the problem will be there. i don't see that going away anytime soon because we have different views of the future of the middle east. >> host: i am with you there and i went to thank you for this conversation and best of luck with the book. just go to thank you very much. appreciate it. don not

>> you are watching booktv on c-span2 and we are on location in las vegas at the annual freedom fest conference send one of the speakers here is senator rand paul, republican of kentucky and offer of this book, the tea party goes to washington. this book came out when you were first elected in 2010. came out in 2011. how would you assess the tea party and its influence in washington? >> when we started we were equal parts chastisement to both parties. we were unhappy with republicans who voted for the bank bailout and unhappy with obamacare and those with the big issues. now we had the supreme court ruling on obamacare and we are still unhappy about obamacare.

the tea party might be rejuvenated by its opposition. thought the supreme court was going to strike down and when they didn't you will see a resurgence of the tea party have an influence going into the election. >> host: when tea party started in 2006-2007 were you thinking of running for office? >> guest: no. i went to the first tea party in 2007. december of 2007 in boston and they called a re-enactment of the boston tea party. it was the time my dad's campaign was hitting national waves and it grew and i went to other tea party is. the first one i when doing kentucky was in 2009 and senator budding was talking about not running or other people talking about him not running so i showed up at a tea party. i said i will take 20 minutes off and go to the square. 20 people there like me who are mad about big government and i showed up and there were nearly

a thousand people there and that is when i knew something big was going on. >> host: at that point did you start thinking about electing for office? >> no. i was toying with the fact they were talking about senator budding not running so we started talking to reporters saying it he doesn't run i might. showing up and seeing that big rally said there were enough people like myself. i tell people i sit at home watching tv news and throw things at my tv and curse and go about my daily business but everybody else was doing this and everybody was becoming unhappy. the debt was exploding and republicans were not doing the right thing either. that is what i started thinking about it. >> host: a lot of this book "the tea party goes to washington" is about the 2010 campaign. some of the misrepresentations of who you are. what were the examples you like to point out? >> guest: the tea party for one, people characterize us as not

being a movement. some rich guys in new york were funding the tea party and that is paula was. i never met any rich guys from new york when i was part of the tea party. the tea party was so decentralized city by city. in kentucky ten tea party as ants two tea party is in one town and they don't communicate with each other. this was a bottom up movement and a movement that chastised both parties. we were unhappy. we were unhappy with republicans. when president bush set out to save the free market i had to give up on the free market and capitalism. that the serbs a lot of us. we were unhappy with republicans and democrats and felt we needed something different. >> host: you write in addition to be called a tea party or reconstitution will conservative i have also been called a goldwater conservative by supporters of critics. it is both accurate and an honor to be described as such.

>> guest: i reread the conscience of the conservative and it was first published in shepherdsville, kentucky. i met the publisher and he gave me an original copy and i reread it and i have always been fascinated and when you think of barry goldwater and conservatives and libertarians. >> host: is there a difference between a conservative and libertarian? >> guest: the word conservative has been watered down enough that people are not sure what it means. george w. bush ran as a conservative but double the debt and was very much to many of us suspender himself. we were upset with president obama making it worse with republican years. many people call themselves libertarian sort of to designate themselves more as constitutional conservative with

a true believer in limited government. >> host: you wrote this before you spend any time in the u.s. senate. now after a couple years being in the u.s. senate what would you change if anything and has your mind -- your thinking changed at all? >> guest: i understand more how much there is an impasse and having trouble getting things done. i tried to take on ideas many democrats put forward and said we have to do and can't get anyone to talk to me. we won't talk to them. several different senators get them to talk about social security reform. social security can be saved for 70 years or 75 years or in perpetuity if we raise the age and tests the benefit. i can't get any democrats to talk about entitlement reform. >> host: what about your own party? >> have and have. some don't want to talk about

it. i am equally critical of my party in the sense that 47 u.s. senators on the republicans are for a balanced budget amendment but $7 million from sugar subsidies we lose 5 or 10 republicans who got sugar in their state. we tried to cut one penny from the sugar subsidy which is $7 million a year and compare that to the annual deficit which is over $1 trillion and if you cut $7 million at a time that is 1 forty thousand seven million left. we can't do it once. that discourages me and that is part of the problem in washington. we can't cut pennies much less the billions that have to be cut. >> host: you have a new book coming out. >> guest: government bullies and with the airways people are being imprisoned in america from regulatory -- not talking about murder or rape for stealing or violent crime but people who put their on their own property. these are wetlands violations. some of these came out of the

first george bush. we think you shouldn't be putting people in bail for regulatory crime. in the old days there was a criminal law and court law and men's intense. you had to prove you intended to kill someone. you hit someone on your bicycle by accident that wasn't the murder. we are now people -- there is a man in jail from southern mississippi for ten years without parole for putting clean fill dirt on a low area of his land. sometimes moving dirt from one part of your land to another part of your land. we have gone crazy on this stuff and some was well intended in the beginning. the clean water act says you can't dump pollutants in navigable waters in the u.s.. i agree with that. . no chemical company should of chemicals in the ohio river but putting dirt on your own land is not the same as dumping into the chemical -- >> host: at these what you have

dealt with? >> guest: the second family from idaho that would be told they can't build on the line and like it used to be. there's never any rain water on their land. the government says will look at our web site. our web site is not perfect. we have $90,000 for raising bunnies with the wrong license. it was the wrong license. pay as within 30 days of the credit card. $90,000. this is a middle-class family but if you don't you are $3.1 million. these are the stories we reported in here but these are the stories that make americans mad. >> host: what is your biggest frustration in the senate now. >> people haven't come to grips with the debt problem.

>> we have to cut spending. domestic welfare spending. the real compromise we have to compromise on the other side and say we got waste in the military and domestically. the pentagon says they're too big to be audited and that is an insult. they spend $700 billion a year. we need to figure out how to save money in the military and domestically. there are $124 billion in the budget and accounted for. got to do something about that. >> host: how do you foresee the debt ceiling and sequestration. >> guest: i will vote to raise the debt ceiling if there's a balanced budget amendment. and when we raise the debt

ceiling we add statutory cap. we bring a bill to the floor that exceeds the caps. and sven x dollars and we raise the point of order. you know what they do? they deem it to be okay. 80 out of 100 say we don't care what the rules are. so they routinely ignore their own rules. we have a rule that says you have to have a bill on line for 48 hours. that is not enough -- at least some limits. last week they put one up for 12 hours and i made a point of order of 48 hours and they said so what? we don't care what the rules are. that is why the american people are unhappy with congress. they don't obey their own rules. >> host: we are talking to senator and paul about his first book "the tea party goes to washington". he has a new one coming out in august of 2012. government believes. one of the side issues you address in this book is where

the name brand came from. at a libertarian conference -- area named after i ran? >> no. my wife actually shortens my name. i was randy growing up. no intent to be named after her and although i am a big fan. i read all her novels when i was 17 and her nonfiction and my dad is a fan and gave me the book for christmas when i was 17 or for my birthday. a big fan. never thought there would be so many questions about it but when my wife says you need to be rand and not randy or randal any more i wasn't running for office so i didn't know there would be such a big deal. the first report i talked to asked about that and i have the question of. >> host: you are an ophthalmologist. where did you go to medical school? >> i went to duke medical school and the general surgery in atlanta and came back for my residency. >> host: do you practice at all?

>> guest: they won't let me to do it for money. i do for charity. i go around the state and do square -- charitable surgery. crazy rules. if you are $100 million when you are a senator no limit to what income you can make that you can make zero earned income. i can't do work outside the senate but i do charity work. i do miss medicine. i thought when i ran that rules were different. in the house of representatives they did let my dad practice some. there were some limits but in the senate i am not allowed to practice and asked to change the rules that they are not interested in helping me. >> host: who is on the back cover? >> guest: my wife. that is one of my favorite pictures. and animated pose. my wife being there and we did it as a joint project. she held with the book but help quite a bit allowing me to do the campaign to run for office. >> host: what does she think about being a senator's wife?

>> guest: she wasn't too excited about the process of running and was difficult at times. there were times when you are attacked by your opponent and your character assassination and during the campaign one of the things we talk about on our anniversary oct. 20th right before the election they accused me of something about my religion or something about college or this or that and she hadn't made any comment in the campaign but she came out on our anniversary and said don't mess with my man and the rest is history. >> host: what is your enthusiasm level for the mitt romney campaign? >> guest: i have endorsed him and i would endorse a republican nominee. it doesn't mean i will sit passively and not be critical if i disagree. not everybody agrees. i don't agree with everything with my father or every republican and i try to be polite about it but a week or two after my endorsement i mentioned i was concerned that he said he would go to war with iran without congressional authority. that bothers me.

that is a big issue for me and the issue of war is really important. it separates me from other republicans. i don't think we should go to war with that. and madison -- we vested that power in the legislature because executives are so prone to war that we wanted to divide that power. i am concerned about beginning a new war. we have been a decade of two different wars. i will make sure there's a debate in the u.s. senate and in congress should that be something people want to do again. >> host: did your endorsement of mitt romney cause any familial strife? >> guest: there were some of my dad's supporters who were not happy but my dad and i always got along. he was well-informed was coming and we waited until their campaign acknowledged they didn't have the delegates. some people love my dad so much and still want him to win but the numbers are done and some of

his supporters are not ready to admit the numbers are sufficient. >> host: your father's political philosophy is well known. what percentage would you say you share with him? >> guest: we believe in limited government and the original interpretation of the constitution but there will be issues that when you think you are coming from the same foundation that you will disagree on so we do disagree on occasion but very politely they let me come home for thanksgiving and we get to sit at the adult table most of the time. >> host: what is your standing in the republican party in washington? >> guest: i do okay. i try not to insult people. i try to work both sides of the aisle. and both sides of the republican party and many sides of the republican party. there are times you will agree with the plan times you disagree with people and even in the senate i work with many people on the democrats on issues of internet freedom.

ron wyden is an open minded guy who agrees on economic issues and civil libertarian issues we see eye to eye on issues of trying to end the war in afghanistan. and three publican's have signed a letter is with many democrats encouraging the president to end board afghanistan and the public is coming around and 67% are ready for the war to be over. even republicans it is 50/50 and much more lopsided. we have been through ten years of this. we won the war and killed osama bin laden and disrupted the terrorist base but we keep creating and trying to create nations. >> host: one more question. what do you think about the fact the sometimes democrats use you as that evil bogeyman of the campaign. >> guest: that means you're being effective in the sense that you are allowed on a voice that they make a target for you but i am not easily identifiable as just be a partisan. i don't believe in empty partisanship. i have ridden on air force one

to find money for building a bridges and suggested we bring home some foreign aid and some of that money that foreign welfare can be used for bridges here. i suggested a bill to repatriate corporate capital from overseas. let it come home and reduced tax rate and take money to build bridges. i worked with or tried to work with democrats on that. i worked with a pipeline regulation bill where they're looking to exempt the old pipeline and i made them take out that clause because the old pipelines with the ones that were exploding. i am not as easy -- as a partisan republican. they still criticize me and i'm proud of the fact that i do work with the other side not in a way where i give up on principles but find like-minded people who actually just happen to be democrats. >> host: this is booktv and we are talking with senator rand paul the author of "the tea party goes to washington". he has a new book coming out called "government bullies". this is c-span2.

>> donald luskin talked about his book i am john galt leader still talking to people who exemplify the fictional heroes and villains of ayn rand's book. you can see that interview now on booktv. >> host: joining us is donald less than. "i am john galt". first of all, who is john galt? >> the slogan from atlas shrugged. and amazing book written 55 years ago that could have been written yesterday. it perfectly describes our world of declining economy and declining wealth and declining moral standards and the reason it is so perfectly prophetic