Scott Wartman

swartman@enquirer.com

No one has yet stepped forward to pay for the $2.6 billion Brent Spence Bridge project.

So, a couple of days after winning the primary and starting a re-election campaign, Sen. Rand Paul called The Enquirer to talk about his plan to use money aimed for overseas.

Maybe this one will work where others failed.

He's come up with plans before, one to encourage corporations to bring revenue back into the United States and use the tax money to pay for infrastructure. Another one targeted foreign aid to Egypt. Neither has passed.

This one, introduced in the Senate this week, would send excess foreign aid money — about $8 billion to $9 billion, by his estimate — toward transportation projects.

He thinks this might be more palatable than the Egypt foreign aid proposal, he said, because it doesn't target a specific country.

"The last time I got a vote on it, I was taking it specifically from Egypt, because Egypt was holding Americans unfairly and because Egypt was converted to a rule of Muslim Brotherhood," Paul said. "We thought it was a good idea to bring up Egypt as an example."

The legislation would prioritize transportation projects based on need, Paul told The Enquirer.

That would put the 50-year-old Brent Spence Bridge in the top 10, he said.

"I think if we would gather 500,000 people that live in Northern Kentucky and ask them if they would rather spend billions of dollars in Afghanistan or on a bridge in Northern Kentucky, I think they would rather spend that money here at home," Paul said.

Now, with his presidential run behind him, Paul will turn his attention to getting re-elected. Lexington Mayor Jim Gray is the Democrat that will try to unseat him.

Paul said he doesn't know much about Gray. He believes the conservative bent of Kentucky and the disdain for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will work to his advantage.

"I think, really, in the end, Kentucky is going to want a senator who will stand up to Hillary Clinton who said he will put our coal miners out of business," Paul said.

Gray sent out a message Thursday pledging Paul will have a tough fight.

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't think we could get it done, and if I didn't think Kentuckians need and deserve a change," Gray said in the statement.