Rand Paul, Senator from Kentucky, drew a standing room only crowd in the buffet at the Eureka Casino on June 29, 2015 when he chose Mesquite as one of the stops on his 2016 Presidential Campaign Trail.

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Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, while campaigning for the Republican Party presidential candidacy, addressed issues such as Education, National Debt and our constitutional rights as American Citizens during his visit to Mesquite on July 29, 2015 at the Eureka Resort. Photo by Teri Nehrenz.

Paul’s campaign slogan, “Defeat the Washington Machine, Unleash the American Dream” drew favorable support from the Mesquite residents who attended the assembly.  Mesquite residents Shelly and Bob Reseigh and Jodi and Pete LaMarca were very impressed with the Senator.  Jodi LaMarca said, “It was such a pleasure seeing him be so down to earth and so natural with everyone.”  She had attended a Romney assembly and thought he appeared much more unapproachable.  Jodi stated that Paul seemed like someone you could sit down and talk with. “He seemed like a real people person and I liked what he had to say.”  Pete LaMarca said, “He answered all the questions and it wasn’t difficult to answer all the questions.  I don’t think he was well prepared, he just knew what he was talking about.”  When asked whether they would be voting for Paul the answer given by Bob Reseigh was, “We will definitely be voting.”  Wife Shelly stated that so far, Paul was her favorite candidate.

The Senator spoke of just a few of the issues he’s focusing on in his campaign, the national debt and spending being the forerunner of the topics and of course the issues most on the minds of the Mesquite citizens, federal government control, taxes, immigration and education.

Paul believes in cutting government spending and during his time in office has presented an amendment to a bill that says, in a very point blank statement, “The American government should not give any money to countries that put Christians to death for interface marriage, conversion or what they call blasphemy.”  He also said when he introduced this amendment only one or two people supported him when he thought, “Why wouldn’t everyone go for this?”  He mentioned that it was “… an insult to the American people to first, borrow the money from China, and second to give it to people who insist on taking your money and imprisoning Christians.”  He also stated that many republican candidates come to Nevada to campaign and say, “We’re going to do something about the deficit,” but when we were in charge we doubled the deficit.”  He continued with, “I mean President Obama’s added a lot more…he will have added more to our deficit than all of the other presidents combined, so yes, the debt is out of control.”  The question is, “Are there Republicans among us who will actually reign in the debt and stop the spending?”

His statement about the problem with what goes on in Washington is, “There is a debate; The Democrats want to spend the money on domestic welfare and domestic programs but the Republicans want to spend the money on the Pentagon and the usual compromise is that they end up spending money on both.”   We spend more on our defense than the next fourteen countries combined. While Paul isn’t opposed to spending the money on our defenses, he thinks we absolutely should defend our country, but not by means of a blank check.”  “The debate continues among the parties in Washington and in the process of the debate, when a budget compromise can’t be reached, the usual compromise is the budget ends up getting increased at the expense of the American public, and this debt is our absolute biggest threat to our national security.”  In his addressing this issues he stated, “At the rate of borrowing, one million dollars a minute, how can we be strong.  I don’t think America can project power from bankruptcy court.”  To the Mesquite audience he posed the question, “This is a debate we must all have within ourselves when we’re choosing a republican candidate, who is going to be our nominee, who’s going to be the leader of the Republican Party that will advocate spending and budget cuts?”  America can’t stand in the position of strength by being in debt.

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Rand Paul took time to autograph his campaign signs for residents after he addressed many of the issues concerning the citizens of Mesquite on June 30, 2015 at the Eureka Casino. Photo by Teri Nehrenz.

Paul’s speech flowed flawlessly into the republican spending and the fact that when the republicans gained control they doubled the size of the Department of Education.  He firmly believes that the Federal Government should not be involved in education and if he were to be chosen as the Commander in Chief, he would vote to abolish the DOE entirely and leave educational matters in the hands of the entities it should be in, the State, the teacher the parents and the students.  He mentioned areas where people still live in poverty, can’t afford a decent education and perpetuate the cycle of poverty.  Those areas he says live by the law and send their tax dollars to Washington and Washington decides where the educational funds should be spent.  His solution to the issues is not to send the money to Washington in the first place, leave it in the hands of local government to assist in programs to fight the poverty situations and increase the educational opportunities for people who live in such communities.  Paul further stated, “Las Vegas is one of those areas of concern and there are many that believe that we should let these areas, where poverty is still so prevalent, keep their money, don’t send it to Washington to be doled out among the bureaucrats, keep it local and spend the money on programs that will help defeat the poverty situation.”  He feels that citizens should have the right to a great education regardless of their position or financial status.  “These young people are our future; shouldn’t we support them as much as we can?”

Paul supports an across the board tax rate for all Americans regardless of position.  According to his campaign web site he states, “Some of my fellow Republican candidates for the presidency have proposed plans to fix the tax system. These proposals are a step in the right direction, but the tax code has grown so corrupt, complicated, intrusive and antigrowth that I’ve concluded the system isn’t fixable.

“So I am announcing an over $2 trillion tax cut that would repeal the entire IRS tax code—more than 70,000 pages—and replace it with a low, broad-based tax of 14.5% on individuals and businesses. I would eliminate nearly every special-interest loophole. The plan also eliminates the payroll tax on workers and several federal taxes outright, including gift and estate taxes, telephone taxes, and all duties and tariffs. I call this “The Fair and Flat Tax.”  While addressing this issue with the Mesquite residents, the crowd seemed very agreeable to the idea and told him so with a round of applause.

In many of the issues mentioned one message remained prevalent throughout the speech; The Federal Government has too much control over the country.  This message seemed to appeal a great deal to Bunkerville resident Brian Bundy, son of Clive Bundy, who listened intently to the entire speech but had only one question on his mind.  “Do you think the Federal Government should have control over land ownership?  The answer to that question was, “No.” Paul feels that the ownership of land should be in control of the state and local authorities.  He received another round of applause for this comment.

He mentioned later in the speech that if the people want an amendment to the law and Congress won’t pass it, an Article 5 convention can be initiated by the public. It has never been done, but is written into the law that we have that right as Americans to change things…We just have to “Bring it”.

Border control was another issue addressed.  Rand Paul Opposes Amnesty and Believes We Must Secure The Border While Encouraging Legal Immigration.  Las Vegas resident and a Mexican/American citizen, Marco Varela, feels that Paul may be overextending the government’s responsibility on this issue.  While Varela is all for legalized immigration he feels that the cost in building a better “wall” is not a solution to the answer.  American citizens, as both consumers and business owners, should be held more accountable for the hiring of illegal immigrants and allowing the situation to self-perpetuate.  He talks of the low wages paid to the immigrants and the labor intensive jobs that most people don’t want. Illegal immigrants gladly take on these jobs to earn their living which in turn allows the farmers to sell their wares at affordable prices.  Most legal citizens hired for these positions would require wages that would drive up the prices of the product to the point where we couldn’t afford to feed ourselves.  Varela further feels that the business owners who do hire illegal immigrants should be assessed fines and the possibility of losing their business license for knowingly hiring these individuals and that there should be a more stringent system of verification in the hiring process.  Varela also supports the amnesty given to those who have been here for years, working under the table and under the radar.   The amnesty given to these individuals has now given them not only the freedom to work for a reasonable wage, it gives them the responsibility of paying taxes just like the legal citizens do which adds to the economy and reduces the need for illegal immigrants to sell drugs or involve themselves in other illegal activity to subsidize their income which is a winning resolution in his eyes but moving into the future, we need to hold ourselves more accountable in changing at least this issue.

Paul thinks that government can change, “ It won’t be easy, “I’ve met these people”… changing the way things are now will be difficult but it can be done by electing a candidate that stands for these important issues and by Americans committing to stand for what they stand for and America leading from a position of strength.

You can read more on Senator Paul’s position on these and other issues by going to his campaign web site http://www.randpaul.com/.