Rand Paul takes hard line on tax pledge
Tea-party favorite Rand Paul still speaks for fiscal conservitives.
One Republican is honoring his word. Breaking ranks with defecting Republicans on the no-tax-hike pledge, Rand Paul is holding his ground. For Paul, a promise is a promise.
Rand Paul remains committed to his oath to oppose tax increases.
A number of Republicans have said they are willing to negotiate with Obama and possibly raise taxes in order to avoid the fiscal cliff, which looms on January 1.
Paul went further. "I think you should balance budgets, not spend more than comes in, and I think you should lower taxes, not raise taxes. In fact, if you want to stimulate the economy, I'm for cutting tax revenues. All these Republicans who want to give up their taxpayer pledge and raise taxes, I'm the opposite. I want to lower taxes because that's how we'd get actually more economic growth and maybe more revenue, if you cut tax rates."
When asked how he would raise government revenues, Paul suggested economic growth as the only sustainable way to do so. "You don't have to raise rates or even close loopholes. If your economy was growing -- you know, when the economy was growing for four years after the Bush tax cuts, we had plenty of revenue. Revenue went down when the recession came."
Paul added, "The reason we have a lack of revenue in Washington is too much spending and no economic growth. So we don't have economic growth. If the economy were growing at 4 percent right now, we'd have plenty of revenue. But you don't get the economy to grow by raising taxes. That's what they want to do now, and I think it's absolutely the wrong thing to do."
While Paul made clear he supports avoiding the fiscal cliff, he does not like the way it is bound to happen. "I think there'll be something really big -- some enormous, ugly bill with a lot of stuff in it, including raising the debt ceiling by a couple trillion dollars. They'll squish it into one bill. And sometime before Christmas, they'll pass it."
If so, then a great number of Republicans who broke their pledge to the American people will have much to answer for in their next election. As for Paul, his star is likely to continue rising.
© 2012, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.
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General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
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Keywords: Rand Paul, conservitive, taxes, pledge, honor, fiscal cliff
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The Bluegrass State should be proud of Sen. Paul, a man who's word is bond; unlike my two Texas shortfalls that seem to grow in personal wealth and power. I may not agree with everything Sen. Paul believes, but I do pray the Lord grant him wisdom and resolve to deal with the entrenched evil that strangles our Congress. Sen. Paul is one of the few standing against the biggest insider trading unit on the earth, I pray "Oh Lord don't let this man fall as so many others have"
Good for Rand Paul. I hope all of congress will take the same hard line.
I agree with almost everythying this man says and what is more important I beklieve he is a man of integrity and seeks the truth. That said, I can not understand why big businesses who live in a world of very excessive wealth and spend much of their time hiring lawyers to beat the tax system to enrich their own leadership and their political friends even more, need ,tax breakes. In my world the very bad result of tax breakes is to encourage bigger companies, even in farming, to become so large that the small businesses are driven out of their livelihood. That is not Catholic subsidianarism.