Paul Working To Keep Bid Alive
US Senator Rand Paul visited Oskaloosa on Friday trying to build support for his 2016 presidential bid.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Smokey Row is a busy place for people that love politics, as the second presidential candidate to town this past week stopped by the local coffee shop to talk about why they are the best choice for voters in the Iowa Caucus.
US Senator Rand Paul stopped by the same stage under the old Rivola marquee back in May of 2015, and as January of 2016 ticks away, only 3 weeks remain for voters to make their choice.
Just like Huckabee the day before in Oskaloosa, Paul spoke about the unreliability of polls. “There’s 12 people in the race. They can’t even get 2 people right,” said Paul of those conducting polls. “There’s a great possibility that the polls are complete nonsense.”
After the town hall meeting, Paul held a press conference. He was asked about Iowa’s sanctuary cities and how he would handle that. “I kind of liken the immigration problem to the debt problem. Everybody’s like, what are you going to do with the 19 trillion dollar debt? First thing you have to do is not add to it. So if illegal immigration is a problem, and lets say we have 11 or 12 million people here, the first thing you have to do is not add to the problem. So I would have strict enforcement of no new illegal immigration and I would enforce all the laws. In fact, I don’t think we’ve had a president, Republican or Democrat, in recent history, or in my lifetime really, that has enforced the immigration laws.”
“Once you have border security, is there a possibility of leniency for those who are here, to have some sort of ability to have work permits and to work in the country?”
Paul has supported bills in the past that cut funding to sanctuary cities and counties.
Paul’s stop was billed as a ‘Stop Eminent Domain’ event, and he was asked about the local airport issue that has been a hot topic locally.
“I’m opposed to using eminent domain to take private property from one private property owner and give it to another property owner. That without question. With regard to utilities, roads, airports and things like that, they end up being local fights and local issues and I don’t know if I know enough about this particular airport.
In regards to the Bakken pipeline, Paul said, “that project is a private enterprise and I don’t think you should use eminent domain. This is a key point of difference of myself with Trump and with Cruz. Trump is a huge believer in eminent domain and he uses it in all his business enterprises. He’s been publicly in favor of the Kelo decision and he’s actually gone to court in favor of local communities taking away homes of individual owners for his casinos and parking lots. Cruz had the opportunity to vote against eminent domain on the Keystone Pipeline, and I believe he voted with those who said that they could use eminent domain on the Keystone Pipeline. So I don’t think it’s a good idea to use eminent domain for private enterprises.”
When it comes to the question of Cruz being a natural born citizen, Paul says it will be something that Cruz will have to overcome.
“I don’t think we’ve had a president who’s not [been] born in the United States before. I don’t think the courts have decided really what it means to be natural born. It is a Constitutional requirement. There’s been hundreds of years of statutes on what it means to be a citizen,” but Paul says that it’s varied over the past 200 years.
Paul cited the court case heard during Barry Goldwater’s bid for the presidency in 1964. Goldwater had been born in territorial Arizona before it became a state.
Paul did little to take the heat off of Cruz, who’s natural born citizenship status has been called into question by Republican presidential rival Donald Trump.
“I think there will be a court case,” said Paul. “The Democrats have already said they will challenge.”
If you would like to learn more about Sen. Rand Paul, you can find his website HERE – https://www.randpaul.com/
