Sunday, January 12, 2014

Does Rand Paul Even Know What His "Free Enterprise Zones" Plan Is All About?

I have touched a bit already on Rand Paul attending the White House announcement of President Obama's "Promise Zones," but I want to cover it a bit more to show just how peculiar of a move it was for Rand to attend the announcement. Peculiar, at least, if we are looking at things from a libertarian perspective.

When Rand first announced his Free Enterprise Zones plan,  it was a plan that I could not strongly object to since it was mostly about tax cuts. Though limited in the geographic zones of tax cuts, it was still mostly about tax cuts (See: Rand Paul's "Detroit Plan" One Big Step Forward, A Few Small Steps Backward). My reservations were mostly about how the plan could be co-opted by the left.  (See: A Warning from Murray Rothbard on Rand Paul's Free Enterprise Zones Plan)

I wonder though if Rand really understand his own plan. Given the statement he made about President Obama's "Promise Zones" plan, (He attended Obama's announcement of the plan.) it appears he either doesn't get his own plan or continues to use wording which tends to mislead others about what his thinking is and what the facts are.

He told FOX news when discussing Obama's Promise Zones:
They say the sincerest form of flattery is in imitation.
But as I have already pointed out (See: UGLY: Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul Stood with Obama at the Announcement of Promise Zones)
 These "Promise Zones" are about nothing but the funding of crony government-private partnerships and Obama grassroots organizations. And about  Federal influence over education, starting at the pre-school level.
How can Rand think his tax cutting plan is similar to Obama's government spending plan? Obama's plan doesn't include any tax cuts. This is at the heart and soul of Rand's plan. The White House put out a 30 plus paragraph fact sheet on Obama's plan. It doesn't list tax cuts anywhere, except in the last paragraph, seemingly as an afterthought:
Finally, President Obama has proposed, and called on Congress to act, to cut taxes on hiring and investment in areas designated as Promise Zones – based upon the proven model of Empowerment Zones tax credits – to attract businesses and create jobs.
If Rand really understood his plan and wanted to advance the ideas in his plan, he should be raising hell as to how Obama is co-opting his idea, and the last thing he should have been doing is standing next to Obama when Obama announced the Promise Zones plan, which does nothing but expand the state.

It is should be coming very clear that Rand is all about advancing his presidential prospects and will say and do anything that advances that goal. As we get closer to the 2016 presidential primary season, Rand's positions will get more and more interventionist. It's the only way you can get elected in this country given the current views of the general public and given a mainstream media that is bought and paid for by the elitists.

And, if there are folks out there who think Rand is attempting to fool the power elite and that once he is in office he is going to turn his back on the statist statements he made to win and go full libertarian, I have one name for you to ponder: John "Assassinated" Kennedy.

6 comments:

  1. Crony government-private partnerships have been the epitome of Republican party fascism for the last 15 years, and Rand Paul should feel right at home among the corporate statist that are his natural constituents.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Interesting how Rand has become Obama's useful idiot. I can't really say I saw this one coming.

    ReplyDelete
  3. From what I understand, Paul believes the two plans have the same end goal, targeted economic recovery, but use different means to achieve that goal. "Promise Zones" using top-down government authority, "Economic Freedom Zones" using bottom-up free markets. I believe he attends events like the Promise Zone presser to draw a distinction between the two plans. Here is a clip of a press release where he describes the difference between the two plans as he sees it: http://youtu.be/9KjwlO5Slh8?t=23s Alluding that Paul doesn't understand or see a difference between the two plans is silly, however if your goal was to write controversially in an attempt to attract readers/comments, well done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh come on, listen to the tape. It is Rand talking out of both sides of his mouth again.

      He says that he is not opposed to what the President is doing with the Promise Zones program---which is all about government grants.

      Quote: "I am not opposed to what he is doing."

      But thanks for one thing, this video shows Rand isn't confused about his position, he is deliberately muddying the waters.

      Delete
    2. I don't always agree with Robert Wenzel, but he is an extremely keen observer of the vacuous amoral wasteland that is at the core of every Tea Party statist. He is so far ahead of people like Justin Raimondo it is scary.

      Delete
  4. "John "Assassinated" Kennedy."

    The fact that some people think that is Rand's aim is absurd in the extreme to begin with. What is the precedence for someone talking statist and then turning libertarian once in the seat of power? It is nothing but complete, utter BLIND faith in a politician, based on nothing but family tree. They don't even have to think it can end up like Kennedy even though that is a great point which would not open their open regardless.
    As far as precedence goes, REAGAN should prove more than enough. There's a guy who promised great things and turned out to be just another statist. From the liberal side, Obama is another example. Big ideological words, miserable statist acts once elected to the white house.

    ReplyDelete