Dr. Rand Paul’s Op-Eds

The Trump administration is increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan and, by doing so, keeping us involved even longer in a 16-year-old war that has long since gone past its time. The mission in Afghanistan has lost its purpose, and I think it is a terrible idea...

"Innocent until proven guilty" is the bedrock of American jurisprudence. Civil asset forfeiture, a legal process in which the government confiscates your property without a guilty verdict, turns that justice on its head.Take the case of the Motel Caswell in Tewksbury,...

This week, Congress will vote on providing needed emergency money for Hurricane Harvey, which impacted so many people across Texas. I sympathize with everyone impacted, including many members of my own family (my parents and siblings live outside Houston). I...

President Trump will today legalize and allow individuals to form Health Associations and purchase insurance across state lines. This is what real free market replacement looks like. Millions of Americans will be eligible to band together to demand less-expensive...

As Congress takes up the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), I will insist it vote on my amendment to sunset the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force.Why?Because these authorizations to use military force are inappropriately being...

Recently, the majority of Republicans and Democrats voted for a typical, all-you-can-eat buffet of Washington spending, including $15 billion in new spending added to our projected annual deficit of $500 billion. Only ten Republicans voted to offset the new spending...

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...

I favor the biggest, boldest tax cut that Congress can pass. I'm 100 percent with President Trump in advocating for a 15 percent corporate rate to keep jobs in America. I have been and will continue to be a loud voice for across-the-board tax cuts for everyone - rich,...

Is our military budget too small, or is our mission too large? Since 2001, the U.S. military budget has more than doubled in nominal terms and grown over 37% accounting for inflation. The U.S. spends more than the next eight countries combined.It's really hard to...

A military parade in the nation's capital? The last military parade in Washington was in 1991, after our victory in the first Iraq War.Though the martial image of high-stepping soldiers is not one I tend to associate with our nation's Founders' distrust of a standing...

Last night, for a few hours, your government shut down. Most likely, you slept soundly while this happened. The sun rose, and the world went on. The Government is open again. But the reason for and message behind yesterday's debate and action in the Senate is still...

One of the fundamental problems in Washington is the attitude that the money that people make belongs to the government. That's why you hear arguments about how much a tax cut "costs," or big government advocates disingenuously and breathlessly complaining about the...

As we start the New Year, I wanted to look back on a big accomplishment of 2017 and cut through the media chatter and disinformation to tell you exactly what happened and how you will be helped.First, I worked on and voted for a tax cut that will put $1.5 trillion...

I ran into a couple of GOP senators the other day. They were talking about the fall of the Roman Empire (who knew senators might actually discuss history?). One senator made the point that Rome's fall corresponded with a loss of values, which of course has some merit....

It has been said that Ronald Reagan observed that "the person who agrees with you 80% of the time is a friend and an ally - not a 20% traitor." I try to take this approach as well, and though I have disagreements with GOP leaders in the White House and Congress, I try...

The federal government's greatest constitutional responsibility is keeping America safe and secure. One of many tools in its arsenal is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which was meant to strengthen our ability to monitor foreign threats. Since the...

There are those who insist Republicans must act as a team to repeal Obamacare. I agree - if the topic is repeal. Every Republican has run on repealing Obamacare for seven years, and all but one voted for clean repeal in 2015. Now we have a president who will sign it...

Usually, when people can't win an argument on the merits or ideas, they resort to arguments that only make sense to career politicians, the only question is when do they start making these nonsensical arguments.  Those desperate to SAY they did something about...

Republicans will live and learn to regret the day they decided to retain Obamacare. Conservatives across America will not and should not soon forget the day Republicans abandoned any pretense of Obamacare repeal. By agreeing to retain Obamacare, Republicans desert the...

I remember a lot of outrage about two things when I first ran for office: Obamacare and the bank bailouts. Unfortunately, the Senate healthcare bill combines the worst of those two - this time, we're bailing out the big insurance companies. Why? Partly because of the...