Rand Paul one of only two to vote against Ukraine aid/Russia sanctions bill

Dana Rohrabacher


Little OT here, but I noticed him in the "No" votes, I also happened to catch his floor speech today on C-Span, I will do my research on him but was wondering do any of you know much about him, how does he stack up? I liked his speech but this is just one issue obviously.
 
Bentivolio has had some great votes recently and he's cosponsered a bill to end the income tax. I hate that he got off to a poor start but he's certainly better than your typical establishment shill that his district would likely replace him with.

He's facing a tough primary fight. If you can donate, I would strongly encourage it.
 
Dana Rohrabacher


Little OT here, but I noticed him in the "No" votes, I also happened to catch his floor speech today on C-Span, I will do my research on him but was wondering do any of you know much about him, how does he stack up? I liked his speech but this is just one issue obviously.
He is one of the better ones, but not in the top five. These links might help:

http://www.thenewamerican.com/freedomindex/profile.php?id=R000409

http://www.thenewamerican.com/freedomindex/
 
Bentivolio has had some great votes recently and he's cosponsered a bill to end the income tax. I hate that he got off to a poor start but he's certainly better than your typical establishment shill that his district would likely replace him with.
Really!? Do you have a link?

And a good job to Rand Paul on this vote.
 
Dana Rohrabacher


Little OT here, but I noticed him in the "No" votes, I also happened to catch his floor speech today on C-Span, I will do my research on him but was wondering do any of you know much about him, how does he stack up? I liked his speech but this is just one issue obviously.

He recently claimed that US foreign policy on Ukraine was completely hypocritical. I think he's been around for quite a long time, but I don't know much about him. I don't think he was ever a guy to make a lot of waves before, but I guess I'll have to check him out one of these days.
 
No, he didn't oppose the bill because of the sanctions. He opposed the bill because of the foreign aid. I'm glad that he's at least a strong fiscal conservative. I'll definitely give him credit for voting against this, although this particular vote was just an amendment I believe and not the final vote. I think he just allowed the final vote to go through on a voice vote because he didn't figure there was any need to force a vote on a bill that only he and Heller would vote against.

Yes. Rand opposed aid to Ukraine from the very beginning and for very good reasons quite apart from his usual opposition to foreign aid. The money would just go to Russia to pay Ukraine's gas bill. Ukraine should default on it's debt and live within its means. Russia would take a hit for what Ukraine owes them which is probably more damage than any of our sanctions will do. But Russia would still supply gas to Ukraine (cash and carry of course) because they want the business. It would be very tough for Ukrainians, but not nearly as bad as if the IMF gets their fingers in the pie and forces them to de-value their currency.

But where is Ted Cruz on this? He was for aid to Ukraine, then he switched and sided with Rand, now apparently, he has switched again.
 
I love how Libertarians criticize Constitutional Conservatives, Libertarians, Conservative Libertarians, and Practical politicians, and we enjoy doing it, but whenever they actually vote for liberty, they don't get a significant amount of praise. Props to Rand.
 
Lookin' more like Ron Paul now in the Senate. I wonder if Brannon and Bright would've voted yes too...
 
I don't understand how saying you're going to do something and then doing the opposite is politically savvy.

Pander with words to the dummies that represent a larger portion of the vote. Then use your actions to impress the real base while the dummies who've been pacified pay no attention to the actions.
 
Thank you, and to the others who replied as well, this will help! That's a good site, never heard of it before, lot of good info.
I'd be careful with quantitative voting indexes because they don't take into account actions (legislatively or non-legislatively) where they take the initiative to advance liberty. Still with that being said, the TNA list is the best one I've seen.
 
not all sanctions are the same. Rand does not support the sanctions in this bill.

No, he said in a statement that he supported the sanctions. He voted against this because of the aid.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/03/27/who-voted-against-u-s-aid-to-ukraine/

Paul said in a statement that he supported the provisions providing technical and security assistance to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia. "However, I cannot support the bill because it will have the perverse impact of using American tax dollars to reward Russia," he said.
 
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No, he said in a statement that he supported the sanctions. He voted against this because of the aid.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/03/27/who-voted-against-u-s-aid-to-ukraine/

Paul said in a statement that he supported the provisions providing technical and security assistance to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia. "However, I cannot support the bill because it will have the perverse impact of using American tax dollars to reward Russia," he said.

That's what I said. Foreign aid to Ukraine is considered a sanction against Russia and Rand opposes that.
 
Sadly, Mark Sanford voted for it in the House. That's a real shame. 17 Republicans, and 2 Democrats
voted NO.

Republicans who voted NO:

Justin Amash
Kerry Bentivolio
Paul Broun
Michael Burgess
Scott DesJarlais
Jimmy Duncan
Chris Gibson
Walter Jones
Raul Labrador
Thomas Massie
Mick Mulvaney
Bill Posey
Dana Rohrabacher
Todd Rokita
Steve Stockman
Ted Yoho
Don Young (Alaska)

Democrats who voted NO:
Beto O'Rourke
Alan Grayson

Paul Broun just distinguished himself, again, from several of his primary contenders in his bid for US Senate. In a good way.

Want to pick a candidate? Watch the votes.
 
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