I’ve always admired Rand Paul for going against the expectation to always follow party lines, but I thought he was a little rough around the edges. But recently, he has basically become my hero.
On the night of February 8, Congress attempted to speedily pass a budget bill that would increase the federal deficit by $300 billion with no amendments being offered. Rand Paul, a fiscally conservative senator from Kentucky, took the Senate floor to protest the bill. What he had to say was truthful, brutal, and something I’ve wanted to say for a long time.
The United States federal government is currently over 20.6 trillion dollars in debt. To put that into perspective, the U.S. National government has a tax revenue of a little more than $3 trillion. This means that it would take around seven years for the national government to pay off its debt if it simply taxed people and provided no other services (but let’s be honest, it takes a lot of money to tax people, so it would take a lot longer than that).
Everyone should be concerned with how much debt the government has accumulated. It has to stop at some point. Over $6.4 trillion is currently held by foreign countries, and that is terrifying. For me, the most alarming part is the fact that my generation and generations after us will be paying off the debt, not the generations that created the debt. This is why I was grateful when Rand Paul stood up and called out Congress.
In the opening of his speech, he stood on the Senate floor with the sole purpose of calling out people saying, “The reason I'm here tonight is to put people on the spot. I want people to feel uncomfortable. I want them to have to answer people at home who said, 'How come you were against President Obama's deficits, and then how come you're for Republican deficits?'” And call them out he did.
Rand Paul then went on to really put Republicans on the spot saying, “Isn’t that the very definition of intellectual dishonesty? If you were against President Obama’s deficits and now you’re for the Republican deficits, isn’t that the very definition of hypocrisy?” Thank you, Senator Paul, for saying what so many Americans, including me, would be thinking about this issue. If Republicans truly care about fiscal responsibility and stewardship, they would work to create a balanced budget, rather than adding more debt to an already unbelievable amount.
The Senator went on to ask those in attendance whose fault it was that the national debt was so high. He asked, “Whose fault is it? Republicans? Yes. Democrats? Yes. It’s both parties’ fault.” He explained that the “dirty little secret” of Washington is that Republicans are loudly demanding more military spending, but Democrats won’t give it to them unless they also increase welfare spending. It is a compromise that harms the American people.
I appreciated most of what he said, but my favorite piece of his speech came later on. Perhaps one of his most daring lines is when he said, “When the Democrats are in power, Republicans appear to be the conservative party. But when Republicans are in power, it seems there is no conservative party. The hypocrisy hangs in the air and chokes anyone with a sense of decency or intellectual honesty.”
I respect and admire Senator Paul very much for having the guts to stand up to Congress and make them uncomfortable. The national debt should be something that everyone cares about. Americans need to realize that in order to have a balanced budget and be responsible with money, the government must cut spending, especially in terms of the military and entitlement programs. There is an outrageous amount of money spent in both sectors, $2.7 trillion on entitlement programs, and $834 billion on the defense budget. We need to cut spending to cut the national debt.
We, as Americans, need to step up and do our duty. For people in my generation, we didn’t create this problem, we inherited it. But the moment we come of voting age and begin our role in society, we must take responsibility for all that happens from that point on. We cannot leave our children the same problem that other generations left us. Don’t leave your children and grandchildren with piles of national debt to pay off because you were simply too lazy or irresponsible to demand that your representatives balance the federal budget!
Go out and vote for people who care about reducing spending. Contact your representative and tell them why the national debt matters. And do your duty as a citizen, and leave a better country for future generations.
You can watch Rand Paul's full speech below:
This article was updated on 2/12/2018 to correct a numerical error regarding the Federal Government's tax revenue.
