Rand Paul’s Proposed Budget: far-right ideology in action

Most of the world hardly noticed but Rand Paul proposed a plan to balance the federal budget in five years last week. Paul predictably chose to eliminate most of the federal government in his plan…so it was ignored.

As this column by Keith Rouda at Louisville.com points out, the proposed budget is an interesting document. You can find many of the social and economic preconceptions of the far-right embedded within it.

Kidding aside, as it turns out the budget plan Senator Paul put out provides a level of insight into his thought processes and philosophies that could never be gleaned from campaign ads (for or against him) or the pablum of sound bites that pass for news these days. It is a rather amazing document.

For example, in the opening of the budget plan before he tackles any real specific policies, Paul spends some time discussing government spending as it relates to Gross Domestic Product [GDP]. Then he says this.

…without significantly reducing deficits, debt, and spending, crowding out will reduce the standard-of-living, resulting in a decrease in gross national product per person by 8 percent by 2025 and by 21 percent in 2035.

Believe it or not, this little sentence fragment contains really critical insights into Paul’s understanding of economics, the degree to which ideology colors his creative thought process, and his integrity!

This promises to be a series, which we will revisit.

Clements Thanks Voters: End of the campaign means beginning of new efforts

The 2010 elections are over, but the fight against corporate big-government politics goes on. Jim DeMint handily won his reelection with a little over 60% of the vote without bothering to campaign in South Carolina. Two bright spots are evident in the results from this election. Most of the candidates backed by DeMint failed in the general election, so the millions he raised to delude the public were dollars down the drain. And 121,000 South Carolinians made a conscious choice to vote for credible progressive candidate Tom Clements over DeMint and the irrelevant Democrat.

The Clements Campaign took out an ad in the November 24 Columbia Free Times to thank its supporters and, maybe more importantly, to announce that the struggle against DeMint’s politics will continue.

The Tom Clements For Senate Campaign thanks its supporters and announces that Jim DeMint is still on watch in the November 24 issue of the Columbia Free Times.

One thing that became apparent in the run up to the November 2 election: you can’t take down an entrenched incumbent like Jim DeMint without a full movement opposing his policies and proposing new ones. Consider the relative weakness of his opposition his opponents received relatively high returns:

Final returns from South Carolina's 2010 race for U.S. Senate. Source: http://www.enr-scvotes.org/SC/19077/40477/en/summary.html

About 38% of all South Carolina voters are definitely opposed to DeMint.  Given that the Clements campaign ran for about $50,000 and that Alvin Greene ran no campaign at all, there is a real depth of opposition to DeMint and his policies.

The Free Times ad points out only one of DeMint’s weaknesses: his nonstop talk about cutting the budget without offering any plans for government spending.   With the Great Recession stretching on, sitting politicians like DeMint will be required to put up or shut up about spending priorities: will DeMint work to guarantee Social Security or will he send tax dollars to fight the Iraq and Afghanistan wars?   Will he work to control health care costs or will he propose Medicare cuts while promising tax cuts to corporations?

DeMint’s track record speaks for itself.   We can predict that he’ll be proposing harmful cuts that will hurt the elderly and sick, while protecting the profits of corporations, and spending trillions abroad on wars without end.

We think the election results show that a large number of South Carolinians are opposed to DeMint’s kind politics and want to reorient our priorities to put human needs first.

DeMint Watch can play a role in getting South Carolina Politics and the national debate back on track.  Post a comment or drop us a line at DeMintWatch@gmail.com if you’re one of the people who opposed DeMint on November 2.  We’ve got a lot of work to do.