Rand Paul talks to packed house in DeWitt

DEWITT – TWP. – Presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul told an overflow crowd at the Draft House Saturday that he thinks the Republican party must be a "bigger, better, bolder" party if it intends to win Michigan in 2016.

"We need people in our party with earrings and without, with tattoos and without," he said. "Do we need to dilute what we stand for? ... We need to be more boldly for what we are for."

In Paul's case, that includes a flat income tax of 14.5 percent, a reduction in power for the executive branch and a broader perception of the Republican platform beyond the Second Amendment to include privacy and property rights.

Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, stopped in DeWitt Township as part of a two-day campaign swing through Michigan that included events in Highland Park, Flint and Holland.

Griff Drew of Lansing arrived early and snagged a table at the crowded restaurant to wait for Paul.

"We don't get presidential candidates in the Lansing area too often, and I think Rand Paul has a good message and I wanted to hear what he had to say," he said.

Paul told the crowd he has made a video that will come out this week featuring the destruction of the current U.S. tax code, which is 70,000 pages long, by wood chipper, chain saw and burning to make his point that the code is too complex, unfair and drives businesses overseas.

"We're chasing American jobs overseas. We're chasing them to Canada," he said.

He said he also supports putting the burden of paying the Social Security tax onto businesses rather than employees.

Besides supporting a reduction in power for the executive branch of government, Paul also said he would like to see members of Congress take the time to deliberately consider each and every potential law rather than quickly passing them due to pressure from interest groups.

"We need to slow things down," he said. "We need to read the bills."

Paul said he is still upset by the 2012 invasion of the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the death of two Americans, and he criticized U.S. intervention in Syria.

"We must ask, 'Is it in the U.S.' best interest to be there?'" he said of overseas missions.

Paul paused for photos with supporters after his talk, and spent a couple of minutes with those who couldn't get into the crowded restaurant to hear him speak.

Contact Kathleen Lavey at (517) 377-1251 or klavey@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter@KathleenLavey