Sen. Rand Paul
doesn’t like foreign aid — and he’s leveraging high-profile and
controversial events in embattled countries to build a piecemeal
legislative approach to show it.
The most recent example is Pakistan. The Kentucky Republican would like the U.S. government to cut off aid because of the imprisonment of a Pakistani doctor who helped provide information in the operation that resulted in the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. He introduced a bill Monday to strip all aid until Pakistan commutes the doctor’s
33-year prison sentence. Earlier this year, Paul pushed for an end to foreign aid to Egypt and Iran.
More than any other new member of the Senate GOP Conference, Paul has developed a knack for getting votes on his pet issues, boosted by his symbiotic relationship with Kentucky’s senior Senator, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“Well, I think there’s a philosophic way to talk about foreign aid in totality, but there’s also another way, and that is to say, what are particularly egregious things that countries are doing that we give money to?” Paul said in a brief interview this week. “The vast majority of the American public doesn’t like foreign aid, myself included. They dislike it even more intensely when you remind them that the guy that helped us get one of the worst mass murderers in our history, bin Laden, they’re giving money to keep him in prison, and I think Americans are incensed by it.”
Though his amendments have not passed or become law, Paul has been able to use votes on his proposals to build a symbolic case on his broader philosophical goal: eliminating almost all foreign aid.
Read more: http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_147/Rand-Paul-Tries-Killing-Foreign-Aid-Softly-215121-1.html?pos=htmbtxt
The most recent example is Pakistan. The Kentucky Republican would like the U.S. government to cut off aid because of the imprisonment of a Pakistani doctor who helped provide information in the operation that resulted in the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. He introduced a bill Monday to strip all aid until Pakistan commutes the doctor’s
33-year prison sentence. Earlier this year, Paul pushed for an end to foreign aid to Egypt and Iran.
More than any other new member of the Senate GOP Conference, Paul has developed a knack for getting votes on his pet issues, boosted by his symbiotic relationship with Kentucky’s senior Senator, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“Well, I think there’s a philosophic way to talk about foreign aid in totality, but there’s also another way, and that is to say, what are particularly egregious things that countries are doing that we give money to?” Paul said in a brief interview this week. “The vast majority of the American public doesn’t like foreign aid, myself included. They dislike it even more intensely when you remind them that the guy that helped us get one of the worst mass murderers in our history, bin Laden, they’re giving money to keep him in prison, and I think Americans are incensed by it.”
Though his amendments have not passed or become law, Paul has been able to use votes on his proposals to build a symbolic case on his broader philosophical goal: eliminating almost all foreign aid.
Read more: http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_147/Rand-Paul-Tries-Killing-Foreign-Aid-Softly-215121-1.html?pos=htmbtxt
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