Rand Paul Criticizing Ronald Reagan

Mother Jones has just released a video showing Paul committing what in GOP circles is the ultimate, unpardonable sin: Bashing Ronald Reagan.

A compilation of several videos of Paul speaking, some going back as far as 2007, Mother Jones' video compilation shows Paul repeatedly criticizing Reagan for being a phony fiscal conservative. As if that weren’t bad enough, the video also shows Paul repeatedly comparing Reagan’s spending policies with those of the hated Jimmy Carter, and finding the latter’s to be superior.

“The deficit went through the roof under Reagan,” Paul says in a video from 2007 showing him speaking on his father’s behalf. “So how long did it take Ron Paul to figure out that the guy he had liked, endorsed,

campaigned for, campaigned for him [wasn't fiscally conservative]?” Paul asked. “The very first [Reagan] budget. Ron Paul voted ‘no’  against the very first Reagan budget… Everybody loved this ‘great’ budget. It was a $100 billion in debt. This was three times greater than Jimmy Carter’s worst deficit.”

In another video, this one from 2008, Paul damns Reagan with faint praise, saying the conservative hero’s “philosophy was good” but that he didn’t have “the energy or the follow-through to get what we needed.”

Even while running for Senate, Paul continued to criticize Reagan, saying the Gipper was essentially all talk when it came to shrinking the government and reducing spending.

“People want to like Reagan,” Paul said. “He’s very likable. And what he had to say most of the time was a great message. But the deficits exploded under Reagan,” Paul continued. “The reason the deficits exploded is [Reagan] ignored spending. Domestic spending went up at a greater clip under Reagan than it did under Carter.”