Rand Paul

Rand Paul: some love him, some hate him; but what else can you expect with a politician? Rand Paul was born January 7th, 1963, (which puts him at 59),  and was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to a Christian family, (a religion of which he still practices today). He attended Baylor University and went on to Duke University School of Medicine, where he trained to be an ophthalmologist. He began practicing ophthalmology in 1993, which is when he found himself living in Kentucky. Throughout his life, he was a firm believer in personal liberty and freedom, and has described himself as a constitutional conservative and supporter of the Tea Party, which is a Libertarian movement that calls for lower taxes and decreased government spending.

These long held beliefs brought Rand Paul to the decision to run for office in 2010, where he ran for Senate in Kentucky, winning the position, then going on to win re-election in 2016 (with confirmation he will seek a third term in 2022). Rand was always quite politically active, where he was the head of a ‘Young Conservatives’ group in Texas during his time at Baylor. He even volunteered for his fathers Libertarian Party presidential run in 1988.

All of Rand Paul’s legislation proposals deal with the general message of “take away money and power from the federal government.” This includes but is not limited to:

• A bill to cut $500,000,000,000 in spending in fiscal year 2011.

• A bill to stop the National Security Agency from spying on citizens of the United States and for other purposes.

• A bill to repeal the Military Selective Service Act.

• A bill to repeal certain war powers of the President under the Communications Act of 1934.

• A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to prevent unjust and irrational criminal punishments.

This list is but a fraction of the legislation Rand Paul has proposed in his efforts to reduce the federal government’s power. Rand Paul is a unique politician in that he can find himself on either side of the party lines, as he aligns closest to libertarianism, which can in theory be a belief held by either side, however, we most often find it in the conservative belief system.

Most of Rand Paul’s support comes from liberty-minded people, and interest groups who believe in less gun control, lower taxes, more religious freedom, separation of church and state, and various conservative groups.