Rand Paul, Eric Garner, and Cigarette Tax Lies →

Rand Paul, on MSNBC’s ‘Hardball’:

But I think there's something bigger than just the individual circumstances. Obviously the individual circumstances are important, but I think it's also important to know that some politician put a tax of $5.85 on a pack of cigarettes, so they've driven cigarettes underground by making them so expensive. But then some politician also had to direct the police to say, ‘Hey, we want you arresting people for selling a loose cigarette.' And for someone to die over breaking that law, there really is no excuse for it.

Nice try, Rand, but “loosies” have been a part of New York City culture (and I would assume all major city culture?) since forever, and certainly before high cigarette taxes. Just another example of why Libertarian “logic” has never been able to make the jump from theory to reality.

And on a related note, Rand, you’re running for goddamn President. You aren’t anti-establishment. You are the establishment. Just thought I’d start to get into the habit of pointing that out.