Rand Paul

The Federal Reserve is responsible.

In addition the NICS Improvement Amendments Act illustrates how laws creating new infringements on liberty often also impose large financial burdens on taxpayers. In just its first three years of operation, the bill authorizes new yearly…

I am going to yield 3 minutes to Mr. Rahall, but first I would ask how much time I have left after I yield the 3 minutes. The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Campbell of California). The gentleman from Texas has 25\1/2\ minutes remaining.

I just want to say that if the gentleman from Georgia does not want another huge bureaucracy, he must support my amendment, because that is what he is going to get. It has already been funded. Even though there is pretense that there is a…

This bill authorizes strong sanctions as well as funding to dissident groups inside Iraq to overthrow that government. In my interpretation that is the use of force, and I yield 6\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Ohio.

That is correct, there is no money specified for this. But on previous legislation, the authority exists for us to be involved in mental health. The particular bill's mental health services, it is on the books. The legislative authority is…

Once again, I want to make the point about the inconsistency of our policy. In 1979, the Taiwan Relations Act was put in place mainly because we orchestrated getting them kicked out of the U.N., so we had to do something, so we passed this…

I happen to believe that we have ignored for too long in this country and in this body the foreign policy that was designed by our Founders, a foreign policy of nonintervention. I think it is better for us. I think it is healthy in all…

This amendment is to urge the President not to use any funds for the International Criminal Court. I would like it to be a mandate. It is not, but it is still very, very important. I think this sends a message to our servicemen that they…

If the gentleman was to find out that China was much more involved in the Taliban and the terrorist attacks on 9-11 than anything Saddam Hussein has done, would the gentleman be willing to do to China what the gentleman is willing to do to…

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 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…