A senator who opposes federal regulation on philosophical grounds is single-handedly blocking legislation that would strengthen safety rules for oil and gas pipelines, a bill that even the pipeline industry and companies in his own state support.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s opposition to the bill hasn’t wavered even after a gas pipeline rupture last week shook people awake in three counties in his home state of Kentucky.
Paul, a tea party ally who shares with his father, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, a desire to shrink the role of the federal government, won’t discuss his role in stymieing the bill. But industry lobbyists, safety advocates and Senate aides said he is the only senator who is refusing to agree to procedures that would permit swift passage of the measure.
Officials familiar with Paul’s objections said he has told lobbyists and company officials that he’s not opposed to any specific part of the bill, just to the notion of additional federal regulation.
This is the same Rand Paul that is against energy saving lightbulbs and complains about how his toilet "doesn't work". This is what Modern Libertarianism looks like - sacrificing safety and efficiency in the name of a failed ideology that only worked in a fiction novel.
Living in the heart of what is known as Kentucky's Coal Fields, I have seen first-hand what happens when proper safety oversight is either rejected or is doesn't exist because of people like Rand "Accidents Happen" Paul. I saw what happened with safety regulations weren't followed properly at the Dotiki Mine in Webster County where one of my close friends was killed in a rock-fall.
Does Rand Paul care more about the companies rather than the people they employ? One would think so, but in the story above, the pipeline company agrees with the increase in safety regulation. So what are we to believe of Rand Paul and his alleged ideology if he won't even listen to the "job creators"?
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