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Published On: Sun, Jul 21st, 2019

Rand Paul responds to critics of 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund amendment

There was plenty of outrage last week centered on Kentucky Senator Rand Paul over his amendment to the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund legislation, which temporarily delayed the popular legislation.

First, their was champion of this cause, Comedian Jon Stewart who said, “It’s absolutely outrageous, you’ll pardon me if I’m not impressed in any way by Rand Paul’s fiscal responsibility virtue signaling.”

“Rand Paul presented tissue paper avoidance of the $1.5 trillion tax cut that added hundreds of billions of dollars to our deficit, and now he stands up at the last minute after 15 years of blood, sweat and tears from the 9/11 community to say that it’s all over now,” Stewart said. “Now we’re going to balance the budget on the backs of the 9/11 first responder community.”

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said, “Senator Paul’s amendment would cut every government program across the board. Every member of the Senate should stand by our 9/11 heroes and vote against these unworkable amendments. The eyes of the nation are on us to stand by our heroes and truly “never forget,” by passing a permanent compensation program, so these men and women never have to spend another second in Washington ever again. We need to stop these political games and pass this bill now.”

And of course the source of all outrage, the Twitter mob. The hashtag #RandPaulHatesAmerica trended as tweets full of anger, vitriol and bile flowed through the social media site:

“Now I understand why Rand Paul’s neighbor beat the shit out of him. What an asshole.”

“i wish rand paul’s neighbor had gotten a few more shots in on him.”

Comments also poured in to the Senator Rand Paul News Facebook page and here is one example: Sen Rand Paul you are full of crap and have no heart! Hope you feel good about ignoring and disrespecting the first responders from 9/11. I wonder how you can face that day being such as absolute dog from hell?

Senator Paul responded to critics in television interviews and a email. Talking to Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, Paul said, “Look, I know Jon Stewart. And Jon Stewart is sometimes funny, sometimes informed.

“But, in this case, he’s neither funny nor informed.

“I have spent my entire Senate career putting forward pay-fors for any time spending is expanded. As soon ago, as two weeks ago, I put forward a pay-for, for the border funding. I put forward a pay-for the disaster funding. I do this on every new bit of funding.

“So he’s really not informed. And his name-calling just sort of exposes him as a left-winger, part of the left-wing mob that really isn’t using his brain and is willing to call people names.

“And it’s — it’s really kind of disgusting, because, see, he pretended for years when he was on his comedy show to be somebody who could see both sides and see through the B.S. on both sides.

“Well, now he is the B.S. The B.S. meter is through the roof when you see him calling people names, calling people an abomination, when I’m asking something very reasonable, that an amendment be included to consider whether we should pay for this, from taking money somewhere else in the budget.

“It doesn’t actually reduce the deficit. It just keeps the deficit from getting bigger. It’s a very reasonable thing. I have done it dozens and dozens of times, including on the tax bill.

“The left-wing mob says, oh, but you’re for tax cuts, but you’re not doing anything to offset the tax cuts. There’s something called pay-go. And I was the leader in trying to keep that in the tax bill. It was in the tax bill when we passed it and was later taken out of the tax bill, over my objections.

“So the whole thing is misrepresented and not true.”

In addition, Paul replied in an email to constituents stating:

As your senator, I have spoken out time and again for responsible, balanced budgeting with your resources.  As part of these efforts, I have worked hard to draft and offer for votes concrete plans that avoid adding to the deficit by saving taxpayer money from current spending to put toward other funding Congress wants to pass.

Even when we made history with our tax cuts, which I worked to make as large as possible, I took to the Senate floor to press my fellow senators to rein in spending to go along with the cuts, and I forced a vote on keeping the PAYGO (pay-as-you-go) rule applicable to our bill.  Unfortunately, 91 Republicans and Democrats opposed my efforts.

In keeping with this record, I introduced an amendment to the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund legislation this week to make sure we can pay for the additional spending, as we should seek to ensure is done with the bills we pass!

Contrary to what you might have heard, I am not blocking the bill.  Instead, I am simply calling on the Senate to consider doing with our budget what families all across America have to do with theirs.

In fact, I was ready to stay in Washington so we could hold votes on my amendment and the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund legislation right away, but other senators successfully pushed the vote to next week.  Both my amendment and the bill will receive a vote then.

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- Grandpa Ernie likes to write commentary in between naps.

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