Glenn Beck Interviews Rand Paul, August 6

cross-posted at Rand Paul for U.S. Senate

Here are a few highlights from Glenn Beck’s interview today with Rand Paul, newly declared senate candidate in Kentucky. Added emphases are mine. Read the whole interview here.

PAUL: [The] Primary reason I run for office is I think our country is drowning in a sea of debt and I don't think the career politicians on either side of the aisle, Republican or Democrat, have been willing to address the problem. We need somebody who is an outsider who doesn't really need the career in Washington, doesn't need the fame of going to Washington, who wants to go up there and fix problem.

. . . In Kentucky we have a balanced budget every year by law. California doesn't, but we're ultimately going to be paying the taxes to bail out California. The federal government needs a rule because you cannot trust the politicians to balance their budget.

BECK: Where do you stand on healthcare? You're a doctor.

PAUL: I think the healthcare plan as presented is a disaster. I think the more benign sounding the title, Free Choice Healthcare Act, the more ominous the contents.

BECK: Do you think there's any place at all for government healthcare?

PAUL: Very, very little, even what we have doesn't work. People brag about the Medicare system. But the Medicare system, the costs are rising faster than the private system. And in the Medicare system, we're already short of money. . . . There are too many older folks and not enough younger folks working to pay for Medicare already. And they've added Medicare prescription drug plan which we don't have enough money for either. So really there's already a squeeze in what government's doing, and they're talking about adding another trillion dollars worth of cost to that system. It's untenable and won't work. But the other thing is the whole thing driving this debate is the 46 million uninsured. But of those if you break it down a third of them make more than $50,000 a year. A third of them are eligible for Medicaid but haven't signed up for it. And 20% are illegal aliens, and we're driving the debate over the government and society paying for the healthcare of people who broke the law to come here. I think it's crazy.

PAUL: . . . I'm worried about the deficit and what it will do. . . . ultimately I'm not a doomsday sayer, but I worry about in Germany, in 1923 when they destroyed their currency out of that arose a Hitler. . . . And we have to be very careful that we don't rewrite our Constitution or throw it out completely and we don't get some kind of strong leader that's going to help us or keep us from ourselves.