Rand Paul is Nuts, Which is The Perfect Tea Party Presidential Quality

Rand Paul

Just as surely as the likes of Santorum, Gingrich, Ron Paul and other politically unbalanced right-wingers boarded the GOP Primary loony train last time around, be assured there is at least one certifiable who has already cast his lot for 2016. And it’s a familiar name; “Paul.” Rand, not Ron. Like his papa, the 50-year-old Junior Senator from Kentucky is no dummy. Like dad, he’s a doctor. Rand Paul is a practicing ophthalmologist, ironically about as myopic about the federal government and its role in America as it’s possible to be.

Rand Paul is part of a mutual admiration society with the Tea Party who spews out their mantra of lower (read no) taxes, few regulations and massive reductions in federal services and spending. He declares Obamacare “unconstitutional.” And he maintains that immigration reform and Obamacare are essentially the same thing.

Paul told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government affairs that he sees a federal government that does not make the immigration bill strong enough for conservatives, and the legislators are negligent in writing bills and plans. He’s peeved about immigration reform because there doesn’t seem to be a plan to totally fence in the Mexican population of 116 million (9% white by the way). He apparently wants a fortress-like fence serving as an updated version of the shameful WW2 barbed-wire fences circling Japanese Internment camps in the U.S.

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The Japanese physical, political and psychological imprisonment nicely dovetails with a Paul statement that “A free society will abide unofficial, private discrimination, even when that means allowing hate-filled groups to exclude people based on the color of their skin.” He paraphrased the statement before a predominantly black Howard University audience while insisting he’s always been a supporter of the Civil Rights Act. The Washington Post gave him 3 Pinocchio’s on that one.

So that’s a thumbnail of the Tea Party favorite who could give J. Bush, phony moderate Christie and “no chance” Rubio a run for their money in 2016, not to mention Hillary (or ? if she demurs). And the Rand Wackadoo Express has already pulled away from the station loaded with the most philosophically freakish cuckoos populating the political landscape.

Let’s sneak aboard and sniff around a bit. Here’s an example of his supporter’s “StandwithRand” for President 2016 local meetup. This Southern state meetup was co-organized by leftover Ron Paul worshipers Transitioning to Rand. It was billed as a marketing meeting for legislation and held at a local restaurant, Monday, December 10, 2012 at 7 PM. Ending Obamacare and promoting Freedom of Speech legislation were identified as the reasons for the meetup.

Here’s the partial agenda with instructions. Attendees were told not to use words they don’t understand, like nullify. Put together a press release but try to keep it under 25 words. The talking points for the gathering were to be found at EndObamaCareEasily.com. The prime target of “ending Obamacare” was identified as ‘frustrated’ small businesses owners who were to be handed an “EndObamaCare” business card and told to call their state reps if they wanted to get rid of Obamacare.

There’s a line directing people to “Research the Federal Tax Escro Act.” Several things are askew about this line. Escro is, of course, a typo for Escrow. And the actual title is the “Washington Sovereignty and Federal Tax Escrow Account Act.” While there’s an implied Washington connection in the title making this federal legislation, the feds have nothing to do with it. The “Washington” in the name is not Washington DC, but Washington state. The act refers to Initiative Measure 1060. Initiative Measures are generally interchangeable with Ballot Measures. I-1060 didn’t make the cut and never appeared on any ballot. It calls for the state to deposit federal taxes in the state treasury, and then decide where they go based on the legislature determining the constitutionality of federal actions. An option is to bar federal collection altogether.

The measure has been in bill form in Washington, Georgia and Oklahoma and I suspect it has been kicking around in other red state legislative bodies as well. It’s obviously a piece of model legislation. Oklahoma variations go back as far as 1995.

The meeting notes end with the suggestion that teachers should be the prime targets of Freedom of Speech legislation. But the real definitive moment comes with a visit to the recommended “End Obamacare” site. A visitor is first struck with the worded purpose of the site, “End Obamacare easily. Pass simple state law and All our graphics are free.” Oddly and offensively, these words are overlaid on a large, moving photo of what is the beautiful British homage to American soldiers, the Cambridge-American Cemetery and War Memorial in Cambridge, England, though it’s not identified on the site.

At the Cambridge Cemetery there is also a wall of the missing that includes Kennedy brother, Joseph P. Kennedy. How disgusting that a war hero with a distinguished progressive family name should have to share Internet space with fools who would destroy the very government he courageously died for.

The site goes on with endless Obamacare misrepresentations beginning with the statement that 14 states have “ended” Obamacare. This pile of pure BS comes from the pen of the right-wing CATO Institute’s director of health policy studies, Michael Cannon, writing in the once readable National Review (the late founder and reasonable conservative, William F. Buckley Jr, is turning over in his grave) Cannon says Obamacare would be illegal in these 14 states either constitutionally or by statute because states can’t participate in implementing Obamacare’s individual and employer mandates. Not so. Put simply, federal law overrides anything nutty red states might put in place to destroy Obamacare.

The next distortion talks about the Independent Payment Advisory Board (using the words “death panel”). “The IPAB will ration medical procedures and no doctors are seated on their board.” The IPAB recommends Medicare payment rates and program rules. Congress must approve these. IPAB is expressly forbidden to make ANY medical decisions.

There’s lots of frightful predictions about how small business employees will lose their insurance or pay huge money for terrible policies. Preparing for the 2014 “Covered California” Insurance Exchange, ThnkProgress health reporter, Sy Mukherjee, tracked rates submitted by 13 insurers. Premiums ranged from 29% BELOW current small business health plans to a mere 2% above for the mid-level “Silver” plan where most employees would end up. Congressional Republicans had predicted hikes as high as 66% in California.

The final dissembling I’ll address is the incredibly misinformed right-wing data that “The IRS will be hiring over 16,000 new IRS agents to enforce Obamacare.” Rand Paul said there would be 16,500 armed bureaucrats.” FactCheck.org played the honest actor in characterizing the number as a “wildly inaccurate claim.” There’s a bunch of other rhetorical bile on the end Obamacare site, all begging to be debunked.
Paul and his supporters seem well suited to each other.

So listen for the whistle marking the arrival of Rand Paul and his merry band of truth-deniers. This is the Tea Party’s last stand and his name is Rand Paul.


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