Paul said it might be time for Detroit’s citizens to seek out new leadership. Paul working on Detroit rescue plan

Sen. Rand Paul says he’s developing a Republican alternative to any plan to bail out Detroit after the city became the largest in America to file for bankruptcy protection.

“I’ve been talking with my staff about having a Republican alternative to it, because if there is a way in an economically depressed zone to have some tax forbearance, reduce some taxes, encourage businesses, encourage people to come in and take abandoned property,” the Kentucky Republican told Glenn Beck on Beck’s radio show on Tuesday, when asked about the possibility of Congress pursuing a Detroit bailout.


Paul said he would not support borrowing money to bail out the city, but he did suggest taking money sent to aid Egypt and investing that in infrastructure in the United States.

( PHOTOS: Rand Paul’s career)

Calling bankruptcy an “opportunity” to “start out afresh,” Paul said it also may be time for Detroit’s citizens to seek out new politics.

“Maybe the people who have been voting for the Democrats for 50 years in Detroit, who ran the once-great city into the ground, maybe they choose some new leadership, and the Republican Party would have a resurgence in Detroit. … But that may be wishful thinking,” Paul said.

One of Detroit’s biggest problems, according to Paul, is that its regulations for business are too restrictive — resulting in a “legalized bribe” system.

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“Apparently in Detroit, there’s 46 pages of regulations for setting up a business, and everywhere you go, you’re paying off somebody or paying a legalized bribe to get your business license,” Paul said. “You have to eliminate all that red tape and so it has [to] be a low-tax or a tax-free zone, and a regulation-free zone, and just do it because it’s blighted.”

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