Rand Paul - Defense Spending Bill

[Brett85]

This. Trollish behavior is normal behavior except without a few little niceties and moments of thoughtfulness, and a tad more honesty.

I just used the title of the article in the thread title. That's "trollish" behavior? I knew that someone else would eventually post it anyway, and I wanted to post it with the bolded part so that people would understand what he was doing.

 

[Brett85]

My bad. I realized just now that I didn't even include the link. I thought that I had included it.

 

[idiom]

He just got Cruz to vote no on reducing overall spending.

Mr Tea Party himself.

I don't see where the problem is.

 

[Crashland]

He just got Cruz to vote no on reducing overall spending.

Mr Tea Party himself.

I don't see where the problem is.

Not just overall spending. He got him to vote against cuts to the EPA, global warming research, the dept of education, the dept of urban housing and development...

 

[Rudeman]

Rand was clearly trying to make a point and Cruz went for it. How can you claim to be a fiscal conservative if you aren't willing to off-set spending increases?

 

[Crashland]

Rand was clearly trying to make a point and Cruz went for it. How can you claim to be a fiscal conservative if you aren't willing to off-set spending increases?

Rand had him either way. If Cruz supported Rand's amendment then he would have been following Rand's leadership. It would have been the less damaging course but it still would have been a score for Rand.

 

[idiom]

Rand had him either way. If Cruz supported Rand's amendment then he would have been following Rand's leadership. It would have been the less damaging course but it still would have been a score for Rand.

This is the man I want facing down Putin.

 

[francisco]

That last line is very important:

McConnell backs Paul.

 

[francisco]

He just got Cruz to vote no on reducing overall spending.

Mr Tea Party himself.

I don't see where the problem is.

Not just overall spending. He got him to vote against cuts to the EPA, global warming research, the dept of education, the dept of urban housing and development...

A thing of absolute beauty.

 

[Brett85]

A thing of absolute beauty.

Cruz agrees with Bernie Sanders that Rand's proposed cuts "would be devastating to middle class families." Cruz/Sanders 2016!

 

[PierzStyx]

Cut foreign aid but increase funding to the war machine? Guess he doesn't want to offend the military-industrial complex, does he?

 

[PierzStyx]

I hear you. Someone proposed an increase in military spending without any offsetting cuts. Rand called their bluff and proposed even more military spending, but fully offset by spending cuts. Hence I consider Rand's call for increased military spending a rhetorical ploy of sorts (I don't think Rand actually wants more military spending). But my point to Vitus was that, even if it were a real proposal, it doesn't follow that Rand's calling for any new military intervention: and so my point above about military spending being relatively less harmful than regulatory spending holds.

You don't build a giant, multi-billion dollar state of the art war machine and never use your new toy! Either he will use it for intervention or give the interventionists a shinier and more adept tool for killing people. Neither are morally defensible.

 

[francisco]

Cruz agrees with Bernie Sanders that Rand's proposed cuts "would be devastating to middle class families." Cruz/Sanders 2016!

Please stop, I can't breathe!

 

[jclay2]

All this political maneuvering makes me sick. I just am afraid all this maneuvering will be the standard op should rand gain more power.

 

[Brett85]

All this political maneuvering makes me sick. I just am afraid all this maneuvering will be the standard op should rand gain more power.

Well, that's what you call politics.

 

[Bastiat's The Law]

Who says the money goes to the troops? These people are completely off their rocker.

It doesn't of course. Most people are simpletons.

 

[Bastiat's The Law]

He should really stay away from the climate change thing. He will lose all independent votes.

Why? Climate change is easily refuted. I can do it in two words: Ice Age

 

[Bastiat's The Law]

I think its genius.. "I am for strong defense but the difference is that I want to pay for it with something besides more debt"

Yeah, this was a political calculation/stratagem. Rand will now use this in the debates against the war hawks. He won't appear "weak on defense" while simultaneously looking responsible and fiscally-minded. Could be a brilliant strategy in the primary.

This kind of political maneuvering really isn't all that inspiring though.

 

[acptulsa]

You don't build a giant, multi-billion dollar state of the art war machine and never use your new toy! Either he will use it for intervention or give the interventionists a shinier and more adept tool for killing people. Neither are morally defensible.

You act like it was his idea. It wasn't.

This was an alternative to a spending bill someone else introduced. I think it was an amendment to an existing Christmas for the Pentagon bill. He said, here's a different way to give the Military Industrial Complex a fat present. End these four things, a couple of which are whole bureaucracies, and give their budgets to the military. That way your pets get more but we don't have to raise the spending cap again.

That's why he offered them even more. He was lampooning these bastards. If you check, I feel sure you'll find that dollar amount is exactly the budgets of those four things he named. And since he probably didn't know how much Christmas these characters had in mind for the arms merchants in advance, he had to prepare and go with that number.

 

[surf]

i'm (probably) done with this. if he doesn't become more like his father, i'm going back to my libertarian roots.

it's only the wife that's keeping me from dumping my party position right now. I battled for Ron for 5 years. have lost that desire.