Only two days after an assignation attempt on the life of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul spoke about dialing back extreme rhetoric during a visit to the VFW in Columbia on Monday.
Paul’s visit, which had been planned prior to Saturday’s shooting, was delayed due to a traffic accident. Upon arriving to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #6097, Mayor Pam Hoots introduced the Junior Kentucky Senator to a relatively small crowd.
Paul discussed the need to focus on policy and ideological disagreements instead of name-calling.
“Saying (Trump) is Hitler… that is something that is encouraging craziness and encouraging crazy people to come out of the woodwork,” Paul said.
The need to focus on policy instead of personal attacks has been shared across the political spectrum. Left-wing Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders stated Sunday during an NBC interview that “politics should be kind of boring” in the wake of Trump’s near-assassination.
Paul also discussed larger issues facing the nation, such as funding for social security and Medicare/Medicaid.
While Paul said these funds could run out in the “next five years” according to independent actuaries, the Social Security Administration’s website states that full benefits will be payable until 2037, at which point the amount received will drop.
Whenever the drop is slated to happen, Paul’s primary argument on Monday was that the government needs to find a sustainable way to fund these programs so those reliant on them do not receive less or have to go without, especially given how little Social Security can often pay already.
“You know what (state representatives) have been doing? Putting money aside for a rainy day… So when tornadoes came to the western part of the state, we had $200 million and they immediately wrote a check. They didn’t borrow it… People ask me, ‘What about the federal government? Does the federal government have a rainy day fund?’ Yes, and it’s minus $34 trillion right now.”
Much of Sen. Paul’s speech may have been in response to violence and cautionary about needless spending, but the tone was overall optimistic. Paul mentioned that in 1820, 98 percent of Americans lived on $2 per day. Today, 10 percent of the world’s population lives on that amount today. Progress in this area was earned thanks to the extraordinary interconnectedness and scope of the global economy that allows for the building of wealth, Paul said.
Of course, that kind of prosperity takes a lot of working together, he noted.
By Kenley Godby
kenley@adairvoice.com
