NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – Activists gathered at the Conservative Political Action Conference gave a solid endorsement Friday to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., chanting loudly “President Paul, President Paul,” when he asserted in his speech it is time for a new president.
“Will you rise with me to support liberty?” Paul asked at the start of his speech, drawing strong applause. “We must rise and stand with our forefathers who stared down the king. We must rise as free men and women and claim our birthright. We must protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
Paul charged that liberty in the United States is under attack both from the Supreme Court and the National Security Agency.
“In the mistake of the century, Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts affirmed the power of the government to force you to buy insurance, declaring Obamacare constitutional,” he said. “I’ve got a better idea. Why don’t we presume liberty instead?
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“Just as we are presumed innocent, we should be presumed free,” he continued. “President Obama’s promise that if you liked your doctor, then you can keep your doctor was a lie. Obamacare at its very core takes away the right to choose. I promise you this, that as a doctor I will take it and make it my mission to heal this nation, reverse the course of Obamacare and repeal every last bit of it.”
Paul spoke to a packed ballroom with dozens of supporters wearing “Stand with Rand” T-shirts, drawing, along with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, one of the strongest audience reactions at CPAC 2015.
He next shifted his analysis of rights and liberty into his criticism of the NSA.
“We must remember that all rights are unlimited and given to us by God,” he said. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. The Ninth Amendment says those rights not listed are not to be disparaged. You have a right to privacy.
"Your rights are in your DNA, and government can, quite frankly, get over it.”
Paul acknowledged that to defend the nation, the government needs to gather intelligence on foreign enemies, but he drew the line at overly intrusive government electronic eavesdropping in the digital era that can listen to every conversation and read every email of every citizen.
“When the intelligence director lies to Congress, how do you trust him?” he asked. “I say your phone records are yours. The phone records of law-abiding citizens are none of the government’s business.”
He attacked the massive national debt built up under the Obama administration and excess government regulation as threatening to the basic liberty to live as a free people.
“We borrow a million dollars a minute, and President Obama says he doesn’t know where to cut,” he said. “Why don’t we start with the $2.4 million the government spent on origami condoms?”
Turning to foreign policy, Paul said, “While freedom is also threatened from outside our borders, we must be able to protect ourselves from jihadists without compromising our fundamental rights.”
He argued that Libya is less stable after Muammar Gadhafi fell, and he railed against Hillary Clinton for declaring victory in Libya just before Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed while pleading for more security.
“When I asked Hillary if she read Stevens’ cables pleading for help, she said, ‘No,’ as if she had more important things to do,” he said. “I believe Hillary Clinton’s abdication of responsibility, her failure to provide an adequate defense for Benghazi, her dereliction of duty should forever preclude her from high office.”
Paul said it's "time for Hillary Clinton to retire permanently,” prompting another round of strong applause.
He argued that foreign aid should not go to nations that hate America and that money spent on liberal policies has not helped the nation’s inner cities.
“What angers me is seeing mobs burning our flags, chanting ‘Death to America’ in countries that receive our foreign aid,” Paul said. “I say not one penny more to these haters of America.”
Paul said that in the coming weeks he plans to propose "the largest tax cut in American history, a tax cut that will leave money in every paycheck in America."
He asserted that spending more money borrowed from China would not solve problems at home or abroad.
“We should not succumb to the notion that a government inept at home will somehow become successful abroad, that a government that is unable to deliver the mail will somehow be able to build nations’ abroad,” he said, defending a foreign policy drawing from George Washington’s farewell address to the troops that contrasts with other GOP hopefuls calling for all military force necessary to defeat and destroy ISIS in the Middle East.
“When we get to foreign policy, not all Republicans are the same,” he stressed in the question-and-answer section after his speech. “There is a spectrum, with some Republicans believing the United States should never be anywhere outside our borders. On the other hand, there are people who believe we should be everywhere all the time. In the end, I believe we should obey the Constitution.”
He further noted the Constitution “says that when we go to war, it should be initiated by Congress.”
Check out WND's extensive coverage of the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference:
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