Rand Paul targets 'Government Bullies' in new book

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'Government Bullies'

Senator Rand Paul on his new book

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," September 10, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: He is one of only 100 U.S. senators, and unlike many of his colleagues on the other side of aisle, he is using his power and influence to hold government accountable for you.

Now Senator Rand Paul's newest book exposes how the government is bullying you, the American people, and details in great length how President Obama is standing idly by as the feds are trampling on your rights as an American citizen.

Joining me now is the author of the brand new book, "Government Bullies, How Everyday Americans Are Being Harassed, Abused and Imprisoned by the Feds," Kentucky Senator Rand Paul.

Good to see you, Senator. How are you?

SENATOR RAND PAUL, R-KY.: Thanks for having me.

HANNITY: We are being bullied with regulation, confiscatory taxation and then being hit in the head after we pay half our income in taxes, we don't pay our fair share?

PAUL: We actually tell the actual stories of people put in prison. There was a guy named John Patskien (ph), came here to escape communism in the Soviets and Hungary, came for freedom in our country. They put him in jail for three years. Do you know what he did? He put clean dirt on dry land and they said, you know what, dirt is a pollutant and dry land is a wet land.

HANNITY: Unbelievable.

PAUL: That kind of stuff shouldn't happen in America.

HANNITY: But it is happening. Did you hear about the case today? There was couple and they found these gold double eagle coins, 1939, I think is the year. They are worth about $80 million. They had a court case because they confiscated them or asked them to turn them in.

PAUL: FDR.

HANNITY: FDR. They had the 10 coins or whatever it was. They said, no, we're taking them and you don't get a penny.

PAUL: It sort of like the Nazis taking paintings from Jewish families during the war and say, you don't get them back. Well, they are yours. They are still yours even if they find it 60 years later.

HANNITY: Yes, they are saying well, there must have been some criminal intent by what, the grandfather, the father?

PAUL: We never changed some of those laws unfortunately, some of the gold confiscations. Some of them -- we allowed gold ownership now, but it's a mistake that we never reversed some of the law.

HANNITY: I watched you very closely in your speech at the Republican convention and I found it interesting because I agree with you. We have to cut out the waste, fraud and abuse.

You talk specifically about the military. I'm worried about the world is about to blow up with the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt, North Africa and Iran. Is this the time to be gutting defense the way we are?

PAUL: Well, I wouldn't gut defense, but what I would say is that the primary function of the federal government is national defense. So you and I agree completely. That is the number one pre-imminent thing we do in Washington. It's in the Constitution. It's what we are supposed to do.

But that being said, the compromise we have now we always increase military spending, we always increase welfare spending. The reverse compromise has to happen. You have to reduce military spending that's how you get a compromise and you have to reduce domestic spending. But you do it without compromising your national defense. You choose weapon systems not as work programs, but whether you need them for your national defense.

HANNITY: What about the way the president is now trying to frame the debate. Ten bucks in cuts, $1 in tax increases? Romney won't even go for that.

PAUL: What I have learned is Washington is a shell game. So like he was going to pay for ObamaCare with student loan money, but then the student interest he reduced and that was the money that was supposed to pay for ObamaCare.

HANNITY: What about this so-called $4 trillion in savings. It turns out it's not all. They are counting money that they weren't going to spend anyway, a billion dollars on wars that were ending?

PAUL: If you wanted to explain to somebody, one sentence, why ObamaCare will be a disaster, Medicare has 50 million people. It's $35 to $40 trillion short. He wanted to insure 45 new million people with ObamaCare, it's not going to cost you anything or won't add to the debt. It's impossible.

HANNITY: It's impossible. The math doesn't add up.

How do you feel the campaign is going at this moment? What advice would you give Governor Romney? I'm a little worried about Virginia because they have a constitutional candidate running in that state. That may grab some of your dad's libertarian supporters?

PAUL: If I were Governor Romney, I would say put the image of people booing God, the Democrat National Convention delegates booing God. Images are worth a thousand words. People still remember Dukakis looking silly in that tank. I think people booing God just doesn't look really --

HANNITY: It's not going to resonate in -- I agree with you.

PAUL: In Virginia, I think -- what Governor Romney needs to do is he needs to tell people who might voted for the Constitution Party he will be resolute on balancing the budget not in 20 years, not in 30 years, but in a shorter period of time. He will be fully behind a balanced budget amendment. He will help people like me that want to introduce it, like Mike Lee and Jim DeMint, who have been working hard for a balance budget amendment. If he comes out and says he will do those things, they will be persuaded to vote for him.

HANNITY: And you'd go into Virginia to campaign for Governor Romney over the --

PAUL: Yes, we have offered to campaign for them and we're working on trying to figure out a time.

HANNITY: All right, "Government Bullies," great book. Thanks, Senator. Good to see you again.

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