Paul tells federal bureaucracy ‘butt out’

ATKINS - Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has a message for Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack: Butt out.

Paul, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination, doesn't think the U.S. Department of Agriculture should be telling Americans what to eat. The USDA and the federal Department of Health and Human Services have been preparing a dietary recommendation that Vilsack said addresses issues including obesity and Americans consuming more calories than necessary.

'We should eat properly,” Paul said after speaking to a group of Benton County farmers Saturday morning about a bill he's co-sponsoring with Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to allow for the sale of more ethanol.

'But I'd tell them to butt the hell out,” said Paul, an ophthalmologist.

Paul, a Libertarian, doesn't like federal government mandates or interference of most any kind. That's one reason he and Grassley are pushing the Fuel Choice and Regulation Act of 2105. It's pro-market, pro-environment and pro-Iowa, according to Paul, who noted Kentucky farmers also grow corn and produce ethanol.

The bill would remove the EPA's 'volatility rule” that prevents the year-round sale of E15 - gasoline with 15 percent ethanol, he said.

The bill, sponsored by Iowa U.S. Reps. Rod Blum and David Young in the House, also would make it easier to meet coming mileage standards that will require a 55-mpg fleet average, Paul said. Credits toward the regulation are available for vehicles that burn renewable fuels.

'To me, this is making it easier to meet a regulation,” he said. 'We're not advocating a new regulation. We're making it easier to meet an existing regulation.”

Paul also called for expanding trade opportunities for farmers, including giving the president 'fast-track authority.” That would allow presidents to negotiate trade agreements that would go to Congress for an up-or-down vote.

Paul was endorsed Saturday by former Iowa Farm Bureau President Craig Lang of Brooklyn.

'There's no candidate who has been more steadfast in his opposition to an overreaching federal bureaucracy than Sen. Rand Paul,” Lang said. 'Even more, I believe he's the one candidate who will really do what he says.”

'Overreach” that Paul includes water rules on wetlands and navigable streams.

'We have so messed up the whole idea” of protecting water, Paul said. He supports the original Clean Water Act to prevent 'dumping benzene into the Ohio River.”

'Over time, the federal government has decided that dirt is a pollutant and a low spot in your backyard is a navigable stream,” Paul said. 'We've gone just crazy on this. … We've gone too far on all of this stuff.”