Rand Paul

The question is not so much, let us say, that we could concede some of the gentleman's argument, but why do you have such hostility to the Constitution and to the process as what we are talking about? Why do we not have a declaration of…

I think when our national security is threatened, the American people have a right to vote through their Congressmen for a declaration of war. This is the kind of thing that leads to Vietnam War-type wars and U.N. sanctions. This is the…

I know the most important thing for freedom and peace is for me to obey the Constitution. Where is it the authority of the Constitution for us to police the world?

That is true directly, but indirectly the fungibility argument is very important. If you use funds for other things, you say the governments and agencies can use them for abortion. So you do it indirectly. Yes, it might be a little harder…

I do not want to imply that the gentleman has permitted or endorsed or encouraged or the bill says directly there are funds here for abortion. I will concede that.

Let me address the subject of regulation. The Constitution does give us the authority to regulate commerce, but it never mentions that we should subsidize special interests at the expense of the average American taxpayers. Yes, we can put…

But let me be specific to point out to the gentleman that we are not dealing with the general welfare. We are dealing with the very specific welfare of General Electric and other big companies at the expense of the general welfare of the…

Could the gentlewoman cite the constitutional authority for programs like this? Where did we get this authority? When did we get involved in doing this? I am confused on that constitutional issue.

Japan subsidizes 32 percent of their exports and we only subsidize a small amount, only 2 percent. So I guess I would be complaining a lot more if I lived in Japan because they do so much more; but if we look at the economic growth of…

I share the gentlewoman's desire for the United States to be a leader. It is just that my concept of leadership is different. We have troops in 100 countries of the world. That does not have very much to do with our national security. I am…

If we left more money in the hands and pockets of the American people, they would be charitable, and I do believe we would help them. I believe when we take money from poor people, put it in the hands of government and give it to another…

I certainly will support some of these reforms, especially in curtailing some of these funds going to abortion. Certainly that would be repugnant to me. But still, I go back to the issue of the cost. Yes, we want to do good, but can we do…

I think that there could not be an argument made that every dollar that we sent to Europe did not have some beneficial effect. Quite possibly it did. But my point is that if that money from the taxpayer had not been sent, there is nothing…

I would vote to change the taxes, but mainly to lower them for everybody. The point that I am trying to make is that the large amount of capital that helped Europe recover did not come from the taxpayers. That was a small amount. There…

I think that is a minor point and something we should be concerned about. But I am also concerned about those individuals who have been evicted from their homes because they have been taxed. The system that we have today works on a…

I think so. This is the reason I have great concern about most of the details of this bill and also the reason I will be voting against the bill. I think the gentlemen make many good points.

I think that would be a very good suggestion. Seeing that I think the Export-Import Bank is welfare for the very wealthy businessman, I think the conditions would be very good.

Yes; and I have great sympathy for the gentleman. It is just I believe that some conditions do exist in everything we do in Government. You do not go into a public school without conditions. You cannot come in there and be disruptive, or…

I have been a strong critic of the courts, especially the Federal courts, because so often the Federal courts seem to be unconcerned about the Constitution, and so often they do a lot more legislation than they should. Last week there was…