On Saturday, February 19th, the Republican Party of Texas hosted a fundraising reception in Dallas in conjunction with the 31st Annual Young Conservatives of Texas convention. Newly elected Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was in town to keynote the convention dinner and he and the YCT graciously allowed the RPT to host a fundraising reception for the party before the dinner and allowed those that contributed to the RPT event to attend the dinner as well. The event raised thousands of dollars for the state party and also provided the contributors and sponsors an opportunity to hear from the freshman senator from Kentucky.

Senator Paul gave a very informative speech in which he detailed the reasons for the country’s current deficit and possible solutions. He noted that the deficit would be approximately $1.6 trillion during the next fiscal year and that even if you eliminated all non-military discretionary spending, it wouldn’t come close to balancing the budget. Therefore he argued it was a necessity to look at entitlements such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security which make up approximately 60% of the federal budget as well as scrubbing the military budget of any waste. He made a point that national defense and security would actually increase if we ensure military spending goes to necessary items such as body armor for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, as opposed to pet projects of Congressmen for the purpose of helping them in their district rather than improving national security. He also noted that the unfunded liability for our entitlement programs is estimated to be in the $70 trillion range and that if our country continues on the present course there will not be adequate funds to meet our obligations to Social Security recipients. Senator Paul also laid out several specific possible solutions to the budget crisis. For example, he noted that you could fix 80% of the Social Security problem if you gradually raised the retirement age slightly for those under 55.

The sponsors of the RPT Rand Paul fundraiser were Donald and Phillip Huffines of Dallas, for which we thank them.

In addition to Rand Paul, several other Republican elected officials addressed the Young Conservatives of Texas Convention to provide updates and overviews of the current legislative session. These included Rep. Ken Paxton, Rep. David Simpson and Rep. Wayne Christian. Also, former Republican legislator Talmadge Heflin addressed the group.

Republican State Representative Wayne Christian was awarded the Young Conservatives of Texas “Torch of Freedom” Award for his lifelong commitment to promoting conservative values. The RPT congratulates him on receiving this award.

State Chairman Steve Munisteri said, “On behalf of the entire RPT, we wish to thank Senator Rand Paul for flying down to Texas to hold a fundraiser for the party. I also would like to thank the YCT for allowing us to piggyback a fundraiser on their state convention agenda. I know Senator Paul made a special effort to get here as he had to fly back very early the next day. We appreciate very much his taking time to help us despite his tight schedule. The Senator grew up in Lake Jackson, TX and was a former Baylor YCT chairman and former state Vice Chairman of YCT so his conservative political activist roots run deep in Texas.”