Asked how he would tackle income inequality, Senator Rand Paul suggested the first thing to do is move out of cities and states run by Democrats.
The Kentucky senator also blamed the Federal Reserve for widening inequality. Here’s his answer in full:
BAKER: Does it matter at all that the gap between the rich and everyone else is widening?
PAUL: Absolutely and I think that we ought to look where income inequality seems to be the worst. It seems to be worst in cities run by Democrats. Governors — states run by Democrats and countries currently run by Democrats. The thing is, let’s look for root causes.
But I would also lay some blame at the feet of the Federal Reserve. I think the Federal Reserve has made this problem worse. By artificially keeping interest rates below the market rate, average ordinary citizens have a tough time earning interest, have a tough time making money. They’re actually talking now about negative interest. The money as it is created through Quantitative Easing or other means tends to start out in big banks in New York. Because we’re now paying interest for them to keep the money there, much of that money has not filtered out into the economy. What we’re finding is, there is increasing income disparity and income inequality. We also find that as the Federal Reserve destroys the value of the currency, what you’re finding is that if you’re poor, if you make $20,000 a year and you have three or four kids and you’re trying to get by, as your prices rice or as the value of the dollar shrinks, these are the people hurt the worst. So really we need to reexamine whether we want a Federal Reserve that involves so much in determining interest rates. We also need to look at root causes as to what caused the housing boom and the housing collapse, but the bottom line is if you want less income inequality, move to a city with a Republican mayor or a state with a Republican governor.