Dr. Rand Paul’s Op-Eds

If you've read one of my Waste Reports, you know how much I hate when government carelessly spends your hard-earned tax dollars.With a skyrocketing debt surpassing $21 trillion, our leaders have to be more responsible with prioritizing our limited money to address our...

In September of 2014, I had these words to say: "The president acts like he's a king. He ignores the Constitution. He arrogantly says, 'If Congress will not act, then I must.'Donald J. Trump agreed with me when he said in November 2014 that President Barack Obama...

After a heated and divisive midterm campaign season, now is the perfect time to work together on an issue that has real bipartisan support: immediately stop future arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The horrendous murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the attempted...

It's time to rethink America's relationship with the Saudi Kingdom.It is no surprise to most Americans that we help arm, train, equip and otherwise prop up the government of Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have long bought and paid for many politicians and for an image of...

By now you've seen the headlines: An American resident, a Saudi Arabian journalist who wrote for The Washington Post, has gone missing abroad and is presumed dead. Jamal Khashoggi was last seen walking into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and Turkish security...

"Made in America" has meant a lot of things over the years, and it can mean different things depending on your perspective. Unfortunately, if you live in Yemen, you are the latest in a long line of places for whom that phrase means war, weapons and destruction.One of...

On my recent trip to Russia, I spent an hour with Mikhail Gorbachev. I told him that in the West we are grateful that he and President Ronald Reagan defied Cold War orthodoxy to significantly reduce our countries' nuclear arms. And I asked him whether there was a...

If you had five minutes to speak before the secretary of Defense, what would you say?At this point, I'm sure, if Gen. James Mattis is reading this, he is probably muttering to himself: "Here we go again."You see, every time I run into the secretary of Defense, I try...

Clear evidence concerning the bias of multiple, high-ranking current and former intelligence community officials should make us think twice about letting retired intelligence officials keep access to classified information, especially if they become talking heads on...

Whether or not to expand NATO is a question that deserves debate. Would it help or hurt U.S. national security?Does adding countries such as Albania and Montenegro increase our security or ensnare us in possible regional disputes? Are we willing to risk war with...

We know that in the early 2000s, Gina Haspel's CIA was rendering accused terrorists to unfathomable torture in Syria, as well as Egypt and Jordan. And we know that in 2005, Haspel herself was busy ordering the destruction of evidence of her involvement in the...

In the near future, Congress will debate a new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). I use the word "debate" lightly. So far, no hearings have been scheduled, and no testimony is likely to be heard unless something changes. That's a shame, because this is a...

Once upon a time, there were fiscally conservative Republicans. It is said that when Republicans are out of power, they are the conservative party, but when Republicans are in the majority, there is no conservative party. Virtually every Republican you meet travels...

Despite overwhelming support from the American people for action, and a grassroots push that has led to multiple victories in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate has so far failed to follow the lead of our colleagues across the Capitol to Audit the Fed.So...

Over the past several days, there has been an increasingly granular debate about the degree of Gina Haspel's participation in the torturing of detainees at the CIA's Thailand "black site," with neocons going out of their way to try to defend the president's choice to...

Since President Trump took office, our country finally seems to be heading in the right direction. In just the past year, the American people have seen enormous tax cuts, more judges appointed who take the Constitution seriously, relief from the massive regulatory...

The neocons have been so completely and regularly wrong for decades now that it's almost unimaginable to believe they would ever be in a position to advise a president again - let alone to wield the kind of power they will have if they lead some of our nation's most...

How many times have you been told that fighting for a cause you hold dear won't make any difference in Washington? That politicians will do what they want, and we'll just have to keep dealing with it?As someone who believes the Constitution matters, and liberty isn't...

Intelligence agency leaders are waging an all-out public relations campaign in support of their favored surveillance authority, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which expires at the end of this year. But at the same time they demand...

What will happen now that the Obamacare repeal has failed? The same thing that was already happening: Premiums will skyrocket. Insurers will exit, leaving monopolies or vacuums, and Americans will have less choice.How did the GOP lose its nerve and run away from...