LF: This is How a Sellout Politician Votes (Rand Paul)

Ok so I tried to give Rand a break.

The other day, he said something informative about the evil Trade Promotion Authority and the Trans Pacific Partnership.

I featured Breitbart's Rand comments at EPJ. Rand noted that the details of the agreement were kept in secret in a locked room and were about 800 pages long.

Breitbart wrote in its report (my bold):

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)—an opponent of the secretive Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) that would fast-track the Pacific Rim trade deal Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)—went inside the secret room inside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday morning to read the TPP text and told Breitbart News exclusively afterwards that he believes President Barack Obama should make it public now.

The deal’s text is kept in a room behind double doors that each have signs: “No Public Or Media Beyond This Point.”

So what did Rand do Thursday? He voted "yea' on the key legislation that will allow TPP, TTIP, and TISA — to become law.

Here's Washington's Blog explaining what went down:

The key vote, in the U.S. Senate, to transfer to international corporate panels America’s democratic national sovereignty over the laws and regulations on the environment, workers’ rights, consumers’ rights, and finance, was officially titled with the misleadingly unrelated phrase “Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act,” and it passed the U.S. Senate as “H.R. 1314,” by 65 to 33 votes, at 1:55 in the afternoon of Thursday 14 May 2015.

That’s five votes more than the 60 votes that the measure needed in order to pass. This is the key congressional action among the many that are required in order for U.S. President Barack Obama’s international-‘trade’ treaties — TPP, TTIP, and TISA — to become law in the United States. It’s the ultimate decision-moment, concerning America’s future.

Keep this in mind: Rand promotes himself as a Constitutionalist, who sees a limited role for the Federal government and that laws and regulations should be the made and enforced at the individual state level, if it involves areas that are specifically enunciated in the Constitution as areas that the Federal government should play a role in. Just where the hell does he come off voting in favor of workers’ "rights," consumers’ "rights," and finance to be determined, ruled and regulated by a supranational body?

This leads to my point about Rand: He is an establishment man, who can not be trusted to vote on any issue in a libertarian, or even free market manner

Hell. his buddies at Breitbart got it wrong about him on TPP.

The TPP vote was close. The establishment needed Rand's vote. He gave it to them. 800 secret pages are now part of the rules that you must live by. Rules that will be interpreted and massaged by the elitist, crony, establishment. Support Rand and you are supporting establishment voting, when it needs your vote.

Ron Paul's biggest problem- Rand. If Ron isn't careful, little Rand will destroy what is left of his legacy. At least Rand didn't try to steal randpaul.com like Ron tried to steal Ronpaul.com- with the help of a government agency. It's past time for real libertarians to find some new faces. Enough with the Pauls.

I'm no fan of the phony Rand Paul, but wasn't this a cloture vote, meaning to end debate and go forth for a vote?

Maybe they should decide whether his vote made any difference at all. Would they suddenly be happy if Rand voted nay and it then passed with only 64 votes instead of 65?

In no way was this vote important as were the Senate's votes on ObamaCare which required every Democrat of their 60-member caucus to vote yea or it would fail entirely. As votes go, there is no comparison.

At least it would show that Rand had principles and stuck to them instead of flip-flopping on an issue.

Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.

You're the joke, posting an article that showed a cloture vote that Rand Paul's vote did not affect at all then suggesting that it was a "close vote" and the political elite needed Rand's vote which made all the difference. All a pack of lies.

Not that that would bother you in the least. In fact, the sheer dishonesty of this hit piece seems to be what attracted you to it.

You just can't help yourself, can you. Try to be more like Spock. Emotion is for little girls (Or Spaniards).

A "Hit Piece"= An article that exposes duplicity, hypocrisy, or fraud by someone that somebody else admires. Isn't that more like it?

Are you a Rand Paul "Fan Boi"? Mr. Flip Flop! A flip here and a flop there, everywhere a flip flop- old man Rand he took a stand. Reversed it the next day!

Actually, Spock was often a raging torrent of emotion in the old Star Trek series, not the fount of Stoicism that most Trekkies seem to believe.

Maybe you should write a book, "Everything I ever needed to know, I learned from Star Trek".

Yes. Even Panamanin McCain, and Canadian Cruz the phony Texan, voted for cloture. A couple of broken cuckoo clocks, being right for a minute.

Good luck pointing out that TPA and TPP are two very different things. TPA will lead to TPP but TPA is not the final TPP package.

And contrary to your Cato article, Rand Paul did vote for TPA. TPP did not get any vote yet.

This thread's article was a really lousy starting point for a TPA/TPP discussion, with or without any mentions of Rand Paul's votes. Notice in particular the quotes from Breitbart that indicate they have no idea what TPA is or that it is separate from TPP. Not that they let simple facts spoil a chance for some cheap shots at Rand Paul.

Often? Only when he was diseased or drugged up. Once again you fail. But that won't stop you!

Everything I know I've learned from you, because you know everything about everything. Even Star Trek- except you don't know about Star Trek.

Spock constantly displayed emotion. Mostly annoyance and impatience. A true Stoic would not. And Spock knew perfectly well what humans were like. Certainly he could have served on a Vulcan Federation ship of the same class as the Enterprise (mentioned on the series). He chose not to. Not exactly a creature of pure logic.

Ok so I tried to give Rand a break.

“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul

Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.

The D&R terrorists hate us because we're free, to vote second party