The time is coming for Sen. Rand Paul to show the people of Kentucky, and the rest of the nation, that his money — actually, the taxpayers’ money — is where his mouth is.
Paul, R-Bowling Green, has made a political career out of bellyaching about federal spending and the surging national debt, which now exceeds $36 trillion. His latest Festivus Report on governmental waste, which he unashamedly promoted to the hilt, identified what he considers to be more than $1 trillion in unnecessary expenditures. During a recent debate over Social Security legislation, he offered a money-saving amendment to raise the eligibility age for recipients from 67 to 70.
It failed in a 93-3 vote, leading Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer, of New York, to remark, “Came close.”
Now, to be fair, Paul raises legitimate concerns about a debt that is expected to reach 123 percent of the gross domestic product this year. Sooner or later the red ink is going to spill on the tablecloth and the federal government will be found standing on the street corner with a tin cup to collect loose change.
But Paul is very selective about how he wants to address the debt. His idea is to cut, cut, cut regardless of who it might hurt or any devastating consequences. At the same time he’ll vote for every half-assed tax cut package that comes down the pike. In 2017, for instance, he wholeheartedly supported the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act pushed by then-and-future President Donald J. Trump, which cost the Treasury about $2.5 trillion.
With the Trumpster hopping on board once again, additional tax cuts, or extending existing tax cuts, are a sure thing. And you can bet your bottom budget dollar Paul will be in there pitching for them once again regardless of the fiscal consequences.
Reducing the federal debt will require more than spending cuts. It will require tax increases. If Paul was serious about the predicament, he would acknowledge that. Instead he keeps adding to the problem in his own, inimitable way.
Now, however, Randal Howard Paul may be facing an opportunity to show everyone what he’s really made of, whether he means what he says or if he’s just a poser.
Trump, who moves his large, orange carcass back into the White House for the second time on Jan. 20 – God save the United States – doesn’t much care for sweaty brown people who talk funny. He has vowed to rid the nation of the approximately 11 million unauthorized immigrants who pick the vegetables and build the buildings while living here in relative peace.
During his recent successful presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed to begin “the largest deportation program in American history.” He has not explained how he intends to carry out this scheme, although he acknowledged it may involve the military, specifically the National Guard, and he likely will initially target those who have committed crimes or others whose asylum bids have been denied by the courts.
To accomplish this goal, Trump has nominated Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, of South Dakota, to serve as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Another hard-liner, Noem deployed South Dakota National Guard troops on at least five occasions to the southern border in Texas, which is more than 900 miles from Pierre and most other bumps in the road that pass for towns in the Mount Rushmore State.
“The border is a war zone, so we’re sending soldiers,” Noem said in a press release in February. “These soldiers’ primary mission will be construction of a wall to stem the flow of illegal immigrants, drug cartels, and human trafficking into the United States of America.”
Some war zone. The invaders are tired, unarmed men and women hauling ntheir children, often on their backs, to find better lives.
No matter how you put it, the sort of mass deportation planned by Trump is going to cost a lot of dough. The National Immigration Council claims in a report that any effort to round up, detain, process and ultimately deport one million undocumented immigrants per year would cost the U.S. government at least $88 billion annually. Over 11 years you’re talking about approaching a trillion-dollar price tag.
Those calculations don’t include the loss of about four percent of the workforce over that period or the anticipated drop in the gross domestic product.
Over his career, Paul has desperately tried to build himself up as a Jimmy Cagney-type tough guy and all those numbers added to the debt must make his teeth hurt, especially if added to another tax cut.
Paul will have something to say about all this. Republicans assumed control of the Senate in wake of the Nov. 5 election and Paul will take the chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Any legislation sought by Trump dealing with a secure border is likely to go through his panel. How he handles the megillah should reveal just how serious he is about the debt.
In the past, Paul has gone to some lengths to make sure committee members are in the loop on issues regarding the border. In February, he authored a letter to Schumer and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville, requesting that leadership in the upper chamber “ensure that any proposed bill affecting border security undergo careful consideration by the committees of jurisdiction, including HSGAC. Any legislation impacting border security has significant consequences for our nation’s security, immigration system, and taxpayers. It is imperative that Members of this body are afforded the opportunity to thoroughly review and consider any proposed changes.’’
So far, our boy is playing it coy. He already has endorsed Noem for the secretary’s job and has expressed a desire to get her into office post haste.
And he has severely criticized Noem’s predecessor, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, maintaining the administration of outgoing President Joe Biden isn’t enforcing the nation’s immigration laws. Mayorkas, Paul said, could have declared, “we’re just full and we’re just, we’re going to stop taking migrants for a while until we can sort out the mess we have at the border. You have every power to do that now. You just don’t utilize those powers.”
But he hasn’t come out full-throated for mass deportation either, perhaps anxious about the cost and the consequential debt.
The news website Axios reports that Paul “is deeply skeptical of some of President-elect Trump’s and GOP leadership’s aggressive border plans.”
With Trump or his new daddy, Elon Musk, take your pick, pushing for early consideration of its anti-immigrant agenda, the newly installed Republican Senate Leader John Thune, of South Dakota, is expected to offer a package sometime within the first 100 days of the 119th Congress. According to Axios, expect “a huge cash infusion of more than $100 billion into border security and the infrastructure to carry out Trump’s mass deportation promises.”
Paul isn’t buying, telling Axios, “I think it’s a terrible way to start.”
“I’m not a big fan of what Republicans are saying, they’re going to spend $100 billion on the border, another $200 billion on military to bust the military caps,” Paul said, adding that he favors “Put them back on the other side of the river. Shouldn’t cost that much. And we spend an enormous amount.”
Paul is already on record saying he’s a no when it comes to using the military to carry out Trump immigration plans and he thinks maybe the administration should just concentrate on unauthorized immigrants who have broken the law.
And the border wall?
“Walls work in some places, but there’s never going to be a contiguous wall on the whole border,” he told the news site.
Senate committee chairs don’t possess the power they once held – remember back in the days when Senate Democrats from the Old South, like James O. Eastland, of Mississippi, who held up civil rights legislation for years as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Leadership is stronger and can find ways to avoid a committee with must-pass legislation.
But Paul is fully capable of throwing a monkey wrench into the works, slowing the process and demanding budget cuts to pay for Trump’s anti-immigration initiatives. He can sit on legislation before his committee and filibuster any legislation that bypasses his panel.
The question, again, is whether he’s willing to put the taxpayer’s money where his mouth is.
Senator Paul is an ornament to the nation and the only real representative in the US Congress we have.