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Ron Paul
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Title: Paul Votes in Favor of $631 Billion U.S. Defense Legislation (Randy to visit Israel!)
Source: Economic Policy Journal
URL Source: http://www.economicpolicyjournal.co ... s-in-favor-of-631-billion.html
Published: Dec 9, 2012
Author: .
Post Date: 2012-12-09 10:49:33 by Artisan
Keywords: None
Views: 136
Comments: 4

Rand Paul Votes in Favor of $631 Billion U.S. Defense Legislation

Rand Paul's To Do List before officially running for president:
Visit is Israel (scheduled for January)
Make sure Military-Industrial Compex is funded (Check)

The Senate, by a 98-0 vote, authorized $525.3 billion in baseline military spending, trimming only a small chunk from the administration’s $525.4 billion request. Thebill also authorizes $88.5 billion more for ongoing wars.

The bill supports the Pentagon’s plans for the Air Force to spend $3.7 billion on the F-35 fighter program and the Navy to spend $3.2 billion, on what is the biggest weapon program in history.

The Military Corp Times reports:

The legislation also largely endorses the Army’s vehicle and helicopter programs. plans. It authorizes the Army to enter into a five-year procurement contract for CH-47 Chinook helicopters made by Boeing. The upper chamber’s bill also endorses the Army’s plans to spend $639.9 million in 2013 to develop its envisioned Ground Combat Vehicle. (GCV). The legislation also fully supports the ground service’s $373.9 million Paladin Integrated Management effort and its $318 million plan to buy 58 Stryker vehicles. The Army request for ed $1.3 billion to buy UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters also was approved. Sure, said the Senate.

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2 ARTICLES ABOUT RANDY GOING TO ISRAEL:

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2012/12/05/rand-pauls-new- message-on-israel/

Rand Paul’s new message on Israel

Posted by Jennifer Rubin on December 5, 2012 at 8:45 am

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I was reminded in my Tuesday conversation with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that he is not his father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.). On a personal level, he is more self- aware and engaging than is the elder Paul, a wide-eyed libertarian. On a policy basis, Rand Paul is quite clearly trying to expand the Republican Party by reaching out to Hispanics and younger voters. And these days he is carrying a very different message on Israel, a topic on which his father routinely voiced views and voted in ways that were far outside the mainstream of either party.

Rep. Ron Paul and Sen. Rand Paul (Charles Dharapak / The Associated Press)

Rand Paul has received some criticism for his own regarding Israel. This year he hung up a vote in the Senate on Iran sanctions. That, along with his previously emphatic statements against foreign aid, have given the appearance of being anti-Israel. Others, unfairly in our view, attribute his father’s views to him.

I asked him if there is one perception about him that is particularly wrong. Without skipping a beat, he replied, “That I am unfriendly to Israel.” He is going to Israel for the first time. He told me, “We’ll have some meetings with political leaders. I want to hear from all sides.”

“We’ve talked about [such a trip] for a long time,“ he said, explaining that with three children (all boys, ages 13-19) and trips back to Kentucky it has been hard to schedule. He said he is looking forward to taking his family and “seeing our Judeo-Christian roots” He added, “I’ve always been fascinated with the 1st century,” citing reading he has done on the separation of Christianity from Judaism.

“Israel shouldn’t be dictated to by the U.S. They are a sovereign country,” Paul said — whether the issue is the peace process or Gaza. No one should be telling Israel how to respond, he added, “unless you have missiles coming down on your head. They are sovereign.”

Christian Zionists appear willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, for now. One pro-Israel leader says, “The question before me is if he is different than his dad — smarter than his dad – or just making the right noise.” He adds wryly, “Evangelicals believe in forgiveness.”

I spoke Tuesday night with David Brog, executive director of the country’s largest pro-Zionist group, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which has been outspoken in criticizing Paul’s advocacy for cuts in crucial military aid to Israel. Brog explained CUFI’s past concerns: “Paul has thus far seemed oblivious to the reality that Israel’s military is fighting our battles for us and keeping us from having to send our own soldiers to do the job.” Nevertheless, Brog told me that “we’re certainly encouraged to learn that Senator Paul is traveling to Israel. We know that the facts are on Israel’s side. And we know from long experience that there’s nothing like a visit to Israel to learn facts and change minds. We’ve seen such trips work complete transformations in the past, most notably when Senator Jesse Helms flew to Israel in 1984 as a vocal critic of the Jewish state and returned home to be among Israel’s staunchest supporters.”

Brog makes the case that support for Israel actually meshes with Paul’s desire to conduct foreign policy with limited revenues. By providing military aid to Israel, Brog argued, we enable an ally to fight our common enemies. He said, “I hope Sen. Paul sees that his economic policy and foreign policy and political interests need not conflict with support for Israel. In fact, it will earn him a great following.”

It is widely believed Rand Paul is positioning himself for a presidential run in 2016; he and his advisers have admitted he is interested. It is true that in the GOP, and especially among evangelicals who vote in strong numbers in the primaries, solid support for the U.S.-Israel relationship is as important as hot-button social issues. Figures who are adored by the tea party — a group composed largely of Christian conservatives – such as Sarah Palin and Texas Gov. Rick Perry are fervently pro-Israel. But politics is a game of mutual self- interest. As Brog said, “If Senator Paul returns from his visit and demonstrates that he has become a true friend to Israel — in both word and in deed — then Christians United for Israel will be among the first to congratulate him and welcome him ‘home.’”

In another foreign policy area, Paul said his colleagues are “missing the point” on Benghazi by focusing on what U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said on Sunday talk shows in the wake of the U.S. Consulate attack. Instead, he said, Congress should be focusing on “who made the decision to leave our ambassador with no Marines” and to deny military assets when the attack was ongoing. “That person shouldn’t be making decisions about embassy security,” he argued.

Regardless of his motives, Republicans would be foolish to treat Rand Paul as a clone of his father or to reject his admonitions on topics such as immigration. Pro-Israel Americans, meanwhile, could use as many converts as possible, especially given the declining support for Israel among Democrats and a White House that seems to relish, as Paul put it, “dictating to Israel.”

The proof will be in the pudding when it comes to votes and specific policy positions, but why should conservatives dismiss the emergence of a more nuanced Rand Paul? Now is not the time to be choosing presidential candidates (at least for a couple years, right?) or dividing an already shrunken party.

A “big tent” should, it seems, have plenty of room for Rand Paul.

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http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100193125/rand-paul-is-no-ron-paul- and-hes-flying-to-israel-to-prove-it/

Tim Stanley

Dr Tim Stanley is a historian of the United States. His biography of Pat Buchanan is out now. His personal website is www.timothystanley.co.uk and you can follow him on Twitter @timothy_stanley.

Rand Paul is no Ron Paul, and he'll go to Israel to prove it

By Tim StanleyUS politicsLast updated: December 6th, 2012

63 CommentsComment on this article

Rand Paul seems to be distancing himself from his father's ideological image

The actress Ashley Judd is said to be considering a run for the Senate from Kentucky. Asked about the rumours, Republican incumbent Rand Paul was scathing. “She’s way damn too liberal for our country, for our state,” he told an interviewer. Since she owns a home in Scotland, he suggested that she consider running for Parliament instead, where “she’d fit right in.” It’s nice to know that even after 2 years of Conservative government, the UK is still a global byword for socialism.

But what’s up with Rand Paul’s politics these days? There are two things you need to know about the son of antiwar maverick Ron. First, he’s running for president in 2016. The talk of DC is that he doesn’t much enjoy being a senator and his actions since election have suggested he’s more interested in courting the Tea Party than legislating. Second, he’s going to soften his father’s message in order to do it. The word is that he’s building up to a significant speech outlining an approach to foreign policy that distances himself from Ron Paul’s legacy. The events of the last few days seem to confirm the gossip.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Jennifer Rubin ran a couple of interviews with Rand that signaled a subtle shift in rhetoric. On Tuesday, she wrote, “Foreign aid is [a] topic on which Paul has made waves [in the past]. However, in our conversation he expressed his views in a measured fashion.” His father has always opposed all aid in all circumstances on the grounds of constitutionality. Rand, by contrast, seems to want to move towards a limited aid program that rewards good behaviour. For example, “the foreign aid bill he introduced would have allowed aid to Egypt, Paul said, if officials in Cairo ‘could prove they would defend our embassy.’” Rubin approves of this because “at a time when Egypt and other countries’ behavior is antithetical to human rights and U.S. interests” it would be appropriate to reform how dollars are distributed overseas. It might well be smart, but it’s also a departure from rigid non-interventionism.

In Wednesday’s interview, Paul took on the thorny subject of Israel. Although his father always insisted that Israel had a right to defend itself, his opposition to military aid tarred him in the minds of many as anti-Israeli. Keen to distance himself from that controversy, Rand has pledged to visit the country – partly because he’s “fascinated with the 1st century” (in that case, he should travel more widely – some parts of the Middle East haven’t moved on at all). More specifically, Paul implies sympathy for Israel’s recent response to rocket attacks from Gaza. “Christian Zionists appear willing to give [the senator] the benefit of the doubt,” says Rubin. “One pro-Israel leader says, ‘The question before me is if he is different than his dad — smarter than his dad – or just making the right noise.’ He adds wryly, ‘Evangelicals believe in forgiveness.’”

All of this is to be expected. Rand certainly isn’t Ron and he won his seat in Kentucky by presenting himself more as a Tea Party conservative than as an antiwar libertarian (although he publicly stuck to his guns on foreign policy). The only way to expand upon the Paulite electoral base in the 2016 primaries would be to make friends with other conservatives, and so it makes sense to blunt those parts of the foreign policy issue that cause the most offence. By “making the right noise” on Israel, Paul probably hopes less to reposition himself than to make the issue less definitive: he wants to be thought of as an economic and constitutional conservative (like Jim DeMint) rather than a one issue controversialist (like Ron Paul). Given that the other leading contenders for the nomination are rebranding themselves as more moderate Republicans, this gives him a great opportunity to become the spokesman for the alienated Tea Party base.

However, the strategy carries risks. The biggest is that he might alienate the very Paulite movement that made the Paul Family Brand what it is today. Despite their name, Paulites are not North Korean communists who will allow the son of their hero to inherit their support. They’re stubborn, angry individualists who are suckers for ideological purity. Ron Paul’s charisma was rooted in his lack of charisma: he appealed to those who favour ideas over personality. The cult of philosophy is so powerful within Paulism that if Rand moves too far too fast towards the centre, he could lose financial and political backing. And unless he enters the 2016 cycle with that Paulite base on his side … what has he got? Sure, he’s still got plenty of issues that appeal to the disaffected (legalized pot, military cuts etc) but he lacks the personality to pull them altogether into a compelling candidacy. Without ideological rigour, Rand Paul is no Ron Paul.

Then there’s the question of, “is he picking the right issues on which to redefine himself?” Reform of foreign aid doesn’t have a huge constituency. For those who want to see it scrapped in its entirety, the idea that it might be retained in limited cases won’t appeal. Moderate voters might baulk at the humanitarian impact of cutting aid, and foreign policy hawks will hate any talk of cuts. On Israel, it’s rather myopic to think that softening on one part of the issue will gain Paul many friends. Support for Israel’s right to exist doesn’t stop at rhetorical backing for its right to defend itself but would necessitate a recalibration of much of Paul’s foreign policy. Would he support or even involve America in a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities? Would he militarily defend Israel if it was attacked? If the answer is “yes” to either question, then Rand Paul will find himself to be a man without a movement.

"Even to the death fight for truth, and the LORD your God will battle for you". Sirach 4:28

Artisan  posted on  2012-12-09   12:15:22 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

I just created a RAND PAUL ping list, which is long overdue.

"Even to the death fight for truth, and the LORD your God will battle for you". Sirach 4:28

Artisan  posted on  2012-12-09   12:17:16 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

One good thing re: changing email provider, no more solicitations from the Pauls.

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken

Lod  posted on  2012-12-09   13:17:27 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

Time for Rand to make the obligatory trip to Israel and pledge allegiance.

Calling Ron Paul an isolationist is like calling your neighbor a hermit because he doesn't come over and break your window - unknown

I WITHDRAW MY CONSENT!
Any perceived compliance with unconstitutional “laws” or orders put forth by government employees is NOT recognition of their authority; it is simply the result of carefully calculated submission to an entity exhibiting superior firepower.

F.A. Hayek Fan  posted on  2012-12-09   15:00:10 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

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