Rand Paul: Not One Penny To Countries That Burn Our Flag

At the opening of CPAC 2013, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) picked up where he left off in his 13 hour filibuster last week. Paul took off the gloves and went after Barack Obama on indefinite detention, defending the Constitution, and unlawfully killing American citizens. He also spoke on debt and foolish and frivolous spending and when he touched on foreign aid he said, “I say not one penny more to countries that are burning our flag.”

As he took to the stage with his folders from last week’s filibuster he joked that he was only given twenty minutes, but brought thirteen hours of information.

When he began, he said that there was a message that he wanted to deliver to Obama. However, one person in the crowd yelled out, “Don’t drone me, bro!” Both Paul and the crowd laughed as he said, “that’s not exactly what I was thinking. However, I think he may have distilled my 13-hour speech into three words.” Yes, I know it was technically four, but the point was made.

He did take time to speak on drones and the fact that Obama was not a protector of civil liberties, pointing specifically to his signing into law the National Defense Authorization Act, which allows him to indefinitely detain any and all people he deems to be terrorists, associated with terrorists or potential terrorists. This unlawful law also grants him the ability to do this without due process for the accused.

Paul took on the White House’s recent decision to stop giving tours as a money saving measure. His outrage was displayed as he pointed out that the cancellation of tours took place in the same week that the State Department decided to give $250 million in aid to the Muslim Brotherhood led Egyptian government. “I say not one penny more to countries that are burning our flag,” he said.

In citing ridiculous spending of tax payer money, such as the building of a robotic squirrel to interact with rattlesnakes to how monkeys behave on methamphetamines, Paul asked, “Does it really take $3 million to discover that monkeys, like humans, act crazy on meth?”

He referred to this generation as the “Facebook generation.” He also went on to defend the decriminalization of drugs and stated, “Ask the Facebook generation whether we should put a kid in jail for the nonviolent crime of drug use and you’ll hear a resounding no.”

Finally, arguing against government subsidies, Paul said, “There is nothing conservative about bailing out Wall Street. Likewise, there is nothing progressive about billion-dollar loans to millionaires to build solar panels.”

In closing, he picked up on the prevailing hashtag that took over Twitter on the day of his filibuster, #StandWithRand. “I will stand for our prosperity and our freedom, and I ask everyone who values liberty to stand with me,” the Kentucky Senator said.

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