Paul, Comer unveil plans to spur Appalachian economic growth during downtown Corbin stop

Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer spoke to a crowd at The Dixie Café Tuesday morning about his new initiative "Appalachian Proud."

U.S. Senator Rand Paul and Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer held a “meet and greet” at an iconic downtown Corbin restaurant early Tuesday morning to tout new initiatives they hope will bring economic revitalization to the Appalachian area.

Paul, well known to be a likely future Presidential contender, spoke to the crowd at The Dixie Café about the excesses of big government and offered a counterpoint to recently announced “Promise Zones” championed by current U.S. President Barack Obama.

Southeastern Kentucky is one of the first five “Promise Zones” which were announced last month with the intent to improve the economy of the area through grants, special loan pools and other programs.

Paul is critical of that effort, and has instead introduced legislation to create “Economic Freedom Zones” that would drastically lower taxes in economically challenged areas to spur growth.

“We need to have a positive message,” Paul said of the effort.

“We need to rethink poverty. We’ve sent grants. Billions if not trillions of dollars … grants don’t work.”

Paul said oftentimes, government grants go to the wrong people without the ability or business acumen to create jobs or fulfill the promises they made when given the grants. He added it is better to let the free market decided, but by cutting taxes drastically in the Economic Freedom Zones, it would make the business climate much more friendly in communities where high unemployment and a stagnant economy has been forever vexing.

“It makes a difference how you give money back to people,” Paul said. “If you take it from them and pick somebody to give it to, that almost never works.”

Under Paul’s plan, the corporate and individual income tax rate in the Economic Freedom Zones would be reduced to five percent; payroll taxes for employers and employees would be reduced to two percent and the capital gains tax would be totally suspended.

Paul spells out specific details of the proposal on his website, www.paul.senate.gov.

He said Whitley and Knox Counties would qualify to be Economic Freedom Zones under his plan. Laurel County would not. It would result in about $10 million of tax revenue annually staying in each county.

Paul said the idea of Economic Freedom Zones is a much more palatable idea to sell to voters in other states because it doesn’t take money from them to be redistributed.

“It’s still not a perfectly fair system, but when you have 18 percent unemployment I think it’s better than giving you a government grant to give you back more of what you earned.”

Paul told the large crowd the Republicans need to redefine the image of their party to succeed.

“We have to figure out a way to broaden the base of who we are trying to attract to our party and let everybody know we are not the party of just the rich … we are not the part of just business people,” he said.

“We are a party who is concerned with those who are unemployed. We are a party who is concerned with poverty and that no one political party has a monopoly on this.”

Paul’s short speech was followed by three questions from the audience regarding Senate rules and the Second Amendment.
Comer introduced Paul, but took a moment to talk his new “Appalachian Proud” initiative — a new branding effort for products manufactured and produced in eastern Kentucky.

“If you see that symbol on a product, that means that product was produced or manufactured in eastern Kentucky by an eastern Kentucky farm family or eastern Kentucky small business,” Comer said. “I believe people will pay a premium for a product that they know where it comes from. People want to support eastern Kentucky.”

Paul and Comer both appeared with U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell on Monday at Wildcat Harley-Davidson in London for a similar meet and greet session.