Rand Paul, an embarasement to libertarian values

Cassius Methyl
March 27, 2015
(ANTIMEDIA) Rand Paul seems to be completely changing his moral convictions, and is now working to raise the ‘defense’ fund approximately 16%. The US government already spends an incomprehensible sum of money on warfare (not defense) every year, and now Rand wants that to be raised even higher.

On Wednesday he introduced a budget amendment; a $190 billion infusion to the defense budget over the next two years.

To supplement the extra money for ‘defense’, he proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. foreign aid, departments of Commerce, Education, Housing and Urban Development. His amendment would bring the defense budget up to $696 billion in fiscal year 2016.

Marco Rubio introduced an amendment for nearly the same amount to increase ‘defense’ spending just a few days ago.

In 2011, Rand wanted to ‘draw down on defense’, slash funds for war, eliminate agencies of government, and work towards goals along those lines.

What is this? Where do his moral convictions really stand? Has Paul given up on everything he supposedly stood for to have a better shot at the 2016 presidency? Time has speculated that Paul made this move to appease war hawks which basically make up the entire Republican Party.

A spokesman for Rand Paul rationalized the increase in war funds by comparing it to the plans other war hawks like Marco Rubio presented, who are seeking to raise the defense budget without paying for it with tax money. Paul’s amendment would supposedly not add further to the national debt.

In any case, the flaws of the electoral system are on full display. From now until we have another president, we will have a chance to glimpse into the tightly controlled arena for the presidential candidacy. For a candidate to have a chance in 2016, it’s clear that they will not be able to challenge the military-industrial-complex. This should be at least relatively interesting and revealing regarding the current state of oligarchical political theater. Some people call that ‘politics’.

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