GOP’s Libertarians Aren’t All That Libertarian
http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/04/17/gops-libertarians-arent-all-that-libertarian/
Similarly, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz has reportedly raised millions for his presidential bid, after launching his campaign on a promise of smaller government.
What Cruz doesnt say in his speeches railing on unelected bureaucrats is that he has spent much of his professional life as an unelected government employee, first as an appointee in George W. Bushs administration, then as an appointee in Texas state government. Also unmentioned in Cruzs announcement speech at Liberty University was data showing that the conservative school has received one of the largest amounts of government Pell Grant funding of any nonprofit university in America, according to the Huffington Post. That fact can be described with a lot of words, but libertarian probably isnt one of them.
Then there is Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, the candidate who most openly embraces the libertarian brand.
As a senator, he more than others has strayed from GOP orthodoxy and taken some genuinely strong libertarian positions most notably against the ongoing drug war, surveillance and the militarization of Americas domestic police force. He has also tried to foment a discussion about the taboo topic of government subsidies to corporations. In January, he said that we will not cut one penny from the safety net until weve cut every penny from corporate welfare and last month he said that if elected president, hed slash business subsidies so I dont have to cut the Social Security of someone who lives on Social Security.
However, Pauls pledges about corporate welfare apparently do not extend to the Pentagon, which has often been a big repository of such welfare for defense contractors. As Time reported in March, Just weeks before announcing his 2016 presidential bid
Paul is completing an about-face on a longstanding pledge to curb the growth in defense spending. The magazine noted that he introduced legislation calling for a nearly $190 billion infusion to the defense budget over the next two years a roughly 16 percent increase.