Sen. Rand Paul/photo from his website
These days you'd be hard pressed to find a Republican on Capitol Hill who has much empathy for poor old bankrupt Detroit.
In fact, just last week Tea Party favorite Sen. Rand Paui ( R-Ky) told Breitbart.com that the federal government "is bailing them (Detroit) out over my dead body, because we don't have any money in Washington."
Interestingly, this week Paul invoked the name of Detroit in a much more empathetic way when he tried to push through an amendment in a transportation spending bill that that would have killed aid to Egypt and redirected $1.3 billion in aid for bridge repairs and infrastructure replacement in the U.S. The measure was tabled on Wednesday.
"All I can see is the billions of American tax dollars that he chooses to send overseas,” Paul said, according to Politico. “"The president sends billions of dollars to Egypt in the form of advanced fighter plans and tanks while Detroit crumbles.”
That seemed like an interesting remark.
So Deadline Detroit contacted his office Thursday morning to ask if he was interested in having some of that money sent to Detroit, to which a spokesperson responded:
"Sen. Paul thinks the foreign aid we are sending illegally to Egypt would be better spent here at home on vital infrastructure project. How that money is appropriated is determined by the DOT, which would receive the funds as part of the 'Bridges in Critical Corridors' fund."
Well, at least he didn't say "over his dead body," which in Detroit, is an expression we don't take lightly."