Sen. Rand Paul: Chris Christie is the 'King of Pork'

Sen. Rand Paul: Chris Christie is the 'King of Pork'

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul have engaged in a war of words with each other and this week, the finger pointing continued with Christie claiming that Kentucky gets more federal aide than New Jersey. In reply, Senator Paul called Christie the “king of pork,” Tuesday.

Christie’s latest swipe at Paul occurred at a news conference called to announce new hurricane Sandy relief. During the event Christie criticized Paul because the state of Kentucky receives more money in federal spending than New Jersey.

“I find it interesting that Sen. Paul is accusing us of having a ‘Gimme, gimme, gimme’ attitude toward federal spending when in fact New Jersey is a donor state and we get 61 cents back on every dollar we send to Washington. Interestingly, Kentucky gets $1.51 on every dollar they send to Washington,” Christie said.

The Governor went on to say, “So if Sen. Paul wants to start looking at where he’s going to cut spending to afford defense, maybe he should start looking at the pork barrel spending he brings home to Kentucky.”

On July 30 Senator Paul appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and was asked if he had any response to Christie’s latest broadside.

In defense of his state, Senator Paul told CNN’s Blitzer that Kentucky has two major army bases and wondered if Christie wants to “shut down military bases in Kentucky?”

Both states host military bases with Kentucky having Forts Knox and Campbell while New Jersey includes within its borders Fort Dix, the McGuire Air Force base, and Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst.

Paul, though, said that cutting defense spending should be done in “a responsible way.”

Paul also appeared flabbergasted as to why Christie is attacking Republicans instead of focusing on Democrats.

“It’s not helping the party for him to pick a war with me. It’s a big mistake. It’s not very smart. And it’s not a good way to grow the party,” Paul said. He went on to note that the GOP is “shrinking” in Christie’s region. “Why would he want to pick a fight with the one guy who has a chance to grow the party by appealing to the youth and appealing to people who would like to see a more moderate and less aggressive foreign policy?”

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