When Rand Paul was asked what the federal government could do make college education more affordable, the junior senator from Kentucky and presidential hopeful had an interesting suggestion. First, he identified several factors of the problem. Paul feels that the main problem is a poor job market because too many jobs have gone overseas. The jobs have left the country because our corporate taxes and regulatory burdens are the highest in the world. In addition, we have pushed too many kids into college for jobs that don’t exist instead of honorable professions that do not require a four year degree. Senator Paul suggested an innovative solution for the costs of higher education. He believes that education should be considered a tax deductible business expense. That would include tuition and loan payments–both interest and principal. There would be no limits and an individual could write off this expense over the length of their working career.
A discussion of the heroin epidemic in New Hampshire, led to Senator Paul clarifying his views about the “War on Drugs.” He believes that incarceration is not always the answer. He does believe that in many cases there should be reasonable punishment. It is his view that there needs to be a reform of our current drug policies, especially in regard to marijuana. He pointed out that our jails are too full of people who are poor, black, brown, and minorities. Senator Paul then offered this solution to the high cost of imprisonment for non-violent offenders. The cost of incarceration is about $30,000 a year. Ironically, that is close to the cost of college tuition. If a person is sentenced to five years, that would come to $150,000. He would suggest lowering the sentence to 3 to 6 months and having the person go through a work program with drug testing run by the prison or the state. If they fail in their job performance or fail their drug test, they go back to prison. Perhaps the money saved from not having to keep these individuals in prison could be used by the state for job training programs.
