Opinion: Whom do you need — a whacko senator or brave firefighters, police not afraid to give their

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, (R-Kentucky) brought the Senate to a halt Wednesday when he objected to the passage of a bill to benefit the men and women who first responded to the attacks on Sept. 11 when airliners were flown into the twin towers in New York City.

Paul objected to the fact that the budget bill would raise the deficit.

He argued that passing such a long-term bill without offsetting the cost would contribute to the national debt.

The delay presented another hurdle in the dramatic fight to secure funding for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, despite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s continued reassurances that the fund would be fully funded.

“It has long been my feeling,” said Paul, “that we need to address our massive debt in this country — we have a $22 trillion debt, we’re adding debt at about a trillion dollars a year,” he said. “And therefore any new spending that we are approaching, any new program that’s going to have the longevity of 70, 80 years, should be offset by cutting spending that’s less valuable.”

I don’t object to Rand Paul wanting to cut the national deficit, but I wonder if he chose the right time and place to make this argument.

Did the people who were charging up the steps in the twin towers on that day wonder whether they were raising the national debt?

And here’s another question: Do we need Rand Paul, or do we need those firefighters and police officers? Who do you want to hire, and who do you want to send home?

For that matter, do we need any senator or representative to hang around Washington, D.C., spending the country’s money on idiocy and running for higher office? Paul, for example, has run for president three times. What good has he done Kentucky in all that time?

We don’t really need a full-time Congress. Do we need Nancy Pelosi flying back and forth from coast to coast, doing her best to interfere with the work of the president? Do we really need idiots in Sacramento raising our taxes to the point that our state is one of the highest taxed states in America? I don’t think so.

Here’s a thought. Let’s rewrite the rules a little and demand that the Legislature meet only one month a year, and the House and the Senate meet only three months a year.

Pretty soon that monstrous national debt would start to shrink because we wouldn’t have to finance all the fooling around that our elected officials do on a year-around schedule.

When they weren’t in session, we could insist they get normal jobs, and then they could see how the nation lives under the laws they pass when they actually are in session.

Let Rand Paul go back to being an obstetrician nine months a year. He’d be of real value to people who needed eye care. He’d make plenty of money.

Let Jerry Nadler, the congressman from upstate New York, go back to being a slip-and-fall lawyer. Let Jim Costa, who claims to be “one of us,” go back to work on his farm for nine months out of the year.

And the money we’d save by sending these politicians home and cutting their salaries and expense accounts could take care of the families of the people we really need — the cops, and the fire fighters, and the road builders, and the foresters, and the park rangers.

Rand Paul’s dad, Ron Paul, was, and is, a real American political hero. Rand is just a showboat trying for a little publicity.