Rand Paul Says End ‘Welfare” to Israel

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rand-paulTea party-backed Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) isn’t sure that congressional Republicans have the guts to make the big budget cuts they’ve promised and, he said, members of the movement are becoming frustrated.

“There’s a disconnect between Republicans who want a balanced budget but aren’t maybe yet brave enough to talk about the cuts to come,” the freshman senator said in an interview with ABC News, responding to the spending plan released Thursday by the House Budget Committee chairman, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), which would cut non-defense discretionary spending by $58 billion for the rest of fiscal 2011.

“I go to a tea party, and you know what they say to me? ‘It’s not enough. It’s not enough. Where’s the other trillion you need?'” Paul said. He’s offered his own budget plan that would cut spending by $500 billion this year, including an end to all foreign aid and a dramatic reduction to the U.S. Department of Education’s budget.

Paul, son of libertarian Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), said he is a “true believer,” determined to stand by his tea party values and not get bogged down falling in line with the GOP.

“There are always problems in our nation’s capital that are more important than party affiliation, and I will always believe that,” Paul said. “It’s not necessarily tea party versus Republican Party, but I would say that if you ask me what’s more important – tackling our nation’s deficit, our nation’s debt problems or being a Republican – I would say tackling the debt.”

Paul also defended his calls to end aid to Israel, saying they’re just part of his bigger efforts at fiscal responsibility. “I’m not singling out Israel. I support Israel. I want to be known as a friend of Israel, but not with money you don’t have,” he said. “We can’t just borrow from our kids’ future and give it to countries, even if they are our friends.”

And, he said, giving money to the country is especially unwise considering Israel’s relative wealth. “I think they’re an important ally, but I also think that their per capita income is greater than probably three-fourths of the rest of the world,” he said. “Should we be giving free money or welfare to a wealthy nation? I don’t think so.”

{Politico/Matzav.com}


8 COMMENTS

  1. One of the main arguments espoused by Likud leader Moshe Feiglin has always been that Israel should stop taking American aid – both
    military and economic. We feel that it costs Israel 100,000 jobs and also costs Israel billions of dollars from lost weapons sales. We feel that the combination of these factors actually means that Israel loses money every year by taking the American aid.

    Ron Dermer, one of Bibi’s top aides, publicly agreed with me on these points at an AIPAC meeting 4 years ago.

    Most importantly though, taking this aid costs Israel her perceived sovereignty. Israel is now viewed as the 51st State of the Union by most of the world, and Israeli leaders use the imagined need of the aid to push more concessions on the Israeli populace.

    Ariel Sharon’s most famous justification for his 2005 Expulsion from Gaza was “if we don’t do this, they (America) will make us do something worse”, meaning “we have to do this or something worse, or we will lose the American aid, which everyone knows we can’t live without.”

    The Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies (JIMS), an independent, nonprofit economic policy think tank which aims to promote individual liberty and economic freedom in Israel, issued a report this week stating
    that “every dollar granted to Israel costs Israel between 1.06 and 1.39 dollars”. The report concluded that “JIMS forecasts that as a result of the economic crisis in the US and its ever-increasing budget deficits, along with the
    rise of new powers such as India and China, which are interested in Israeli products, the economic and strategic damage of US aid will
    increase in the coming years. JIMS recommends that the Israeli government initiate an end of US governmental grants”.

  2. American “aid” to Israel is actually Israeli aid to America as the “aid” is mainly in the form of loan-guarantees that enable Israel to pay less interest on debt but do not cost US taxpayers anything as bli ayin hara Israel has never defaulted and the money must be spent on US-made equipment. Moreover, a strong Israel is worth more than the “aid” in saving America the need to station its military in more Middle Eastern bases.
    In fact, it would be good for Israel for the “aid” to be cut as it would give Obama less leverage.

  3. Mr. Rand is looking for a penny from the sick and fallen. He might be in business today, but I predict that his brand of nostalgia only lasts a few years.

  4. As a true supporter of the state of Israel, I say to you Mr. Paul, “Go for it!” Stop all foreign aid, including to Israel, Palestinians, Egypt, Turkey, etc.

    We can’t afford it anymore.

    This man, by the way, supports Israel big time. He DID NOT specify Israel, but said that we need to stop the out of control spending, including foreign aid to EVERYONE.
    It was CNN (I believe Wolf Blitzer) who singled out Israel, asking him if he wanted to cut Israel too, and he answered, “Yes, there is no difference.”

    And as a Yid, who supports Israel, and who supports the Tea Party, he is 100% right.

    May the Ribono Shel Oilam save America from the liberals and Democrats.

    Maran Rav Avigdor Miller Zatzal warned about the liberals, and oiy was he 100% correct.

  5. Why does it take a non-jew to speak the real emes? Why does it take a non-jew to remind us that you should “beat donkeyskins in the market place – rather than accept even potentially avoidable, and compromising, tzedaka? This is true on a national level in Medina Yisroel – as well as on a personal level – by those who saprophyte off the community. But we haven’t learned yet.

    It appears thats why HKBH is rounding up the flames of the Arab world against us. Perchance we learn before the next war starts. But we probably won’t. And you won’t have the guts to print this unedited.

  6. I published an op-ed on this topic.

    Moshe Feiglin, R’ Kahane, JTF, the Zionist Freedom Alliance, Joel Bainerman, Zalman Shoval, and even Bibi Netanyahu all agreed that foreign aid does more harm than good for Israel.

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