Rand Paul

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks during the Road to Majority 2015 convention in Washington, Thursday, June 18, 2015. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

(Andrew Harnik, Associated Press)

Today's Rand Paul news: Speaking to an audience of religious conservatives in the wake of a racially charged shooting in South Carolina, Kentucky GOP Sen. Paul delicately suggested that Republicans might want to start focusing on other parts of the Bill of Rights than the Second Amendment. "Everybody is for the Second Amendment. All 55 candidates running for president are for the Second Amendment--on our side," Paul told the crowd. "But the thing is that a lot of young people, that might not be their primary issue." National Journal

Paul mentioned the shooting during a discussion of how decreasing religious belief and morality was hurting America -- bringing it up after mentioning the linkage between unwed mothers and poverty to make a broader argument that government policies can't fix society's deeper problems."What kind of person goes into a church and shoots nine people? There is a sickness in our country. There's something terribly wrong. But it isn't going to be fixed by your government," the libertarian-leaning Kentucky senator said. "It's people straying away, it's people not understanding where salvation comes from." New York Daily News

"Can government save you?" Paul said, as President Barack Obama, speaking to reporters at the White House, was calling for stricter gun control. "Can government be the be-all end-all? The reason I ask is that I meet with pastors, and they're looking at government for the answers. I look back at them and I say, 'I'm looking at you for help.'" Bloomberg Politics

The read among Republican operatives is that Paul's move was similar to what New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie did in unveiling his Social Security reform proposal: Lay down a marker that forces others to respond. "I think we're going to see more of this as the campaign goes on," Bruce Haynes, a GOP consultant and a founding partner of Purple Strategies, said Thursday: Politico

Would your tax bill shrink under Paul's flat tax proposal? The short answer is probably yes. But a lot depends on how much money you make -- the more you make, the bigger your tax break: CNN

Paul's plan would keep two of the most well-known deductions in the system in the equivalent of a budget bomb shelter. It leaves in place those for home mortgages and charitable deductions. Last year, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated the deduction for home mortgage interest on owner-occupied homes cost the U.S. Treasury $67.8 billion in revenue for 2014. The committee estimated that the deduction for charitable donations to educational institutions cost $6 billion, while charitable donations for health organizations cost $3 billion, and deductions for donations to other organizations cost $34.8 billion for 2014. National Journal

Howard Gleckman at the Tax Policy Center points out the plan also makes huge, long-term changes to programs like Medicare and Social Security. "Of course, tax cuts this big would put enormous fiscal pressure on all parts of government, from Meals on Wheels to the Pentagon," he writes. "And by eliminating the payroll tax, Paul would end dedicated funding for Social Security and Medicare and fundamentally change the nature of those programs." The Washington Post

Paul, the most vocal critic of the "war on drugs" in the 2016 Republican presidential field, will host a "private briefing" on June 30 for campaign donors on the sidelines of the second annual Cannabis Business Summit and Expo in Denver, according to an invitation for the event obtained by Yahoo News: Yahoo News



