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I’m Rand Paul and I’m running for President of the United States of America. Ask me anything!

Posted by RandPaul 9 years, 7 months ago to Politics
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I'm Dr. Rand Paul, devoted husband and father, senator from Kentucky, and 2016 United States presidential candidate.

I am running for president to return our country to the principles of liberty and limited government. I am an advocate of a balanced budget amendment, term limits, and privacy reform. I’m proud to be here in Galt’s Gulch with you today and will be back at 4PM ET to provide answers to your questions.

Ask me anything.

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EDIT 3: Radio Interrupted post-show with the Atlas Society: http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts...

EDIT 2: A full summary of questions and answers by Dr. Paul can be found here: http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts...

EDIT 1: 09.22.15 4:50PM ET: The Senator had to cut it short to keep a date with Wolf Blitzer (CNN). Check out his farewell comment here: http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts...

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PROOF: https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/6...

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FROM SCOTT: Dr. Paul will be here at 4PM ET. Post your questions here now as comments below. IF YOU HAVE MULTIPLE QUESTIONS, PLEASE POST THEM AS INDIVIDUAL COMMENTS. Try and keep the questions brief so the senator can get through as many as possible. Also, make sure to vote on the questions (and this post) as the best will rise to the the top of the list.

At 4PM ET, refresh this page with your browser to see the Rand’s replies as they come in.

Also, make sure to join us at 4:30PM today for a special edition of GULCH LIVE: RADIO INTERRUPTED ( http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/g/the... ) for exclusive live commentary from the Atlas Society's David Kelly, Aaron Day, Will Thomas, and Ed Hudgins.

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DONATE TO RAND’S CAMPAIGN: https://secure.randpaul.com/

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DONATE TO FREEDOMWORKS: https://donate.freedomworks.org/contr...
DONATE TO THE ATLAS SOCIETY: http://atlassociety.org/donate

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NOT YET A GULCH PRODUCER?
- Create a new Galt's Gulch Account: https://galtsgulchonline.appspot.com/...
- Upgrade an existing Galt's Gulch Account: http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/accou...

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All Comments


Previous comments...   You are currently on page 6.
  • Posted by FrankPeters 9 years, 7 months ago
    Dr Paul, Your proposal for a flat tax will affect the tax preparation industry for Federal Income tax preparation. Aren't you afraid of the people in this industry because they are dead set against your proposal?
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  • Posted by Vinay 9 years, 7 months ago
    Dr Paul, would you use RICO to prosecute Al Gore and other politicians who have started the Climate Scientology racket? and to prosecute Greenpeace for its crimes against humanity?
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  • 15
    Posted by 9 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    There is something wrong with a system that releases hardened violent criminals to make room in prison for someone caught smoking marijuana. As President, I’d reform our criminal justice system so that the punishment fits the crime and we keep violent offenders behind bars.

    Since I was a freshman senator, I have introduced or co-sponsored more than two dozen bills designed to fix our broken criminal justice system. This problem will not be fixed overnight, just as it did not come into being overnight. It has been in the making for decades. The American people deserve a well-functioning criminal justice system, one they do not have to fear will take their assets and criminalize every bit of their conduct, but instead will do what it is supposed to do: protect them from violent criminals.

    What I am proposing is faithful to the Republican principles driving me to fight for this great country: protecting civil liberties, reducing the federal deficit, promoting strong families, undoing the opportunistic laws put into place by the Washington Machine, and ending big government intrusion into our private lives.
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  • Posted by kristymartino 9 years, 7 months ago
    Sen. Paul. I truly appreciated your comment during the GOP debate regarding the criminalization of the poor. I'm wondering if you support already successful programs like the Earned Income Tax and Child Tax Credit - these are high-impact anti-poverty programs that truly address the growing income and wealth inequality in America, particularly the racial wealth gap (in 2011, for every $1 white Americans held, African Americans had just .06 cents in wealth). These pro-work tax credits lifted roughly 10 million OUT of poverty in 2014. As President, would you prioritize working families by saving key provisions of the Earned Income Tax and Child Tax Credit?
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  • Posted by TorturedInAmerica 9 years, 7 months ago
    Senator Rand, I met you at an Illinois stop. I am being radiated with electromagnetic weapons used by contractors in a covert government campaign. Will you call for a second Church Committee to hear testimony from thousands of Americans being extrajudicially tortured?
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  • Posted by Judyspady 9 years, 7 months ago
    Why are you supporting the "Convention of States" project when they have admitted that it will open up the entire Constitution for possible changes? This is a dangerous move and American citizens need to understand why you support it.
    -Judy Spady (www.defendnotamend.com)
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  • Posted by D_E_Liberty 9 years, 7 months ago
    dear senator, could you please give us your top three reasons objectivists should vote and actively support your campaign?
    Reply | Permalink  
  • 13
    Posted by 9 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I ran for office because I was unhappy about Washington. The more I see Washington, the more unhappy I am. Our government is dysfunctional and doesn't work. I'm a huge proponent of term limits and would throw everybody out, myself included.

    We need to start fresh. We need term limits. 12 years is more than enough time in the Senate, and more than enough time in the House. The status quo remains because the same people remain, decade after decade. I think sometimes they harken back to electorate that elected them decades ago that’s not today's electorate.

    The public is about a decade ahead of government. Right now, people are upset and unhappy and justifiably so. The people want us to act, not to cower in the corner while Democrats continue to spend recklessly.
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  • Posted by Vinay 9 years, 7 months ago
    Dr Paul, Would you support a coalition of Russia, Assad, and the U.S. to defeat ISIS and push them out of Syria? Would you support the use of TACTICAL nuclear weapons to defeat ISIS?
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  • Posted by Vinay 9 years, 7 months ago
    Dr Paul, why bother to audit the Fed when you know it needs to be ended? Why not reclaim and restate "End the Fed"?
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  • Posted by Chuckh3 9 years, 7 months ago
    Chuck from Kentucky here again. I have question about family in regards to legislation on the right to a home birth.

    In Kentucky there seems to be no midwifes and almost a weird idea about home birth. I read that there hasn't been a midwife given a certificate to practice midwifery since 1975.

    Dr. Paul what is the deal with home birth in Kentucky and what can we do to make this right? My wife has a natural God given right to bear her children in the comfort of her own home without her midwife being scared of a legal suite.
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  • 11
    Posted by 9 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Wasteful spending in Washington has drained the Medicare trust funds. Obamacare has borrowed money from Medicare to cover its cost. Washington cannot continue to promise everything to everyone without a plan to pay for it.

    In the current system, there are two problems. Doctors are already dropping off the Medicare payment rolls. Seniors will be left with bigger bills and fewer options. I want to put some competition back in the system, and I want to make sure seniors can choose from the best health-care plans in the country.
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  • Posted by PROOF 9 years, 7 months ago
    Would you not agree, Senator Paul, that you need to do something to catch the attention of mainstream america?

    There must be some kind of publicity stunt, or something, anything, you can do to have the spotlight aim at your and your issues in america....

    Right now I believe not enough people know who you even are and what you stand for....the media has done a good job of ensuring this but some kind of public spectacle would be impossible for the media to ignore...

    A publicist could help you with this....
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  • 15
    Posted by 9 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Washington is run by lobbyists and special interests, and career politicians in both parties let it happen. My tax plan ends corporate welfare and all special tax breaks will be gone in exchange for one low, flat rate of 14.5 percent that every single business will pay—filled on a single page of a tax return, eliminating the over 70,000 pages of the current tax code.

    I want to free up the great engine of American prosperity by lowering taxes, only spending what we take in, and bringing American businesses back from overseas. I am convinced that my vision can become a reality if we end the trillion dollar government stimulus packages—packages which have made the rich richer and the poor poorer—and replace them with tax cuts for everybody, the rich, the poor, and those in the middle.
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  • Posted by Vinay 9 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Would you support a coalition of Russia, Assad, and the U.S. to defeat ISIS and push them out of Syria? Would you support the use of TACTICAL nuclear weapons to defeat ISIS?
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by Russell-Patton-Davis 9 years, 7 months ago
    Dr Paul,
    I seems that your Fair & Flat Tax is a readily achievable means of greatly downsizing the IRS. As a version 1.0 This is great. Once that is accomplished do you think there can be a version 3.0 with much greater dividends?

    Perhaps you would consider supporting H.R. 25 The Fair Tax Act (state collected national sales tax with complete elimination of the IRS) because it is a good and necessary part of "The Dovetailed Solution" to our fiscal cliff and many other problems.

    "The Dovetailed Solution".

    Duly authorized voters are the sovereign authority owning the corporation of the United States of America. They own equitable title and they own legal title in that they may impeach trustees at will or for cause initiated by grand jury indictment for any breech of duty to the only legitimate beneficiaries – the citizens of the United States of America.
    The owners cannot except by fraud and treason be deemed to have pledged their assets and their persons as surety for their corporation's debts.
    There is no court of bankruptcy that can conceit sovereignty over the United States of America and its owners short of fraud and treason.

    By employing the FairTax and three currencies simultaneously it is possible for the people of the USA to personally win in the inexorable race-to-the bottom of existing fiat currencies that all major trading nations use.
    There is no legitimate reason that the corporation of the United States of America cannot be authorized to orderly work out its dollar denominated assets and liabilities (including contingent off-book items) by working with three freely exchangeable currencies.

    These three freely exchangeable currencies are:

    1) the federal reserve note dollar to be used for redeeming all dollar denominated assets and liabilities (including ALL taxes and government purchases);

    2) a constitutional money coined of steel and other high-energy useful materials , tradeable by convenient redeemable certificates having a one to two standing with existing stocks, These material are a useful store and transport medium for the value of our essentially surplus natural gas. The terms of redemption delivery should be FAS certain foreign ports. This currency will become the world's favored currency of trade. We will be paid both
    A) by printing for export the certificates in circulation and
    B) by market hegemony in these high energy materials.

    3) a Ben Franklin specified script of treasury issue in an amount equal to the sum of domestic consumption such that inflation and deflation is minimized over all.
    A state collected federal retail sales tax will replace ALL other federal taxes. As the economy grows the amount of the Ben Franklin specified script will need to be issued by the treasury. This issue will be made as a federal sales tax prebate/dividend made equally to every duly authorized CITIZEN. Federal welfare of all types may be justly eliminated along with every hand-in-your-pants federal bureaucracy. And so as a result a decrease in those state hand-in-your-pants bureaucracies dependent on the federal teat and mandate.

    This tax structure will largely eliminate the enticement for people to become illegal immigrants. And will cause almost all illegal immigrants to become properly legal immigrants.
    There are details for this. The remaining illegal immigrant would likely have extremely criminal motive to be here.

    As the federal reserve's dollar is diminished in use and utility the problems with the dollar and its Federal Reserve bankster fractional reserve crew can be worked out until no longer significant.

    State Chartered non-fractional reserve banks may disburse the citizen dividend/prebate in Franklin script, make loans in Franklin script, and employ (upon citizen choice of use) the existing dollar banks as contractors for this activity. New loans denominated in fractional reserve dollars will not need to be made illegal they will disappear by market force.

    The same sunset will take dollar denominated Social Security and other forms of federal intervention. As Beneficial/Equitable owners of the nation citizens receive an inheritable and gift-able but not otherwise alienable Medical Trust and Education Trust account.
    Also the problems of the student loan bubble and the end-of-life medical expense bubble will slowly vanish by market forces.

    All this while Americanly exceptional Liberty & Prosperity grows as fast as its people embrace it.

    Thank you for you consideration Dr. Paul.
    And may God be with you to guide and protect you always.
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  • Posted by FrankPeters 9 years, 7 months ago
    Dr. Paul, Would you describe your view of what the proper purpose of Government is?
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  • Posted by acanzoneri1 9 years, 7 months ago
    Dr. Paul, do you consider yourself more libertarian or coneervative? How are you more "socially liberal " than your opponents? Do you and your dad ever plan to get together for a rally or campaign event?

    Much apreciation
    Sincerely, SFR chapter president, Anthony J. Canzoneri
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  • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    So a family of 4 that earns up to 50,000 / yr does not have to pay for any of the social services and benefits that it consumes from the society, like roads, courts, police, military, etc.
    Likewise, charity is exempted from taxation - why? If someone wants to donate - by all means, as long as he's donating his own money. By exempting the charity from taxation, that tax burden is transfered onto someone else. Perhaps I do not wish to donate to your charity?
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  • Posted by WilliamRThomas 9 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Rand Paul proposes a "flat and fair tax" on business and personal income of 14.5%. And proposes eliminating the rest of the tax code. I hope I'm representing his view right.
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  • Posted by mriben1 9 years, 7 months ago
    Rand, how can we overcome the campaign of demeaning comments that forms the basis of Trumps message?...I fear Roman Societal collapse where the morons take over - its atlas shrugged come true! Just look what Rahm Emmanuel proposed yesterday in Chicago!
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  • Posted by rakman 9 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    vader543, evidently you've never read when Cruz has fillibustered in the Senate, or called McConnell a liar (because he was) right on the Senate floor, and in a host of other circumstances, he has spoken out.
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  • Posted by 9 years, 7 months ago
    Just arrived, excited to be here! Will start answering your questions now. - RP
    Reply | Permalink  

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