Two articles on Sen. Rand Paul appeared in my Reason feed the other day. Up top.
So it was hard not to look.
They were “John McCain: It ‘Wasn’t Incorrect’ to Say Rand Paul Was ‘Working for Vladimir Putin’” and “Rand Paul’s Plan to Balance the Budget by 2023 Will Get a Senate Vote This Week.”
The latter story is the bigger one, of course. In it, Eric Boehm asked, “Do Republicans have the guts to impose strict spending caps?”
His answer was “probably not.” Good guess.
“Passing the Kentucky Republican’s so-called ‘Penny Plan’ would be a dramatic reversal for Congress,” Boehm wrote, “which earlier this year approved enormous spending hikes that busted Obama-era spending caps and threaten to put the country on pace for a $1 trillion annual deficits. . . . Paul tells Politico that it will be a ‘litmus test for Republicans who claim to be conservative, but are only too happy to grow the federal government and increase our debt.’”
I am afraid the litmus paper has turned . . . red. As in red ink. As in accumulating debt till we drop.
Yesterday Paul’s plan was voted down, 21-76.
In the other Reason piece, Matt Welch noted that Arizona’s senior senator stands by his calumny, last year, against Kentucky’s junior senator. Paul had delayed “ratification of Montenegro’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).” McCain, a gung-ho NATO expansion proponent, accused Paul of “working for Vladimir Putin.”
If Putin really seethes with ill will towards America, wouldn’t he want to see the country burdened with debt?
So, on this vote, those 76 senators who didn’t “stand with Rand” are undoubtedly working for Putin.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Photo of Rand Paul by Gage Skidmore | Photo of John McCain from Wikimedia Commons