Rand Paul: Give Me Your Huddled Masses, I'll Make Sure They Stay Tired and Poor
Filibusterin’ Rand Paul is offering an amendment to a HUD funding bill that would ban refugees from “high-risk” countries from receiving welfare benefits, reports The Hill.
Refusing to be outflanked by Lindsey Graham’s proposal of permanent, total war against ISIS, Paul’s amendment reportedly takes the interesting position that the U.S. should create a class of homeless, destitute refugees from the Middle East—surely condemning families to hopeless poverty will engender in them a meaningful loyalty to this great nation.
The Kentucky Republican added that his amendment says “that we’re not going to bring them here and put them on government assistance. When the poem beneath the Statue of Liberty says give me your tired, give me your poor, it didn’t say come to our country and we’ll put you on welfare.”
Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free—they can live in a tent under a bridge somewhere.
Paul asserts that this amendment is related to the attacks in Paris, and the threat of terrorists slipping in among the refugees and plotting attacks while soaking up all that delicious government cheese. But this exact measure is nothing new for the nominal presidential candidate: he tried the same thing in 2011, blocking a bill designed to provide aid to “refugees from war-torn regions of the world.”
The excuse then was much the same as it is today: fear that the money would flow to terrorists posing as refugees. Back in 2011, the prompt was the arrest of two alleged terrorists in Kentucky who were receiving welfare benefits as refugees. But the bill he stalled in 2011 aimed aid specifically at disabled and elderly refugees, and for just a year, and it passed the Senate with bipartisan support. Not good enough for Rand Paul, the real conservative.
Today Paul reportedly also offered a separate piece of legislation that would prevent refugees from 30 of these “high-risk” nations from getting visas. These bills have some, umm, weaknesses, according to Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine:
“I look at the senator’s amendment and he lists 34 countries that would be affected by his prohibition, 34 countries. They include countries like Turkey. Turkey is a NATO ally. Turkey is absolutely vital in the war against ISIS. It includes our strong ally Jordan,” Collins said.
Paul’s measures reportedly “could face an uphill battle” before they become law. But he’s just getting started! Next up: the French.
