CHARLESTON, S.C. — Sen. Rand Paul kept up his conservative critique of Gov. Chris Christie Monday, accusing him of displaying big spending tendencies in the wake of Hurricane Sandy last year.
“The main theme of his candidacy seems to be, I got you a lot of federal money. It doesn’t sound like a conservative message. It sounds like a moderate to big government message,” Paul said in response to a question asking him to elaborate on why he’s characterized the New Jersey governor as a “moderate.”
Paul addressed a mix of national and local reporters at the Harbour Club in downtown Charleston Monday afternoon in between a roundtable with area Republicans and a fundraiser for the state GOP.
Paul labeled Christie a “moderate” last week in a shot designed to deflate the governor’s appeal in a Republican presidential primary as he basked in the glow of a 22-point victory margin in the Garden State.
The Kentucky senator’s broadside against Christie on fiscal policy offers an early window into what a 2016 primary debate between the two would look like.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Christie upbraided Congress for failing to deliver timely and effective aid. Lawmakers finally agreed to a $60 billion package in late January — three months after Sandy struck the state. Paul registered a no vote against the relief money.
Paul said he supported Sandy funding that would be doled out annually and offset with spending cuts.
“But the clamor from Republicans, many who are from that region was, ‘Just give it all to us now, be done with it. You people are debating, I can’t believe you’re gonna talk about not giving us all of our money, all of it right now without any conditions, without any cuts, without any offsetting cuts.’ So I don’t consider that to be a conservative position,” he said, without directly mentioning Christie’s name.
Like many of the disagreements within the Republican Party right now, Paul’s argument is one, in part, based on the process of crafting legislation, rather than the ultimate end result.
While a future rival could easily attempt to paint Paul as heartless and irresponsible with his no vote against hurricane funds, he argued that his position is, in fact, the fiscally responsible one.
“I’m not arguing against aid. I’m just arguing that the fiscally responsible way to do that aid would’ve been one year at a time and offsetting it with spending cuts elsewhere,” he said.
Paul then bolstered his argument by broadening the scope to encompass the nation’s calamitous debt along with his crusade to rein in foreign aid.
“When you have a big storm like that we do have needs at home. So I took, it was $9 billion for the first year, I took it out of foreign aid spending and said don’t spend it. It’s not like we really have it anyway. It’s all borrowed. So even though we do need to rebuild after Sandy, there are repercussions. Conservatives will say, yeah there are repercussions to just borrowing it from China until you can rebuild things that should be rebuilt. That means you need to be more fiscally responsible with your money, which means you’ve got to be for cutting spending,” he explained.
A Christie adviser did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Paul is slated to address The Charleston Meeting — a group of Low Country Republicans — on Monday evening. On Tuesday, he will deliver a speech at The Citadel.
Paul and Christie currently top The RUN’s CHASE — a list of the contenders favored to win their party’s 2016 presidential nomination.
Follow Dave’s blog at TheRun2016.com
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