Rand Paul invokes Ayn Rand on efficiency - Darius Dixon - POLITICO.com

Rand Paul invokes Ayn Rand on efficiency

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Rand Paul recently turned his attention to Ayn Rand's 1937 novel 'Anthem.' | AP Photo Close
By DARIUS DIXON | 4/12/11 1:46 PM EDT

For Sen. Rand Paul, legislation setting new efficiency standards for appliances evokes the nightmare future Ayn Rand warned us all about.

“On the energy efficiency standards, I think that in order to be consistent with a free society we should make them voluntary,” the Kentucky Republican said, turning a routine markup hearing in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee into something of a libertarian book club.
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Paul offered an amendment to remove the appliance bill’s enforcement authority, but first he turned his attention to Rand’s 1937 novel “Anthem.”

“In that novel,” Paul said, “individual choice is banned and the collective basically runs society.”

Paul gave a brief summary of the circumstances surrounding the novel’s protagonist, named Equality 7-2521, and the lack of the freedoms he must endure.

“Over time, he discovers the subway and rediscovered the incandescent light bulb,” he said. Paul described how the novel’s character then takes the light bulb to a leadership council and “they take the light bulb and, basically, it’s crushed beneath the boot heel of the collective.”

Similarly, the U.S. government is trying to distort the marketplace of consumer products, said Paul, who has also complained about 2007 legislation that imposed tightened efficiency standards for light bulbs.

“I’m not suggesting that this collective is against electricity, per se, or for quashing individualism,” Paul said. “I am suggesting that we’re against choice.”

Sen. Jim Risch echoed Paul’s remarks.

“I have real difficulty explaining to my constituents what in the world the government is doing telling them what kind of light bulbs they can and can’t have,” said the Idaho Republican.

Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico opposed Paul’s amendment, saying similar energy efficiency bills have become law on six previous occasions, and all were bipartisan and signed by Republican presidents.

Paul’s amendment failed 16-6. All the committee Democrats and a handful of Republicans, including ranking member Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, opposed the amendment. The overall appliance efficiency bill passed out of the committee 18-4.

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