--- title: Rand Paul Borrows an Idea from President Bartlet description: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul floated a new idea on making college affordable that was previously on "The West Wing." canonical: https://time.com/3817908/rand-paul-west-wing-college/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-10T19:00:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:47:20.640Z article:section: Politics og:title: Rand Paul Borrows an Idea from President Bartlet og:description: He must have been watching "The West Wing." og:url: https://time.com/3817908/rand-paul-west-wing-college/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9324df1be2966ab7/6987ea9e5f570f7730b1916a/west-wing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Martin Sheen as President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet in "The West Wing". og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rand Paul Borrows an Idea from President Bartlet twitter:description: He must have been watching "The West Wing." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9324df1be2966ab7/6987ea9e5f570f7730b1916a/west-wing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rand Paul Borrows an Idea from President Bartlet > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke J Miller / Iowa City, Iowa](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke J Miller / Iowa City, Iowa Apr 10, 2015 7:00 PM UTC  Martin Sheen as President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet in "The West Wing". Martin Sheen as President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet in "The West Wing".NBC/Getty Images by [Zeke J Miller / Iowa City, Iowa](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke J Miller / Iowa City, Iowa Apr 10, 2015 7:00 PM UTC Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul must be watching “The West Wing.” Addressing a crowd of about 400 largely college students on the fourth day of his presidential roll-out, the Republican hopeful called for making college tuition tax deductible for all students — an idea first floated on the White House TV drama. Responding to President Obama’s proposal to provide free community college to millions of eligible students, Paul said while it sounded good, taxpayers would be left on the hook. “The president says, well, I just want to give you free college,” Paul said at the University of Iowa. “It sounds good at first, but think about it, how could it be free? Well, somebody still has to pay. Someone has to pay the professors, the electricity, the janitorial services. Somebody pays.” “I have a better idea,” he continued. “Let’s let college students deduct the entire cost of their educations over their working careers. Let’s make college tuition entirely deductible.” Paul offered no details how he would pay for the tax break or how it would work. A spokesman for Paul didn’t immediately respond to a request for details on the proposal. Under current federal law only [several thousand](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/p970.pdf) dollars of education spending is tax deductible per year, depending on income level. On an episode of “The West Wing,” two advisors to fictional President Jed Barlet are stranded in Iowa when they meet a man touring colleges with his daughter who worries about making his tuition payments. “It should be a little easier—Just a little easier,” he told the presidential aides Toby Ziegler and Josh Lyman. They aides huddle in a subsequent episode are having the simultaneous epiphany to make college tuition fully tax deductible, and struggle to devise pay-fors. On the show, they suggest closing a tax loophole for corporate bonuses. Watch “The West Wing” clip below: ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3817908/rand-paul-west-wing-college/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3817908/rand-paul-west-wing-college/"},"headline":"Rand Paul Borrows an Idea from President Bartlet","datePublished":"2015-04-10T19:00:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:47:20.640Z","description":"Kentucky Sen. 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