Rand Paul doesn’t play D.C. games | Politics

Kentucky is fortunate to have Sen. Rand Paul in the U.S. Senate. No one in Washington, D.C., is a better steward of their constituents’ hard-earned money than he is.

Recently, our junior senator announced he left more than $450,000 in federal office expense dollars unspent in fiscal year 2021, bringing the aggregate total that he has sent back to the U.S. Treasury over the last decade to $5.7 million. That’s money that Kentucky could use to fund its crumbling infrastructure, underfunded entitlement system and significant hospital accessibility problem.

However, as Sen. Paul continues to explore ways to cut costs to our benefit, the rest of the nation’s capitol continues to look for unprecedented ways to spend it.

Paul recently took to the Senate floor to voice his frustration over this sad reality, pointing to how the federal government’s nearly $6 trillion in borrowing over the last two years directly correlates with the current 40-year high in inflation and record-high gas prices.

“You might think that Congress would consider changing course,” Paul said. “But you’d be wrong.”

You certainly would be. Instead of changing course, the federal government appears gung-ho on finding the stupidest ways possible to blow the tax money we just sent to Uncle Sam.

For example, at the end of April, Sen. Paul and his Republican colleagues on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs sounded alarm bells on how the Small Business Administration effectively allowed Planned Parenthood to take $80 million from U.S. taxpayers. In a fiery letter to the SBA, the senators detailed how the SBA determined that Planned Parenthood affiliates were ineligible for $80 million worth of PPP loans and that should be returned. Instead of following through, the SBA forgave at least 34 of the 38 loans in question while approving $40 million worth of new ones.

Washington, D.C., bureaucrats defying logic to shamelessly serve a political agenda: What else is new?

As if there were already enough ways to spend taxpayers’ money, Congress now is trying to literally invent new ways to blow through it by sending millions upon millions to purportedly fake Indian tribes that have sizable political pull within their home states.

The Department of Interior already has denied federal acknowledgment to one group that Congress is considering recognizing, the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians. Another entity seeking Congress’ help, the so-called Lumbee Indian Tribe of North Carolina, refuses to go through that same DOI process, which appears to tell us all we need to know about the legitimacy of its claims. But these groups’ home state senators don’t seem to care. They know that these interest groups, which seek the many federal benefits that come with federal recognition, possess substantial electoral influence in their home states, so to them, raiding the federal coffers for this purpose is oh so selfishly worth the squeeze.

Washington, D.C., doesn’t spend money efficiently; it spends it in the most self-serving and politically calculated ways possible. Thankfully, Kentuckians have Sen. Paul, who is not in on his colleagues’ political games and actively is seeking to break them up. All we can do is pray that he receives the back-up he needs to stop as many of their dangerous chess pieces from moving as he can.

Osei Thomas, a small business owner and resident of Jetson, is chairman of Butler County Republican Party and a graduate of Western Kentucky University.

Osei Thomas, a small business owner and resident of Jetson, is chairman of Butler County Republican Party and a graduate of Western Kentucky University.

link