Unbelievable! Well…. not really. Rand Paul ran as a Tea Party supporter and touted how he would fight to end earmarks. He has not even assumed office, and this vow is being jettisoned in favor of pragmatic politics. Paul now says that, as long as there are earmarks, he will add his share of them in legislation so that Kentucky will get its fair share. This comes from a recent article from ThinkProgress.
Of course, if Paul can ask for and obtain earmarks for his state, who do you think his big campaign donors will be in upcoming elections? Yep! I predicted this sort of thing would happen pretty fast, but this takes the cake. Paul has not even assumed office!
This quote from the ThinkProgress article sums it up even more nicely than my previous article:
If he’s already selling out his Tea Party pledges, as the conservative National Review suggests, Paul may be proving earmark-happy Rep. Roy Blunt’s (R-MO) sentiments correct: “they can be as ideological as they want before getting to Washington but will soon discover that things are quite different once inside of the beast.”
- Ron Paul: The Only Choice Worth a Trip to the Ballot Box - September 26, 2011
- GOP Members’ Position on Payroll Tax Cuts Unbelievable - August 29, 2011
- My Take on the Evil of Centralized Power - June 25, 2011