane Republicans (yes, I’m convinced they do still exist) and of course Democrats—these comments all but eliminate Rand Paul from having any chance at ever becoming President.
He’s already had enough controversy surrounding him with how he once insinuated that the Civil Rights Act is unconstitutional, and he’s proven over and over again how he subscribes to the most radical of right-wing ideologies. But mocking victims of a natural disaster — a borderline national disaster — is a line you simply cannot cross if you ever want to stand any realistic chance at becoming President.
Now while I’m sure there are still millions of his followers who would vote for him no matter what, those people don’t create Presidents. If they did, his dad Ron Paul would have been President a long time ago. But as it stands, Ron Paul couldn’t even beat Mitt Romney for the Republican Presidential nomination. Everybody remembers Romney, right? Possibly the worst Presidential candidate in the last 30 years. Yeah, Ron Paul couldn’t even beat him, and quite honestly didn’t even come close to beating him for the nomination.
However, mocking victims of a tragedy to simply try and take a cheap shot at a probable opponent for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination—that’s something the vast majority of Americans simply will not tolerate, forgive or forget.
And that’s exactly what Rand Paul did.
http://www.forwardprogressives.com/rand-paul-mocks-hurricane-sandy-victims-eliminates-any-chance-at-a-presidential-bid/