Tag Archives: Rand Paul

Sen. Rand Paul: Graham/Cassidy does NOT repeal ObamaCare and I oppose it

Posted on September 20, 2017 | 1 comment

Rand Paul will not vote for a cosmetic repackaging of Obamacare. From Paul at foxiness.com:

No one wants to repeal ObamaCare more than I do.  As a career physician, there are few in Congress who have as much firsthand experience on all sides of the health care debate as I do.  I’ve voted for repeal.  I’ve sponsored my own Repeal and Replace plans.

But I’ve also led the fight to stop and block “ObamaCare Lite” plans offered in both houses of Congress this year.  These have been plans that have spent nearly as much money as ObamaCare, that left most of the taxes and regulations in place, and basically failed to honor our promise of repeal.

Unfortunately, they’re back again, and I must add to the list of ObamaCare Lite plans to oppose the new Graham/Cassidy bill that was introduced last week in the Senate.

In all ways, this bill is also ObamaCare Lite.  In no way is it repeal the way we promised.  I will oppose this bill as I did the other fake repeal bills, and I urge those who want repeal to do so, as well.

Make no mistake – Graham/Cassidy keeps ObamaCare funding and regulations in place.  Oh, it rearranges the furniture a bit, changes some names, and otherwise masks what is really going on – a redistribution of ObamaCare taxes and a new Republican entitlement program, funded nearly as extravagantly as ObamaCare.

Graham/Cassidy doesn’t repeal a single ObamaCare insurance regulation.  All of the Title 1 rules, the Essential Health Benefit rules, all of them – they’re still in place here.

States may grovel on bended knee for some relief to the federal government, with no guarantee of success and no permanent solution beyond the current administration.

I believe the president and HHS Secretary would WANT to do the right thing on state waivers, but I’ve already spent the better part of the year arguing with an army of bureaucrats and lawyers in the administration trying to get them to do something President Trump and I AGREE should be done – loosening up the rules on joining group plans.  This would be a huge change for Americans and a big fix for our system – yet they can’t get it done.  The idea disappears into the Swamp.  I’m afraid even the minor waivers of regulations envisioned here would do the same.

To continue reading: Sen. Rand Paul: Graham/Cassidy does NOT repeal ObamaCare and I oppose it

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Rand Paul’s Comeback, by Justin Raimondo

Posted on September 14, 2017 | 3 comments

Rand Paul rediscovers his principles and his cajones. From Justin Raimondo at antiwar.com:

He gets it – while all too many libertarians don’t

Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) has learned his lesson, and it is this: it’s better to be bold. He’s exchanged the mealy-mouthed equivocations of his ill-fated presidential run – when he actually met with Bill Kristol, presumably to negotiate getting a break from his neoconservative nemeses – with a full-on frontal assault against the War Party. As I write, he is standing in the well of the Senate, making the case for his amendment to the Defense Authorization Act that would nullify the Authorization for the Use of Military Force that gave the green light to the Afghan and Iraq wars and subsequent American aggressions.

In marked contrast to the carefully modulated rhetorical tone he affected during the 2016 primary – never that convincing to begin with — Sen. Paul seems to have found his voice. Here’s an excerpt from his earlier Senate speech:

“I rise today to oppose unauthorized, undeclared, and unconstitutional war.

“What we have today is basically unlimited war – war anywhere, anytime, any place on the globe.

“This vote will be to sunset, in 6 months, the 2001 and 2002 authorizations for the use of military force.

“No one with an ounce of intellectual honesty believes these authorizations allow current wars we fight in 7 countries.

“Some of the more brazen advocates of war maintain the President can even fight war in perpetuity without any Congressional authority.”

A wonderful word, brazen – it brings to mind the brassiness of a whore and the wanton evil of a serial murderer, both being characteristics of the War Party and its camp followers. And certainly brazen is fairly descriptive of how, as Sen. Paul contends, the US Congress has failed in its constitutional duty to debate and vote on the many wars we have initiated since September 11, 2001. The War Party doesn’t want a debate, and that much was underscored when Sen. Bob Corker rose to table the Paul amendment, so that in the end the Senate never voted on the actual resolution but only on whether to cut off debate.

To continue reading: Rand Paul’s Comeback

 

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Posted in Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Government, War

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Only 2% of US Politicians Actually Want to Stop Arming Terrorists — Here’s Why, by Alice Salles

Posted on July 2, 2017 | Leave a comment

Here’s a surprise: the answer boils down to money. From Alice Salles at theantimedia.org:

(ANTIMEDIA) — One of the few elected Democratic lawmakers with an extensive anti-war record, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), has combined forces with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) to push legislation through both the House and the Senate that would bar federal agencies from using taxpayer-backed funds to provide weapons, training, intelligence, or any other type of support to terrorist cells such as al-Qaeda, ISIS, or any other group that is associated with them in any way. The Stop Arming Terrorists Act is so unique that it’s also the only bill of its kind that would also bar the government from funneling money and weapons through other countries that support (directly or indirectly) terrorists such as Saudi Arabia.

To our surprise — or should we say shame? — only 13 other lawmakers out of hundreds have co-sponsored Gabbard’s House bill. Paul’s Senate version of the bill, on the other hand, has zero cosponsors.

While both pieces of legislation were introduced in early 2017, no real action has been taken as of yet. This proves that Washington refuses to support bills that would actually provoke positive chain reactions not only abroad but also at home. Why? Well, let’s look at the groups that would lose a great deal in case this bill is signed into law.

With trillions of tax dollars flowing to companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and even IBM, among others, companies that invest heavily in weapons, cyber security systems, and other technologies that are widely used in times of war would stand to lose a lot — if not everything — if all of a sudden, the United States chose to become a nation that stands for peace and free market principles.

For one, these companies have a heavy lobbying presence, ensuring that lawmakers sympathetic to their plight are elected every two years. When the possibility of a new conflict appears on the horizon, these companies are the first to lobby heavily for action.

To continue reading: Only 2% of US Politicians Actually Want to Stop Arming Terrorists — Here’s Why

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They Said That? 5/15/16

Posted on May 15, 2017 | Leave a comment

Rand Paul interview with Maria Bartiromo:

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McCain and Montenegro: The Anatomy of a Conspiracy Theory, by Justin Raimondo

Posted on March 20, 2017 | Leave a comment

If John McCain has his way,  the US will be obligated to go to war to protect Montenegro? If you don’t see what vital interest the US has in Montenegro, you’re a Putin stooge. From Justin Raimondo at antiwar.com:

Sure, he’s unhinged – but so is practically everyone else

Just in case you thought the conspiracy theory that Russia secretly controls the US government is exclusively an affliction affecting the Democratic party, Sen. John McCain’s recent performance on the floor of the US Senate should disabuse you of this optimistic notion. Responding to Sen. Rand Paul’s blocking of a vote in favor of the accession of Montenegro to NATO, the failed former GOP presidential candidate let it all hang out:

“I note the senator from Kentucky leaving the floor without justification or any rationale for the action he has just taken. That is really remarkable, that a senator blocking a treaty that is supported by the overwhelming number, perhaps 98 – at least – of his colleagues would come to the floor and object and walk away. The only conclusion you can draw when he walks away is he has no justification for his objection to having a small nation be part of NATO that is under assault from the Russians. So I repeat again, the senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin.”

What’s “remarkable” is that this kind of lunacy is tolerated in the US Senate: I recall that Sen. Elizabeth Warren was rebuked – and silenced – by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell because she read a letter from Coretta Scott King that called into question the motives of Jeff Sessions, then a Senator and a candidate for the office of Attorney General. Surely McCain’s outburst was an even more egregious violation of the rules than Warren’s, and yet McCain was allowed to proceed uninterrupted. Perhaps this is an example of “warmonger’s privilege.”

In a later interview, Sen. Paul sought to explain McCain’s behavior as an indication of the Senator from Arizona’s advanced age: perhaps, he suggested, McCain is “past his prime,” and, by the way, “this is a good argument for term limits.” Well, yes, but in the current political atmosphere – where Vladimir Putin has been elevated to the status of a virtually omnipotent force who has the power to change election results and infiltrate the highest reaches of Western governments – it’s no crazier than anything else we’re hearing out of Washington these days.

To continue reading: McCain and Montenegro: The Anatomy of a Conspiracy Theory

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Is McCain Hijacking Trump’s Foreign Policy? by Patrick J. Buchanan

Posted on March 17, 2017 | 2 comments

In his dotage, John McCain gets nuttier and nuttier. Now he’s accused Rand Paul of being a Putin employee. From Patrick J. Buchanan at buchanan.org:

“The senator from Kentucky,” said John McCain, speaking of his colleague Rand Paul, “is working for Vladimir Putin … and I do not say that lightly.”

What did Sen. Paul do to deserve being called a hireling of Vladimir Putin?

He declined to support McCain’s call for a unanimous Senate vote to bring Montenegro into NATO as the 29th member of a Cold War alliance President Trump has called “obsolete.”

Bordered by Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Albania, tiny Montenegro has a population roughly that of D.C., and sits on the western coast of the most volatile peninsula in Europe.

What strategic benefit would accrue from having Montenegro as an ally that would justify the risk of our having to go to war should some neighbor breach Montenegro’s borders?

Historically, the Balkans have been an incubator of war. In the 19th century, Otto van Bismarck predicted that when the Great War came, it would come out of “some damn fool thing in the Balkans.” And so it did when the Austrian archduke was assassinated in Sarajevo June 28, 1914 by Serbian ethnonationalist Gavrilo Princip.

Aflame with ethnic, civil and sectarian war in the 1990s, the western Balkans are again in political turmoil. Milo Djukanovic, the longtime Montenegrin prime minister who resigned on election day in October, claims that he was targeted for assassination by Russia to prevent Montenegro’s accession to NATO.

Russia denies it. But on the Senate floor, McCain raged at Rand Paul: “You are achieving the objectives of Vladimir Putin … trying to dismember this small country which has already been the subject of an attempted coup.”

But if Montenegro, awash in corruption and crime, is on the verge of an uprising or coup, why would the U.S. issue a war guarantee that could vault us into a confrontation with Russia — without a full Senate debate?

The vote that needs explaining here is not Rand Paul’s.

It is the votes of those senators who are handing out U.S.-NATO war guarantees to countries most Americans could not find on a map.

To continue reading: Is McCain Hijacking Trump’s Foreign Policy?

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Lawmakers Want the U.S to Stop Arming Terrorists, by Darius Shahtahmasebi

Posted on March 14, 2017 | Leave a comment

Tulsi Gabbard and Rand Paul are cosponsoring legislation, the Stop Arming Terrorists Act. Who would object to a bill stopping the US government from arming terrorists? The US government, because that arming terrorists is what it does. From Darius Shahtahmasebi at theantimedia.org:

According to a press release released Friday by the office of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Sen. Rand Paul has introduced their bill, the Stop Arming Terrorists Act, in the U.S. Senate. The bipartisan legislation (H.R.608 and S.532) aims to prohibit any federal agency from using taxpayer dollars to provide weapons, cash, intelligence, or any support to al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other terrorist groups. It would also prohibit the government from funneling money and weapons through other countries that are directly or indirectly supporting terrorists.

“For years, the U.S. government has been supporting armed militant groups working directly with and often under the command of terrorist groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda in their fight to overthrow the Syrian government. Rather than spending trillions of dollars on regime change wars in the Middle East, we should be focused on defeating terrorist groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda, and using our resources to invest in rebuilding our communities here at home.”

She continued:

“The fact that American taxpayer dollars are being used to strengthen the very terrorist groups we should be focused on defeating should alarm every Member of Congress and every American. We call on our colleagues and the Administration to join us in passing this legislation.

Rand Paul provided much-needed support for the bill, stating:

“One of the unintended consequences of nation-building and open-ended intervention is American funds and weapons benefiting those who hate us. This legislation will strengthen our foreign policy, enhance our national security, and safeguard our resources.”

The legislation is currently co-sponsored by Reps. John Conyers (D-MI); Scott Perry (R-PA); Peter Welch (D-VT; Tom Garrett (R-VA); Thomas Massie (R-KY); Barbara Lee (D-CA); Walter Jones (R-NC); Ted Yoho (R-FL); and Paul Gosar (R-AZ). It is endorsed by Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), Veterans for Peace, and the U.S. Peace Council.

To continue reading: Lawmakers Want the U.S to Stop Arming Terrorists

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The War Economy – CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Warns About Job Loss if the U.S. Stops Arming Saudi Arabia, by Michael Krieger

Posted on September 9, 2016 | Leave a comment

Talk about supporting evidence for SLL’s recent contention in “Corrupt and Deranged,” that modern military and armaments spending is basically a welfare program! From Michael Krieger at libertyblitzkrieg.com:

Ladies and gentlemen, it appears the long anticipated moment of peak mainstream media stupidity may have finally arrived.

This is what passes for journalism in America today.

The Intercept reports:

Sen. Rand Paul’s expression of opposition to a $1.1 billion U.S. arms sale to Saudi Arabia — which has been brutally bombing civilian targets in Yemen using U.S.-made weapons for more than a year now — alarmed CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Thursday afternoon.

Blitzer’s concern: That stopping the sale could result in fewer jobs for arms manufacturers.

“So for you this is a moral issue,” he told Paul during the Kentucky Republican’s appearance on CNN. “Because you know, there’s a lot of jobs at stake. Certainly if a lot of these defense contractors stop selling war planes, other sophisticated equipment to Saudi Arabia, there’s gonna be a significant loss of jobs, of revenue here in the United States. That’s secondary from your standpoint?”

Paul stayed on message. “Well not only is it a moral question, its a Constitutional question,” Paul said. “Our founding fathers very directly and specifically did not give the president the power to go to war. They gave it to Congress. So Congress needs to step up and this is what I’m doing.”

Saudi Arabia began bombing Yemen in March 2015, and has since been responsible for the majority of the 10,000 deaths in the war so far. The U.S.-backed bombing coalition has been accused of intentionally targeting civilians, hospitals, factories, markets, schools, and homes. The situation is so bad that the Red Cross has started donating morgue units to Yemeni hospitals.

The Obama administration has sold more weapons to the Saudis than any other administration, pledging more than $115 billion worth of small arms, tanks, helicopters, missiles, and aircraft.

But hey, the Saudis aren’t really that bad, right. No, they’re just one of the most barbaric, inhumane terrorist supporting states on planet earth. Need some proof?

[For a list of links to earlier Liberty Blitzkrieg articles on Saudi Arabia, click the link below and go to the bottom of the article.]

http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2016/09/09/the-war-economy-cnns-wolf-blitzer-warns-about-job-loss-if-the-u-s-stops-arming-saudi-arabia/

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Rand Paul Backs Trump, Unleashes “Top Ten Things That Make Obama Unqualified” For Office, by Mac Slavo

Posted on December 11, 2015 | Leave a comment

From Mac Slavo at SHTFP.com, via zerohedge.com:

The White House, which is running a blatantly unconstitutional regime, is now attempting to vet potential successors to the Oval Office, and yet again take out opposition leaders.

First, Obama said that Assad lost all legitimacy, and should step down, and partnered with al Qaeda and ISIS to back up his opinions.

Now, Obama’s press secretary has claimed that Donald Trump has lost all legitimacy and has been “disqualified” from running for office. Just how does the White House plan to back up its opinions this time? Trump claims that he won’t be intimidated and exit the race, but one has to wonder how far the system will go to get its way.

“The fact is the first thing a President does when he or she takes the oath of office is to swear an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. And the fact is that what Donald Trump said yesterday disqualifies him from serving as President… And any Republican who’s too fearful of the Republican base to admit it has no business serving as president either,” Earnest said.

See video and details of White House press secretary Josh Earnest’s comments here.

Senator Rand Paul, who is also running for the GOP nomination, but who has received only a fraction of the coverage that Trump has, blasted back at the arrogance of the Obama White House, suggesting that President Obama should address his own “disqualifying” characteristics first:

Today I would like to put a mirror in front of the Obama White House and show them the top ten things that make HIM unqualified:
— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 9, 2015

Rand Paul did make a list of his top reasons, and tweeted them out in succession. Of course, there are many more examples that should be dealt with. Here are Rand’s reasons, listed on the Washington Examiner, or here on Twitter:

1. “Tried to take over 1/6 of the economy in Obamacare, wrecked the system and hurt patients and taxpayers.”

2. “Thinks an executive order is legislation and how you make law.”

3. “Fought an undeclared, unconstitutional war in Libya, turned it into Jihadist wonderland.”

4. “Fighting an undeclared, unconstitutional war in Syria, [and] trying to put ISIS in Damascus.”

To continue reading: Rand Paul Unleashes “Top Ten Things That Make Obama Unqualified For Office”

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No Peace Through Politics, by Dan Sanchez

Posted on September 15, 2015 | Leave a comment

Pity those who place their hope in politicians. From Dan Sanchez at antiwar.com:

They were supposed to be different: Republicans for peace, conservatives against empire, leading a grassroots insurrection to overthrow the neocons and restore the Republic. It was Mr. Libertarian goes to Washington. Mr. Frodo goes to Mordor.

Yet, when the chips were down in a crucial contest, they all folded. Senator Rand Paul and the entire Congressional “Liberty Caucus” (including Rep. Justin Amash, and Rep. Thomas Massie) have now all yielded to the War Party and ultimately opposed the Iran nuclear deal.

Of all foreign policy issues, this should have been the easiest on which to stand fast. Opposition to the Iraq War is an essential, distinguishing position of “liberty Republicans.” And in so many ways, the anti-Iran campaign is a rerun of the march to war on Iraq.

The same rogues gallery of Israel-firsters and imperialists are leading the march. The media are helping them propagate the same lies and hysteria over a fabricated WMD crisis and trumped up terror ties.

The same child-sickening and civil society-debilitating sanctions are being imposed. It is all with the same ultimate aim of bombing, regime-changing, and likely invading and occupying a Middle Eastern country that does not totally bend its knee to Washington and Tel Aviv.

And if not obstructed, it will again culminate in the chaotic ruin of a civilization, the killing of hundreds of thousands, the uprooting of millions, and a further massive squandering of American blood and treasure. Only this time would be even worse, because it would involve a nation of 77 million.

To put it in perspective, with these clear parallels in mind, imagine if President Clinton had tried to thaw relations with Baghdad in the 90s, which would have knocked the wind out of the neocons’ push for war on Iraq throughout and following that decade.

Now imagine if “non-interventionist libertarians” in Congress then worked against the detente that would have prevented the Iraq War: the worst disaster and atrocity of recent times.

That is how serious and unforgivable the opposition of Rand Paul and the Liberty Caucus to the Iran deal is. That is how foolish it is to rest your hopes for peace on politicians.

He was supposed to be different: a hero for hope; a champion of change; a one-man rebuke to the bellicose jingoism and unilateral arrogance of the Bush administration. President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize early in his first term on his perceived promise alone.

Yet, Obama only perpetuated and expanded the Long War that Bush began.

He launched a futile “surge” in Afghanistan that squandered over 1,500 American lives (74% of total U.S. casualties in that war ).

He had hardly “ended” Iraq War II before launching Iraq War III (the War on ISIS) over a handful of foreign-soil murders and internet snuff films.

When the Arab Spring emerged, he did not welcome it as an assertion of self-determination and a cue for the US empire to exit graciously, as some of his supporters might have expected their “peace President” to do.

Instead, when the Arab Spring reached the US client states of Egypt and Yemen, he supported counter-revolutions to reimpose dictatorship and restore their client status. And now that the new puppet ruler of Yemen has been overthrown, he is backing a vicious Saudi war to reinstall him.

And when the Arab Spring reached “rogue states” Libya and Syria (global empires see every non-client as a rogue), he co-opted, militarized, and radicalized the uprisings. He armed and abetted jihadists, sending both countries spiraling into civil war and chaos, and forcing hundreds of thousands to either flee into Europe or drown in the Mediterranean Sea trying.

On top of all this, he launched multiple drone wars (which have set precedents for the assassination of American citizens and the routine assassination of anonymous targets), imperialist pivots to Asia and Africa, and a new cold war with nuclear Russia after fomenting a civil war in Ukraine.

Far from fulfilling Hope for peace and delivering a Change in US foreign policy, Barack Obama has joined the likes of Henry Kissinger as just one more war criminal with a Peace Prize.

To continue reading: No Peace Through Politics

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