What Rand Paul said, and what was done

“Mr. President, the bill before us contains the largest tax increase ever passed by a Republican Congress. Worse yet, the bill transfers the taxing authority from the legislature to the executive branch, an unconstitutional delegation of power.”

“The power was divided for a reason. Montesquieu said if you bring the legislative powers together with the executive, you will have no liberty. The powers were divided between the legislature and the executive so we could fight for liberty, so it would make it hard to raise taxes.”

“Madam President, as a member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I would like to recognize an outstanding Kentucky small business that exemplifies the American entrepreneurial spirit.”

“Madam President, as a member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I rise today to recognize Crume Drug Store of Bardstown, KY, as my Senate Small Business of the Week.”

“Madam President, I rise today to recognize Officer Josh McKinley for an extraordinary act of courage, compassion, and public service that saved a life and exemplifies the very best of law enforcement.”

“Madam President, I rise today to honor the service of a true American patriot, Terry McIntosh of Paducah, KY. At the age of 17, motivated by a sense of duty to his country during the Vietnam war, Terry enlisted in the United States Army.”

“Madam President, I rise today to recognize Sheriff Charles ``Chuck'' Korzenborn of Kenton County, KY, upon the occasion of his well-earned retirement from a distinguished career in law enforcement and public service.”

“Madam President, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Dan Caudill, a respected Kentucky business leader and a principled advocate for criminal justice reform, who passed away in December 2025.”

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, there are 40 trillion reasons why new spending should be offset by cuts elsewhere. We are approaching $40 trillion in debt.”

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, when we are told that we need to spend billions of dollars on a new program and yet we are unwilling to cut any spending from anywhere else, we should say: Well, aren't there some areas that we could all agree with?”

“Mr. President, there is no money in this bill for a ballroom. In addition, the pending amendment contains matters not within the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee and is therefore a poison pill that would prevent the Senate from funding border security.”

“Madam President, the DHS funding bill that we just passed in April included $20 million in funding for defense facilities' inspections. For months, Republicans have negotiated with Democrats to fund border security and immigration enforcement.”

“Mr. President, the DHS funding bill we passed in April included $257 million for the inspector general and $20 million specifically for detention facility inspections. Republicans are doing the responsible thing today; we are funding our law enforcement officers and making sure our borders remain secure.”

“Mr. President, what we have here is a failure to understand what is going on. We have been at it for 18 hours. There is no weaponization fund in this bill.”

“Madam President, the most recent assassination attempt makes approval of a secure White House addition more urgent. The National Planning Commission, of which I am a member, voted 8 to 1 to approve the White House addition.”

“Madam President, Paducah, KY, is a town of 26,000 people on the banks of the Ohio River, known for its barbecue, character, and community. At the heart of that community, for more than 70 years, is the Oscar Cross Boys & Girls Club.”

“The future of the club, however, is limited by something as simple as paperwork. The building that houses the Oscar Cross Boys & Girls Club sits on a 3\1/2\-acre lot owned by the city, constrained by a Federal restriction that prevents the property from being transferred to the Boys & Girls Club.”

“Madam President, reserving the right to object, I think the problem we have here is a misunderstanding, and it is sort of a false equivalency that somehow granting a boys and girls club a deed to 3\1/ 2\ acres they have been using for 50-some-odd years that was once held by the Federal Government and is held by the city--to let this boys and girls club have a deed, that that is somehow equivalent to a nationwide regulation with fines and fees.”

“But the other question and sort of the mistaken notion here is that somehow, when you voluntarily agree to give information, that that is something that libertarians object to.”

“Madam President, the interesting thing we hear--you know, because typically you don't hear it from Republicans--nationwide mandates on refrigerators, nationwide mandates on car manufactures, penalties and Federal punishment if we don't comply with the way of thinking that is prescribed by these bills.”

“Mr. President, Congress ought to fund border security, but we should be good stewards of the taxpayer dollars and fully pay for the $70 billion to secure our borders.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to honor the life and memory of Regena Triplett Jones, a devoted public servant, a proud Kentuckian, and a woman whose kindness left a lasting impression on all who knew her.”

“Mr. President, once war begins and American soldiers are under fire, a rational discussion of the pros and cons of war becomes nearly impossible. That is exactly why our Founders wrote a Constitution that demands a debate before the initiation of war.”

“Mr. President, a freelance journalist discovered recently that billions of dollars had been stolen from welfare programs in Minnesota. Congress didn't discover this theft; a member of the public did.”

“Many refugees are good people--frankly, some of the best Americans just got here--but our welcome mat should not be a welfare check. Anyone who sponsors immigrants or refugees should be responsible for their welfare.”

“Mr. President, we are here on the floor of the Senate today to discuss the War Powers Resolution, to discuss the recent war activities in Venezuela, and yet there still is a debate.”

“See, this is an enormous debate. This is an important debate, and this should not be sluffed over as, Oh, no big deal. The war is already over.”

“Mr. President, I want to thank the Senator from Virginia for leading this effort. There is likely no issue more important that confronts us as a nation, as a people, as a Congress, than whether or not to send our young men and women to war.”

“And, in fact, it is even more justified for the President not to tell us anything about the attack until afterward, if we have already given him permission to initiate a war.”

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, it is a naive notion to think that we will yell and scream and gnash our teeth and tell China: Quit selling dual-use materiel to Russia and that they will immediately have a sanguine face and say: Oh, of course.”

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, Lady Astor was the first woman to serve in the British Parliament, the British House of Commons. In 1933, she was asked at a cocktail party: Do you know where Hitler was born?”

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, designating Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism is a colossally bad idea, a dangerous provocation, and a roundabout way of allowing military strikes on Russian targets.”

“Designating countries or cartels as terrorists essentially becomes an end run around congressional war-making powers. The Constitution says we declare war. They say: Well, it is not quite war; it is somewhere in between war, but it is not drug smuggling anymore.”

“Mr. President, instead of a clean CR, this bill contains language that has been air-dropped in that will destroy hemp farming in Kentucky and across the United States.”

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I think it is time that instead of closing the government down further, we begin to open up government. What I will offer is legislation that instead of closing government down further, begins to pay those who are working.”

“Mr. President, in reserving the right to object, I think it is actually not clear at all that the President wouldn't sign a bill to continue paying Federal workers.”

“Mr. President, in reserving the right to object, I think the answer is to pay more people and not fewer people and to try to get through shutdowns without having people go without pay who are doing their jobs.”

“Mr. President, for decades, the globalists in Washington have led our country into one disastrous foreign war after another. Whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and now potentially Venezuela, the formula is always the same: Proclaim that the regime of the targeted country poses such a threat to the American way of life that the only thing we can do is go to war.”

“Mr. President, ``Taxation without representation is tyranny.'' This was the rallying cry of our Founding Fathers. This was the rallying cry of American patriots in the years leading up to the American Revolution.”

“Mr. President, the Federal Reserve pays both foreign and domestic banks to simply park their money in Fed accounts--in other words, to not loan money at all. Over the past 5 years, the Fed's big bank bailout amounts to over half a trillion dollars.”

“Reserving the right to object, there is nothing better in politics than to fake outrage. ``I am so outraged my program is going to go away.'' But you can vote this afternoon at 5 o'clock to extend your program.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to introduce a budget that balances over 5 years. My budget, the Six Penny Plan, the Six Penny Plan budget, cuts 6 percent of all spending to rebalance in just 5 years.”

“So even when Congress passes a budget, they seem to immediately renege on the deal they just passed. The numbers in the budget end up not being of consequence because the spending goes on unabated.”

“Mr. President, on August 16, 2025, at 11:01 p.m., Danny Lynn Renshaw, of Bowling Green, KY, and formerly of Madisonville, KY, passed away peacefully after a brave battle with lung cancer.”

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, diplomacy cannot be all stick and no carrot. There is no question that the recent U.S. strikes dealt significant damage to Iran's nuclear program.”

“Mr. President, in deciding whether to vote for the ``Big, Not So Beautiful Bill,'' I have asked a very specific question: Will the deficit be more or less next year?”

“Sometimes these predictions are off by $1 trillion or so because the economy grew more slowly or more quickly than anticipated. Bruce Thompson, a former Senate aide and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury writes that the Congressional Budget Office ``miscalculated the deficit [last year] by $1 trillion.'' So in deciding whether to vote for any big, monstrous bill, it helps to ask the right question.”

“Mr. President, the Constitution is clear: Congress, not the President, has the authority to declare war. The Founders were unanimous in proclaiming that the power to declare war belonged exclusively to Congress.”

“Mr. President, you know, there was an old-fashioned conservative principle that believed that less taxes were better than more taxes; that if you taxed something, you got less of it, so that if you place a new tax on trade, you will get less trade.”

“You know what, I have seen the way this place operates, and I don't trust either party. Why? Because I have seen the deficit and the debt grow and triple since I have been here.”

“I rise in opposition to the amendment. President Trump wants the national security workforce to work for our security instead of any other agenda. Federal employees already enjoy more benefits and protections than the private sector.”

“We are not at war with Canada. I don't even think we have real disagreements with Canada. They are an ally that buys more of our stuff than almost any other country in the world.”

“Mr. President, I compliment President Trump and DOGE for exposing waste and abuse in foreign aid spending. It boggles the mind to think that some in Congress defend spending $2 million on sex changes in Guatemala, thousands on an LGBT opera in Colombia, and thousands on a trans comic book in Peru.”

“Mr. President, President Trump has pledged to balance the budget. I want to help him. I want to help him with this task. But to balance the budget requires much less spending than this current bill entails.”

“Afghanistan, including fertilizer for the poppy fields grown by the Taliban. And yet, even after all that DOGE has uncovered--and I commend them-- Congress is still on the verge of passing a bill that fully funds foreign aid.”

“Mr. President, Senate Standing Rule XXVI requires each committee to adopt rules to govern the procedure of the committee and to publish those rules in the Congressional Record not later than March 1 of the first year of each Congress.”

“Subcommittee and to testify concerning the matters contained in the person's sworn statement, as well as any other matters related to the subject of the investigation before the Subcommittee. 16.”

“Mr. President, things are not as they appear to be, and in Washington, that is not unusual. In fact, that may be the norm--that in Washington, things are often not what they appear to be.”

“Mr. President, the budget bill before us instructs the Senate to find $342 billion in new spending. The budget bill, as written, is a spending bill. My amendment would add language to cut spending.”

“Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment. This amendment is unnecessary. We already have laws on the books to protect people's information. The most recent cases I can remember of leaking information like this involved an IRS contractor who illegally leaked the tax returns of President Trump, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos to the delight of many on the other side of the aisle.”

“Mr. President, rule XXVI, paragraph 2, of the Standing Rules of the Senate requires each committee to adopt rules to govern the procedure of the committee and to publish those rules in the Congressional Record not later than March 1 of the first year of each Congress.”