Senator Rand Paul on 'The View'


Senator Rand Paul had a rather tumultuous appearance on 'The View' earlier today, and made a faux pas that shows just how out-of-touch he is with the lives of everyday Americans.


The Kentucky Republican senator stopped by the show on Friday morning to promote his new book, The Case Against Socialism. Unfortunately for him, the hosts and the audience weren't especially receptive to what he had to say. 



First, he claimed that the socialist ideals of Bernie Sanders are actually very unpopular and that Denmark - which Sanders often uses as a model of what his form of democratic socialism would resemble - actually isn't socialist because they have "private property" and "no minimum wage." While it is technically true that Denmark has no mandated federal minimum wage, it's only because they have wages that are negotiated between unions and employers through robust collective bargaining agreements which have resulted in the average Danish McDonald's worker making at least $20/hour.


Paul then went on to say that all the "free stuff" that Scandinavians receive is the result of extremely high tax rates, to which one of the hosts responded by saying that Americans pay fairly high tax rates as well but receive none of the benefits their Scandinavian counterparts do. This is where things started going downhill for the senator because he responded with:


We have a different form of taxation in our country. It’s much more progressive. We’ve taken the poor off of the rolls, they don’t pay income tax anymore. Most people below $50,000 don’t pay any income tax, the top 1 percent in our country pay 40 percent.


Dave Chappelle word gif


As the W-9's for 90% of the people reading this can attest to, that statement is patently false. According to data from both TurboTax and H&R Block, the 2018 income level for which you don't need to file taxes was actually $12,000 or below. Additionally, the top 1% actually paid a lower tax rate than the working class in 2018, and tax rates for people at the top of the ladder have been falling steadily for the last 50 years:


tax rate gif


It wasn't long before Paul's name started trending on Twitter.



Frankie Pumps @FierceFrankie1 · 3h Rand Paul sounded like a complete fucking idiot with his bullshit lies and baseless claims. Did this fool actually say Americans who make $50k and under don't pay any taxes #TheView

Sue Walker @walksuecan_sue · 1h Replying to @WordswithSteph Rand Paul is a asshole I pay more taxes under this new #TaxScam for the rich

Rabbi Misha @mishabendavid I have never earned anything near 50k a year. Always filed and often had to pay, but I owe the IRS a princely sum. It’s really expensive to be poor. Does Rand Paul know this ?



Ricky Davila @TheRickyDavila · 2h So GOP Trash Rand Paul went on The View. He spread some conspiracy theories, he stupidly accused every American who makes under $50K of not paying taxes, he lied, he behaved like a rude, unstable brute. Ana Navarro dragged him the hell down.



ᒪᗩᗪY O'GᗩGᗩ @holleyr · 3h no wonder Rand Paul got beat to shit by his neighbor. #TheView

You can check out the full video of Senator Paul's appearance below: