NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said that President Barack Obama’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) internet takeover will end up making the internet a regulated utility like landline phones or electric companies—meaning it will become a “regulated monopoly” killing free enterprise.
“One of the greatest job creators of the last two decades has been the internet,” Paul said when asked to react to the FCC’s vote to take over the internet.
I think it’s a huge mistake to let the government get involved. I’m old enough to remember the old black phone that you got from the monopoly telephone company. Once the government gets involved and regulates something as a utility, it’s going to be a disaster.
It will be a regulated monopoly or oligarchy and it’s going to be a huge disaster. We should do everything we can to fight to keep the government out of the internet. There are ways we can try to overturn regulations and we’ll try to use the Congressional Review Act to try to overturn this.
Unfortunately, the president would have to sign the overturning of the regulation. Really we just can’t get a new occupant in the White House soon enough.
Paul noted in the interview that the FCC internet takeover is just the latest in a long line of Obama’s executive overreaches. He’s overreached on immigration, healthcare and so many more things, Paul said.
“It’s the greatest problem we face in the country,” Paul said.
It’s not specific legislation. It’s that this president is basically usurping power that’s not his. The Constitution divided power between the Congress and the president and one of the disappointing things right now is in this fight over the immigration executive order, is that there’s not one Democrat willing to stand up for the Constitution.
They are so heavily partisan that there’s not one Democrat that will rise up and go beyond petty partisanship and say you know what, I know it’s a Democrat president but I’m for the Constitution above and beyond my political party. That’s disappointing to me.
Paul said the next Republican nominee needs to be a conservative who will do what it takes to implement real conservative policies rather than just talking points.
“I have a great deal of hope for America,” Paul said when asked about what’s needed heading into 2016.
I think America can grow again. But we have to understand why America became great—because of our Constitution, because of our economic system, because of the marketplace that we embraced—and it’s slowly but surely kind of slipping away.
If we are to rejuvenate the economy and get the government out of the way, I think we could have growth like we had during the Reagan years but we can’t have milquetoast middle-of-the-road Republicans because they end up not being much different than the Democrats.
What we really need are Republicans who will boldly be what they’re for and that is limited government and lower taxes, not revenue-neutral tax reform whatever that is. We ought to be for lowering taxes and with that, millions of jobs will be created.
Paul, in the interview, also took a specific shot at former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush over Common Core.
“There’s been a long battle in the Republican Party over whether education should be taken care of at the state and local level or at the federal level,” Paul said. “Most Republicans in the grassroots—in fact, all Republicans I meet in the grassroots—believe in less centralization. They’re against Common Core. They’re against No Child Left Behind. So I think this will be a big obstacle for Jeb Bush because I think being for Common Core may well be a deal-killer as he’s trying to get the nomination.”
About the threat that is the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Paul said that Obama again overstepped his authority in going to war without congressional approval. Paul also told Breitbart News what he would have taken a different approach had he been the president.
“For about six months now, I’ve been saying that the appropriate thing is that Congress should vote to give the authorization to go to war—that’s what the Constitution says,” Paul said.
If I had been president in August of last year, I would have called for a joint session of Congress, laid out the reasons why ISIS is a threat to our interests and I would have asked for permission. He didn’t do this.
The president didn’t do this, so with his lack of leadership for six months we get to November of last year and I forced a vote and introduced the legislation to declare war on ISIS. Yes, we have to do something about ISIS but we have to do it in a constitutional fashion meaning Congress should vote on it and then we should get it done.
Paul also said that he loves CPAC because of all the grassroots energy out there on the ground.
“This is one of the most exciting conference we attend every year,” Paul said.
We always look forward to CPAC because there’s just hundreds and hundreds of young people out there. There’s a great deal of enthusiasm. We think these young kids are part of the ‘leave me alone generation’—the kids who don’t want big government and want to be left alone and want to try to finish their college career and get out and begin to succeed but they don’t think that they need an overbearing government to get in their way.
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