If you don't want to watch all twelve minutes of this, let me give the high-level overview. Rand Paul wants term limits on Washington lawmakers, a constitutional amendment forcing a balanced budget, a crazy "read the bill" law that requires one day of delay for every 20 pages of proposed legislation, and tax cuts for everyone!

He also lies through his teeth, particularly with regard to the ACA. Toward the middle of the response, he says that under the ACA people cannot choose their own insurance or doctors. That's just a lie, plain and simple. It does, however, give him his foundation for claiming repeal is the only way forward. Because liberty!

One recurrent theme I see over and over again in Republican speeches these days is a faux populist approach. I say faux, because they express concern for poor people and then craft policies that do grave harm to their prospects for getting ahead. Rand Paul was no exception. He invoked Ferguson and Detroit to pretend he cares about people living in poverty there, but offers no concrete solutions for how they're supposed to rise out of it. Other than tax cuts for everyone, which would cut off services they desperately need.

Of course, Senator AquaBuddha couldn't resist bringing up Benghazi! with his usual snide and cynical spin, calling it "Hillary's war on Libya." Let that sink in for a minute. Hillary's war. This, after he and all the right-wing lunatics have been doing nothing but clamoring for war with so-called "Islamic extremists."

Over all of these specifics, a dark cloud of gloom and doom lingers for Senator Paul. No, we're not recovering, we're not all right, we're borrowing money from China and we've got this horrible national debt. Horrible, awful.

I did agree with his remarks on military spending and surveillance, but those pale in comparison to the loony comments he's making about term limits and budget balancing.

I'm pretty sure a message of gloom and doom isn't going to play very well with people, but it's all he's got, really. When things are looking up, it's up to him and others to make sure everyone misses that and feels like they're desperate.

Also, what is that pin he's wearing where the flag should be? Hmmm? Looks like a replica of the nuclear trigger or something, but it is certainly not a flag.

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