Rand Paul: US Gov Wastes $34 Million On Unused Military Base
(Transcript via FOX) GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: Well, this will or should make you sick to your stomach. There is news tonight the U.S. military is spending $34 million on new headquarters in Afghanistan. What’s the problem with that? Well, we’re not going to use it. U.S. forces are withdrawing from Afghanistan. This $34 million, 64,000 square foot headquarters will never be used. Senator Rand Paul joins us. Good evening, sir.
VAN SUSTEREN: How does this happen, senator?
PAUL: I’d like to say it surprises me, but you know, we also spent $80 million on a consulate in Mashar al Sharif, a little city up in the northern part of Afghanistan in an embassy or a consulate that will never be used also because it’s in an area that could be shot from surrounding buildings. So we do a lot of things. Did you know that the State department also spent $650,000 on Facebook ads to try to get more people to like them? So this is throughout government and it infuriates people.
VAN SUSTEREN: I asked pulled up records from staff. We have 8,133 pending VA compensation claims. We have got soldiers who have served overseas, and we can’t bother to process their compensation plans, but we can waste $80 million on a consulate that we turn out not to use. It’s $34 million on the 64,000 square foot. It goes on and on and on. Doesn’t anybody give a damn?
PAUL: The thing is I asked Hillary Clinton repeatedly, why would you not provide security for the ambassador in Benghazi? Why didn’t you protect our ambassador? And she’s like, oh, the Republicans didn’t give me any money. Why did she spend $650,000 on Facebook ads, or $100,000 she spent on three comedians to India on a make chi, not war tour?
So our government is riddled with waste from top to bottom, and the one lesson of the sequester is that there’s a lot of fluff that can be cut out before we actually have to get to things that are important, like paying our soldiers, providing for our wounded soldiers? All of that needs to be done, and if you cut out all the extra stuff we’re doing, we’d have plenty of money to take care of our soldiers.
VAN SUSTEREN: This should absolutely outrage the American people, and I think it’s not just the top. Who is the state department employee or Defense Department employee who did the final authorization on these things? Somebody must have some sense and doesn’t think it’s OK to do this kind of stuff?
PAUL: We spent $1.8 million on developing rollup beef jerky, and that came out of the Pentagon’s budget. We spent $5 million studying the golden fish to study the collective action of fish out of the military budget. Don’t get me started on homeland security grants. We’ve got — I have to do this. A 13 snow cone machines at a cost of $11,000 went to western Michigan as part of homeland security.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, let me switch to another topic, and that is Egypt. When President Obama in 2009 went to Egypt to speak to the people, the Muslim world to sort of try to bridge the problem, that didn’t work out too well. Now we’ve got a situation going on in Egypt. Is it a military coup or not, because that is a very specific question for a very specific reason?
PAUL: Well, you know to debate whether it’s a military coup is sort of a ridiculous debate. Without question it’s a military coup, but the legislation actually goes farther. It says if the military was instrumental in getting rid of a democratic elected government if it’s not replaced by a military junta. So in this case, no matter who they put in, the military did depose Morsi.
I was no fan of Morsi. I wasn’t for giving Morsi any money or tanks or arms. But I’m not even any more a fan of the military. So the law says the president can’t give them any more money. But that is what is the thing about this president, he thinks he’s above the law. And this should trouble Americans because you have an IRS that is attacking on going after Americans because of their religious or political beliefs, and now you have a president who says I’m not going to obey the law. Even though Congress told me I can’t give money to Egypt I’m going to do it because, hey, I’m the president and I’m above the law. That is the problem.
VAN SUSTEREN: I don’t know how anyone can call this anything but a military coup. And regardless of whether Morsi was a bad guy, at some point we have to sit down and be sensible. Maybe we should change our law and do something, but sort of a callous disregard guard is not a good signal.
PAUL: The thing is that I’m not a fan of foreign aid, period, buy if you’re going to give foreign aid, shouldn’t you make it conditional upon behavior? For example, Iraq is getting a lot of our money but they’ve been letting Iran fly over their country. So the thing is that shouldn’t we say to Iraq we’re not giving you money? You’re supposedly our ally if you’re going get Iran fly over your airspace. Even John Kerry appeared to support that in a committee.
But I’m the same way with Egypt. They just recently indicted 16 Americans and would put them in prison if they can get hands on them, and this is the country we’re continuing to give money? I think foreign aid at the least ought to be contingent upon behavior.
VAN SUSTEREN: Or at least contingent on the bare minimum of the law we set and agreed upon. Senator, thank you, sir.