MOBILE – One of the Republican Party’s top potential 2016 presidential candidates was in Mobile, Ala. Monday for a roundtable breakfast meeting with some of south Alabama’s top business and political leaders.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, spoke with a sense of urgency about the national debt and the need for entitlement reform during the meeting, which was hosted by the Alabama Republican Party.
Paul cited entitlement spending as the area of the Federal Budget in most need of reform. “Nearly two-thirds of the Federal Budget is entitlements,” he said.
Paul specifically hammered on Medicare, which he said faces upwards of $40 trillion in unfunded liabilities and is getting worse thanks to the president’s healthcare law.
The junior senator from Kentucky also gave anecdotal evidence of the government’s big-spending ways.
Paul said the federal government is currently paying $3 million for an advertisement of a water skiing squirrel to promote the sale of walnuts. Congress voted 300-90 to keep the funding for the ad.
“If we cannot cut $3 million for a squirrel how can we cut entitlements?” He asked rhetorically.
The budget discussion concluded with Paul saying that defense spending should be the government’s top priority and that tax cuts are the most sure-fire way to stimulate the economy and increase private sector jobs.
He also expressed a desire to work across the aisle to solve the nation’s spending problem, noting that in a recent meeting with President Obama and Vice President Biden he suggested they all work together like Republican President Ronald Reagan and Democratic House Speaker Tip O’Neill did in the 1980s.
Alabama Republican Party Chairman Bill Armistead said that Paul is one of several GOP stars who will be visiting Alabama in the coming months. The state Party chairman said that Alabama’s decision to move its presidential primary up to March has given the state a bigger profile in the primary process.
“Sen. Paul proved to be a very eloquent and informed senator this morning as he met with business leaders in the Mobile/Baldwin County area who are supportive of the Alabama Republican Party,” said Armistead. “He has been at the forefront of the Republican fight to protect the rights of citizens and to stand in the gap against the overreach of the federal government. He not only knows the issues facing the nation today, but he has common sense solutions to get our country back on track.”
In addition to the policy discussion, Paul gave a political predication that will give Republicans around the country a reason to be optimistic.
“Republicans will gain the 6 seats needed to win control of the Senate,” he said confidently.
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