Rand Paul criticized Bernie Sanders for his “free college” plan Wednesday, pointing out that the money had to come from somewhere and predicting it would be from either taxpayers or the Federal Reserve. Paul then pivoted to criticize the Fed’s monetary policy, saying that the falling value of the dollar and rising prices hurt the poor more than anyone else. His full comments are below (starts around 1:10):
Somebody’s got to pay. The education will not be free. The professors will be paid; the buildings will be built; there’ll be electricity; there’ll be heat. There is an expense. Somebody will pay for the education. Maybe it’s going to be a plumber or a carpenter; somebody who didn’t go to college. Probably will be. Or maybe it’s going to be a couple that doesn’t have kids. Or maybe you are going to pay for it.
Well, ‘no, no, Bernie says it’s going to be free.’
Well, maybe we print up money. We have a Federal Reserve, and we print up money, and we give everybody money so they can pay for education.
Well, what happens? The value of the dollar then shrinks. In fact, over the last hundred years, 96 percent of the value of the dollar’s gone. So what happens when the value of the dollar shrinks? Your prices go up. So if gas costs more and food costs more, who do you think gets hurt the worst: the rich or the poor? The poor!
Nick Arnold is a researcher for the American Principles Project.
