Labor & Employment Law

Rand Paul: Easing Unemployment Means More Drug Use

By Tula Connell

UPDATE: Rand Paul’s campaign says he stands by his claim of helping unemployed workers with drug abuse.

Eddie Vale, AFL-CIO political communications director, brings this to our attention. He’s asking the Paul campaign for a clarification.

Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul has already told miners across Kentucky that “accidents happen” and so the federal government shouldn’t be involved in regulating health and safety on the job. Now he shares how helping jobless workers would create drug abuse. This, from an interview today with WYMT-TV:

Paul says reinvesting money in the local economy will help ease the unemployment, which he says leads to more drug use.

“You want rich people because that’s what creates jobs. If you punish people, they won’t expand or create jobs,” Paul said.

So, it’s not clear what Paul means in those last couple of sentences, but presumably he’s saying high taxation and regulation “punish” the rich and discourage them from investing in the local economy. This keeps unemployment high, which in turn keeps drug use rampant. I guess in his mind then it kind of makes sense that the rich will magically solve the unemployment issue.

But this does raise some questions: Is he saying it’s not the government’s role to create jobs? Would he have voted against extending unemployment benefits? Would he have voted against state aid to keep teachers and firefighters from being fired? Do we really not want him elected as senator so we don’t have to find out?

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on August 17, 2010 (boomark / email).