Rand Paul in Speech at 2013 CPAC conference

On Budget & Economy: We cannot continue to borrow $50,000 per second

Our government today is larger than it has ever been in the history of our country. Everything that America has been, and everything we ever wish to be, is now threatened by the notion that you can have something for nothing, that you can have your cake and eat it too, that you can spend a trillion dollars every year that you don't have.

The President seems to think we can keep adding to a $16 trillion debt. The President seems to think the country can continue to borrow $50,000 per second.

The President believes that we should just squeeze more money out of those who are working. He's got it exactly backwards. I'm here to tell you, what we need to do is leave more money in the pockets of those who earned it.

Source: Speech at 2013 Conservative Political Action Conf. Mar 14, 2013

On Budget & Economy: Sequester doesn't cut spending; it just slows rate of growth

Look at how ridiculously Washington politicians have behaved over the sequester. The President did a big "woe is me" over a trillion dollar sequester that he endorsed and signed into law. Some Republicans joined him. But the sequester didn't even cut any spending. It just slowed the rate of growth. Even with the sequester, government will grow over $7 trillion over the next decade. Only in Washington could an increase of $7 trillion in spending over a decade be called a cut.

After the sequester, it was announced that the White House would stop giving tours. Administration officials said that it was due to "cuts" imposed by the sequester. Meanwhile the President found an extra $250 million to send to Egypt. You know, the country where mobs attacked our embassy, burned our flag, and chanted death to America. I say: not a penny more to countries that burn our flag. The President says he can't find anything to cut except for White House tours.

Source: Speech at 2013 Conservative Political Action Conf. Mar 14, 2013

On Foreign Policy: End US aid to countries that burn our flag

Sen. Paul told conservatives gathered at CPAC that ending foreign aid to nations like Egypt rather than stopping school children from touring the White House is a better way to cut federal spending: "I say not one penny more to countries that are burning our flag," Paul said, as the crowd rose to its feet and cheered. He chided the president for halting the tours as a way to deal with the across-the-board federal budget cuts required by the Budget Control Act, or sequester, which was proposed and signed into law by the president.

"The president's He's trying to do his fair share," Paul said. "But within a few days, the president finds an extra $250 million dollars to send to Egypt." Paul was referring to money appropriated by Congress to help the new government in Egypt where protests against the US have included burning the America flag, and "where mobs attacked out embassy and chanted 'Death to America,' [but Obama] found an extra $250 million to reward them," Paul said.

Source: CNSnews.com on 2013 Conservative Political Action Conf. Mar 14, 2013

On Homeland Security: 13-hour filibuster against drone strikes targeting Americans

The message for the President is that no one person gets to decide the law, no one person gets to decide your guilt or innocence. My question to the President was about more than just killing Americans on American soil. My question was about whether Presidential power has limits.

President Obama who seemed, once upon a time, to respect civil liberties, has become the President who signed a law allowing for the indefinite detention of an American citizen. Indeed, a law that allows an American citizen to be sent to Guantanamo Bay without a trial. President Obama defends his signing of the bill by stating that he has no intention of detaining any American citizen without a trial.

Likewise, he defended his possible targeted Drone strikes against Americans on American soil by indicating that he has no intention of doing so. Well, my 13-hour filibuster was a message to the President. Good intentions are not enough. We want to know, will you or won't you defend the Constitution?

Source: Speech at 2013 Conservative Political Action Conf. Mar 14, 2013

On Homeland Security: Only Judiciary can detain and drone, not the President

If we destroy our enemy but lose what defines our freedom in the process, have we really won? If we allow one man to charge Americans as enemy combatants and indefinitely detain or drone them, then what exactly is it our brave young men and women are fighting for?

There can be no justice if you combine the Executive and Judicial branch into one. We separated arrest and accusation from trial and verdict for a reason. In our country, the police can arrest, but only your peers can convict. We prize our Bill of Rights like no other country.

To those who would dismiss this debate as frivolous, I say tell that to the heroic young men and women who have sacrificed their limbs and lives, tell it to the 6,000 parents whose kids died as American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, tell them that the Bill of Rights is no big deal.

Yes, the filibuster was about drones, but also about much more. Do we have a Bill of Rights or not? Do we have a Constitution or not and will we defend it?

Source: Speech at 2013 Conservative Political Action Conf. Mar 14, 2013

The above quotations are from Speeches to Conservative Political Action 2013 Conference. Click here for other excerpts from Speeches to Conservative Political Action 2013 Conference. Click here for other excerpts by Rand Paul. Click here for a profile of Rand Paul.
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