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Filed Under
Rand Paul's Rules of Rulemaking
Posted August 5, 2010
"The bottom line is I'm not an expert, so don't give me the power in Washington to be making rules"
Rand Paul
Details Magazine, August 2010
Our state's future is being held at gunpoint by interests inside Washington. The best and clearest defense is to send someone who believes in limiting government to Washington, where I can work from the inside.
I am running for Senate as a champion for the people of the great state of Kentucky. For too long your interests have been ignored by both the Republican senators who represent you and by an Administration that insists on adding crippling regulations and rules that are scaring away business. You can be sure that a vote for me means no votes for you.
I'm a conservative Constitutionalist and anyone who knows anything about the Constitution knows that the Senate has no business making rules. Why should a Senator make rules? They aren't experts. The only thing they know how to do is legislate. There's only one thing I know, outside of my in-depth understanding of hair care products: I know about opthalmology. If any bills come to the floor for a debate that are about eyeglasses or contacts or the benefits of laser surgery, which I hope to convince my fellow legislators to make tax-free, these are things that I'm an expert about. Not that I'm about to issue any rules about them.
There are plenty of things for a US Senator to do without getting mixed up with legislation or regulation. Between media events, committee hearings, fundraising for reelection and making sure that Kentucky receives its fair share of earmarks there's almost no time to make rules or laws or statutes or firm suggestions. Maybe not media events.
The current Congress is attempting to add cumbersome regulations to prevent future mining accidents. But mines don't kill people. Mine regulations do. If left alone the free market will only choose those mines that won't ever collapse in the first place.
The best way to limit government is to limit attendance. If elected, I plan to convince Senator Mitch McConnell that only one of us should spend time in the Senate at any given time. I'll take Monday and Tuesday, Leader McConnell can have Wednesday and Thursday. Since there's nothing in the Constitution that states that we should work Fridays I am happy to use the day to fly back to my constituents to inform them about exactly what I haven't done.
As a strict Constitutionalist I believe that that the United States Congress has no business making rules of any sort, aside from rules banning abortion. It doesn't make any sense for rules about Kentucky to be made in some far off land like Washington DC: Kentucky already has its own Legislature to make rules about things that matter to Kentuckians. The position of Senator of Kentucky in Washington is completely redundant and nobody should do it: and there's no better nobody than me.
If you send me to Washington I will seal the borders, eliminate the Department of Education and simplify the tax code: you can trust that I will do this as long as I don't have to vote while doing them.
 
copyright 2004-2024 G. Xavier Robillard
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