Rand Paul

It has been said that there have been no inspections in Iraq; and yet the International Atomic Energy Agency was in Iraq this very year and this was the report: I am pleased to confirm that between 20 and 23 January 2001, a 4-person IAEA…

The gentleman argues for an increase. But is it not true that the United States has had a healthier economy in the last 10 years than most of our competitors, indicating that it probably has not done us that much harm by not doing the same…

I urge a ``yes'' vote to stop the funding for the peacekeeping missions of the United Nations, believing very sincerely that they do not do much good and they do harm and potentially a great deal of harm in the future. They do not serve…

I am not a protectionist. I am not an isolationist. I am for openness, travel, trade. I vote consistently that way, so the term 'isolationist' does not apply to the policies that I am talking about, because I am probably for more openness…

I asked for this Special Order this evening to talk about trade. We are going to be dealing with permanent normal trade relations with China here soon, and there is also a privileged resolution that will be brought to the floor that I have…

I come to the floor only to try to warn my colleagues of what they are voting on today; that this is not just a simple humanitarian resolution. It is the process I'm concerned about. If we bring a war resolution to the floor and say, look…

I would say that if I could show the gentleman that I voted 100 percent for the Constitution, would the gentleman still complain about my voting record being 90 percent, 99 percent in opposition? Being for liberty is not a negative…

And the language says, it does not contain words that in context can have no reasonable meaning other than to urge the election or defeat of one or more cleared identified candidates. This is where the rift is, where reasonable meaning…

I have an amendment that I am going to offer in Title I which will be designated so that the Social Security number cannot be used for the electronic personal identifier for any of the programs in this educational bill. The American people…

I strongly favor this, and I believe that the Congress should send a strong message that we should not casually and carelessly send troops around the world to police the world. This is a good way for us to get into trouble. Our national…

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…