Blaming the nation’s spending problems on both parties, Sen. Rand Paul plans Tuesday to use his response to President Obama’s State of the Union address to warn that Congress must cut defense and domestic programs if it is serious about fixing the nation’s “fiscal mess.”
Mr. Paul, delivering a response on behalf of the Tea Party Express, will say that few in Congress understand that the nation is on a fiscally unsustainable path and should let happen the $85 billion in spending “sequesters” due to kick in March 1.
“Both parties have been guilty of spending too much, of protecting their sacred cows, of backroom deals in which everyone up here wins, but every taxpayer loses,” Mr. Paul plans to say, according to excerpts from his speech. “It is time for a new bipartisan consensus. It is time Democrats admit that not every dollar spent on domestic programs is sacred. And it is time Republicans realize that military spending is not immune to waste and fraud.”
“Not only should the sequester stand, many pundits say the sequester really needs to be at least $4 trillion to avoid another downgrade of America’s credit rating,” he plans to say. “Both parties will have to agree to cut, or we will never fix our fiscal mess.”
The Kentucky Republican is scheduled to deliver his response shortly after Sen. Marco Rubio, another tea party favorite, delivers the official Republican response to Mr. Obama’s fifth State of the Union address.
Mr. Paul also plans to dive into the ongoing debate over immigration, urging his party to “embrace the immigrant who wants to come to America for a better future.”
“We must be the party who sees immigrants as assets, not liabilities. We must be the party that says, ‘If you want to work, if you want to become an American, we welcome you,’” the excerpts say.
