Amid an election season with campaign visits from both members of the Democratic presidential ticket, an appearance from a high-profile Republican senator went relatively unnoticed Friday.
Rand Paul, the junior Kentucky senator and son of former presidential candidate Ron Paul, visited the Athens County Republican Party headquarters Friday afternoon. The visit was advertised as an “early vote rally” in support of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, but Paul, who is one of the highest-profile Libertarians in Washington, D.C., focused instead on issues such as student loans, spending and the jobs market.
There was excitement in the air among the almost 40 people present to meet Paul, whose mother and grandmother were both Ohio University graduates.
Dylan Gustafson, communications chair of OU College Republicans, said he believes Paul is the kind of politician who anyone can support.
“Rand Paul is a Tea Party guy who isn’t marching around with the big signs,” Gustafson said. “He’s much less extreme than his father and actively wants to get stuff done and does.”
The main issue involving student loans this election has been about how much the government should subsidize education through Pell Grants. Nathan Kelly, an executive board member of OU’s Students For Liberty, said he believes these should be cut.
“I don’t believe that subsidizing education is the government’s job,” Kelly said. “I say get the government out of higher education, and we will begin to see tuition prices go down.”
Agreeing with such ideas, Paul said he believes subsidies drive up costs.
“We have to figure out how to control costs,” Paul said. “Large segments of the economy such as health care and education are heavily subsidized, and this raises the prices. When you subsidize demand, you raise the price.”
Paul said he sympathizes with those facing economic hardship after college, whether it’s the lacking jobs market or the rising student-loan rate causing problems.
The nation as a whole has over a trillion dollars in student debt,” Paul said. “Students need to think practically about what their skill set is coming out of college.”
Paul said he believes the nation has overspent on defense and the military, a view that isn’t held by the vast majority of his party.
“The rest of the world’s entire spending on defense is only slightly more than what we spend,” Paul said. “Conservatives have to admit this is part of the budget problem, just as the left has to (acknowledge) entitlements, which make up two-thirds of the current budget.”
An advocate of earning one’s wealth, Paul said he believes the government needs to project that ideal to citizens.
“You don’t get that same feeling of self-worth by just receiving instead of earning,” Paul said. “Politicians here try to be like Santa Claus; it’s easy to just give stuff away. The hard part is figuring out where that money comes from.”
as299810@ohiou.edu
