Rand Paul: Resist ‘Global Warming Extremism’

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) called on voters to reject politicians who are engaging in “global warming extremism” that could shut down the coal industry.

“We also need to say we don’t need people representing us who have some sort of religious fervor that they believe in this global warming extremism. We all want a good environment. We all want a good climate,” Paul said during a town hall meeting with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) in Ashland, Ky.

“We all want the air to be clean but if it becomes so extreme that people are willing to shut down an entire industry — that’s a problem for us. We are borrowing in the federal government now $1 million per minute,” he added.

The former 2016 presidential candidate said the public must resist over-regulation of the energy sector and the steel industry in particular.

“We can lament it and say we don’t want to see them go but what we have to do is make it a friendly place to do business in our country,” he said, suggesting a lower corporate income tax rate to prevent companies from moving operations overseas.

“So much of this isn’t your local officials. It’s the federal government that is over-regulating and over-taxing your businesses and so we are losing them. And even if the steel industry does not go over there, the steel industry is being outcompeted because of lower taxes and being subsidized in other countries, so we need to do more and we need to pay attention,” he added.

Paul argued that the federal government is wasting too much money, pointing to a federally funded online dating study conducted to see if people make their decisions based on physical appearance.

“You think? Really?” Paul said.

He also lamented the federal government for subsidizing foreigners to come to the U.S. for space camp when there are Americans who cannot afford space camp.

“We spent $250,000 on 24 Pakistani students to come to space camp in Alabama. Well, there are Kentucky kids who can’t afford to go to space camp in Alabama. What in the world are we doing spending money on foreign kids to come to this country? Now if you’ve got extra money and you want to donate it, fine,” he said.