Rand Paul has called into question President and First Lady Michelle Obama’s assertion that they want their children to have minimum wage jobs. Speaking before a Silicon Valley audience of Libertarian, Republican and other conservative-minded folks, Paul said he actually had precisely opposite hopes for his own kids, reports Politico .
Using his views of his own son’s work delivering pizzas and for call centers, Rand Paul made his case for the Obamas being on the opposite side of the spectrum:
“The minimum wage is a temporary (thing),” said Paul. “It’s a chance to get started. I see my son come home with his tips. And he’s got cash in his hand and he’s proud of himself. I don’t want him to stop there. But he’s working and he’s understanding the value of work. We shouldn’t disparage that.”
Paul was referring to an interview President and First Lady Obama did with Parade Magazine , when they were asked,”Do you want your daughters to work in the types of character-building minimum-wage jobs you had?”
“Oh, yeah,” said Mrs. Obama. “I think every kid needs to get a taste of what it’s like to do that real hard work.”
“ We are looking for opportunities for them to feel as if going to work and getting a paycheck is not always fun,” followed President Obama. “Not always stimulating, not always fair. But that’s what most folks go through every single day.”
“ That’s what life is,” concluded Mrs. Obama.
Rand Paul, who has been recently visiting the Silicon Valley often, also ripped the President for being unfriendly to the tech industry and didn’t understand how people in the Bay Area could so overwhelmingly vote Democratic, reports the Huffington Post .
“I come out here and people say, ‘We loved President Obama, you know. We’re all for President Obama. We’re from the tech community,’” Rand Paul related to the crowd, reports the Los Angeles Times . “Why? Why would you be? He’s not for innovation. He’s not for freedom. He’s for the protectionism crowd. You know he’s for the crowd that would limit the activities of these companies.”
Rand Paul also implored tech executives to stand up against the National Security Agency and their invasive, questionable powers of surveillance, asking the Silicon Valley leaders in the room, powerful in their own right, to “pledge that they will fight tooth and nail against the government” to preserve civil liberties.
“If someday the public thinks that Gmail equals government mail, and you’re not being protected,” said Rand Paul. “The backlash will not only be against government, it will be against private entities.”
It’s not the first time Rand Paul hasn’t seen eye to eye with President Obama and likely won’t be the last.
