I think it was only a little over a year ago that I confided to a friend about Rand Paul, “We have got to work to make this guy president!” Well that was then and this is now. As Patrick Cleburne wrote, his “patriotic shelf life” expired quickly.
Today Terrence P. Jeffrey reports that Rand Paul told the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles: “We will find a place for you.” [Rand Paul to Illegals: ‘We Will Find a Place for You;' Envisions 12 Million ‘New Taxpayers’, CNSNews, June 11, 2013]
He also said:
“Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers.”
Finally, Rand Paul denied his plan was amnesty:
“Conservatives are wary of amnesty. My plan will not grant amnesty or move anyone to the front of the line. But what we have now is de facto amnesty.”
Now that starts to sound a lot like the lying Zuckerberg Ryan/Rubio ads. Note the false dichotomy: he gives us only a choice between “de-facto amnesty” and real amnesty—ignoring the better choice of “attrition through enforcement.”
I thought Rand had more integrity than that. And surely he most know that illegals consume far more in benefits than they pay in taxes—even if they become legal it is unlikely they would be in the top half of income earners who pay income taxes.
Furthermore, anything which allows illegal aliens to stay and work instead of being deported is amnesty. While potential legal immigrants wait in their own countries for their turn to be omitted, Paul’s “probationary” immigrants get to stay here and obviously get to work. So he rewards their illegal behavior by giving them exactly what they want.
And how long would his second class “probationary” immigrants stay that way before courts or Congress gave them full rights and benefits?
By disappointing us now, at least Rand Paul has saved us the disappointment we would soon feel if he were elected president. He has gone from being a breath of fresh air to a lying, Hispandering, copycat Rubio.
