Kentucky Senator-Elect Rand Paul – November 2, 2010

BULLSHIT: When asked, on CNN, a question about reducing wealth disparity by letting the Bush tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest expire:  “Well, the thing is, we’re all interconnected.  There are no rich.  There are no middle class.  There are no poor.  … You remember a few years ago, when they tried to tax the yachts, that didn’t work.  You know who lost their jobs?  The people making the boats, the guys making 50,000 and 60,000 dollars a year lost their jobs.  We all either work for rich people or we sell stuff to rich people.  So just punishing rich people is as bad for the economy as punishing anyone.  Let’s not punish anyone.  Let’s keep taxes low and let’s cut spending.”

TRANSLATED! “Don’t forget that I am rich, relatively speaking.  And also don’t forget that I champion the causes of the rich, the corporate leaders, the financially wealthy.  How am I supposed to truthfully answer a question like that without pissing off both the duped blue-collar workers who elected me and my corporate overlords?  Let’s see… I’m sure I can wing it with some Ayn Rand-ian/strangely world-peace-ish bullshit that makes no sense whatsoever once applied to the actual world in which we live.  I’m obviously a selfish person, and as long as I’ve got mine, I don’t give a damn about those whose heads I’m stepping on in order to maintain my lofty position.  I am a rich person, and you unwashed masses will either work for me or sell stuff to me.  It is simply unimaginable to me that an extra five percent or less in taxes on income over $250K could really be no big deal to someone of my economic stature.  Why punish me and my elite class when there are plenty of voiceless poor people upon whom we can foist our economic woes via budget cuts in programs for voiceless poor people?  Finally, I like this example of yacht builders losing their jobs when they taxed yacht purchases, because it is way easier to throw that out there than to sit down like the public servant I was just elected to be and actually think about potential ways to steer our country away from an apparently  frivolous economy that is based in large part upon luxury purchases by the rich.”