patrick.net

https://x.com/RandPaul/status/1899237461424746972

RWSGFY says

https://x.com/RandPaul/status/1899237461424746972

Links to X today do not seem to be working.

HeadSet says

RWSGFY says

https://x.com/RandPaul/status/1899237461424746972

Links to X today do not seem to be working.

Works for me:

Seven Republican senators signed on to a bill led by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the Senate’s president pro tempore, and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) that would require the president to give Congress 48 hours notice of new tariffs, make them subject to congressional approval after 60 days...

...

“It’s very hard to overturn a veto. … It doesn’t mean the battle isn’t worth having,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has not signed onto the bill, but has emerged as a leading voice against Trump’s widespread tariffs. “Win or lose, it’s worth the debate.”
Paul noted that he spoke over the weekend to a room of roughly 1,000 GOP voters in South Carolina, where he showered praise on Trump and his team but made clear that support did not extend to these extensive levies.
“But we have to, even if you’re supportive, question when millions of investors decided: ‘Wow, this thing is really going to screw up the economy,’ because these aren’t partisans. … They’re doing it to try to preserve their wealth and, for some, it’s their job,” Paul said. “These aren’t dumb people. These are millions of people who all came to the same conclusion. I think we do need to be worried about it.”

RWSGFY says

when millions of investors decided

Millions? Maybe just the top 10% that own 93% of all stocks.

RWSGFY says

“These aren’t dumb people.

Yep, which is why we never had the dotcom bubble or crashes before.

HeadSet says

RWSGFY says

when millions of investors decided

Millions? Maybe just the top 10% that own 93% of all stocks.

10% of what? 10% of US population is millions (~30). 10% of stock owners in the US is millions (~16). So yeah, millions.

Somebody has to stand up and yell, 'the emperor has no clothes.' Everybody is falling in lockstep on this -- 'Pass the big beautiful bill. Don't question anything.' Well, conservatives do need to stand up and have their voices heard ... if we don't stand up on it, I really fear the direction the country is going.

-- Rand Paul

RWSGFY says

Somebody has to stand up and yell, 'the emperor has no clothes.' Everybody is falling in lockstep on this -- 'Pass the big beautiful bill. Don't question anything.' Well, conservatives do need to stand up and have their voices heard ... if we don't stand up on it, I really fear the direction the country is going.

-- Rand Paul

Is he talking about himself? He's the epitome of the emperor has no clothes. He's the Bernie Sanders of the right. And no, I don't like neocons either.

Fact is no one in congress is getting a damn thing done. Right or wrong at least someone is trying to see what shit sticks to the wall with Trumps approach. I'll take that over a brain dead Biden that literally did nothing for 4 years. Same with Congress. Our judiciary is going to shit.

Would anyone want Kamala? If you run a business and the tariffs are a problem, adjust, don't whine like a little bitch. Harris would have been exponentially worse.

Change takes time. Sometimes change hurts. Sometimes there's mistakes. At least someone is doing something in government for the first time in 4 years.

https://slaynews.com/news/rand-paul-still-refusing-support-trump-big-beautiful-bill-5t-debt-increase/

Rand Paul Still Refusing to Support Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Over $5T Debt Increase

As Congress races to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is once again standing firm against what he sees as a betrayal of core Republican values.

Paul appears to be emerging as one of the last fiscal conservatives in Washington as he raises concerns over America’s spiraling national debt.

The Republican from Kentucky told reporters this week that he cannot support the bill in its current form, primarily because it includes a staggering $5 trillion increase in the national debt ceiling — the largest single jump in U.S. history.

“If you increase the ceiling [by] $5 trillion, you’ll meet that,” Paul warned. ...

“If they were to separate out and take the debt ceiling off, I could consider the rest of it.”

Paul blasted his own party for what he described as embracing “Biden-GOP spending levels.”

Though Republicans campaigned against Bidenomics, Paul pointed out that when push came to shove, they renewed Biden’s spending in March.

https://reason.com/2025/06/03/its-rand-paul-and-elon-musk-vs-donald-trump-over-the-big-beautiful-bill/

Trump slammed Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) in a Tuesday morning post on Truth Social that accused the senator of having "very little understanding" of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill (BBB), which the House passed last week. The bill would extend the 2017 personal income tax cuts and includes a number of new tax and spending provisions.

Trump wrote that the bill is a big "WINNER." He may see it that way, but every independent assessment of the package says it will add at least $3 trillion to the long-term deficit (and potentially as much as $5 trillion). That means the bill is doing the opposite of what Trump vowed to do in March during his speech to Congress, when he promised to balance the budget.

The prospect of that increased borrowing is at the root of Paul's objections. In a post on X, Paul seemingly responded to Trump's criticism by showing that he understands exactly what the BBB would do.

"The math doesn't add up," Paul wrote. "I'm not supporting a bill that increases the debt by $5 [trillion]. I refuse to support maintaining Biden spending levels."

Paul reiterated his view on the bill: He wants to extend the 2017 tax cuts, but in such a way that does not add to the deficit. In his posts on Tuesday, Paul added that "at least 4 of us in the Senate feel this way." Four GOP votes against the bill would be enough to block its passage through the Senate.

Musk, who officially departed from his role in the White House last week, jumped into the debate to criticize the bill. "I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination," Musk wrote. "Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it."

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R–La.), who shepherded the BBB through the House last week, told The Hill that Musk was "terribly wrong" to criticize the bill. Other conservatives suggested that Musk was motivated more by the loss of tax credits that benefit Tesla than by genuine concern about the deficit.

Musk's motivations might not be pure, but that doesn't mean he's wrong. In a follow-up post on X, he wrote that "Congress is making America bankrupt." No lies detected there—and the BBB will make that situation worse.

The reluctance to do anything about the deficit spending is due to:
1. the short-term hit that lower spending would have on the economy
2. the influence of lobbyists, foremost among them weapons makers

Let me know if I got that wrong somehow.

Kill shot on Rand claim by Miller.

Note the date.

After years of Biden importing 10-20M illegals, Rand only wanted the criminals deported, and the rest given amnesty.

Not in the ancient past, but January 2025.

https://x.com/SenRandPaul/status/1939782332413563154

@SenRandPaul I am currently working with @FBIDirectorKash to investigate Fauci malfeasance in office. The FBI concluded, with "moderate confidence", that the pandemic most likely originated from a lab incident in Wuhan, China.

Over the last six years, compelling evidence has emerged supporting the lab origin of the pandemic and unraveling a web of deception, the vast COVID coverup. We learned that NIH funneled federal funds through EcoHealth Alliance to support gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, research that may have caused the pandemic.

The coronavirus outbreak brought the world’s attention to the dangers of gain-of-function research. This kind of research occurs when a virus is manipulated to increase its strength or contagiousness—literally, causing it to gain a function.

Anthony Fauci continued to repeat the talking points of the Chinese Communist Party and insisted that SARS-CoV-2 spread from bats to an intermediate host animal, then to humans. A wet market in Wuhan, China, was allegedly where this “spillover” occurred.

That’s why I referred Fauci twice for criminal prosecution under Biden.

He may not have gotten many results thus far and it's a fair point of criticism (maybe he's too polite) but I'm definitely not tired of him because I would like to bring those to justice who perpetrated the covid terror. If you think about it, faucxi et al committed the largest mass murder in history, and one of the most egregious oppressions of civil liberties since the hey days of communism/marxism.

100,0000 fentanyl deaths in the USA in one year.

Man arrested 14 times stabs girl on Public Transit.

Rand Paul: "Have you read to Kill a Mockingbird?"

American citizens have the right to a fair trial before punishment, non-citizen's don't. So operations on non citizens are totally fine, other countries do that all the time.

Yes, on this issue Paul is wrong. We don’t need to detain and take to trial warring criminal foreign nationals…

Actually Rand, the Federal Government has the power to grant Letters of Marque and compensate the holders for sinking and seizing America's enemies on the high seas.

If Congress authorized their issue, the President would be deciding who to dole them out to.

Rand Paul and RINO Murkowski vote for a measure against bombing THE HELL outta Venezuelan drug pimps.

Lurch (!) sides with Trump and the majority.

DemoralizerOfPanicans says

Rand Paul and RINO Murkowski vote for a measure against bombing THE HELL outta Venezuelan drug pimps.

Lurch (!) sides with Trump and the majority.

I find it weird that US Coast Guard can't capture a fucking boat. I mean, don't they have helicopters and fast cutters?

Eric Holder says

find it weird that US Coast Guard can't capture a fucking boat. I mean, don't they have helicopters and fast cutters?

The terrorist drug smugglers have been known to put up a fight and they are armed. We tried being nice, but the safety of our people comes first, and don't worry the Coast Guard is still at work.

Eric Holder says

I find it weird that US Coast Guard can't capture a fucking boat. I mean, don't they have helicopters and fast cutters?

Why use the Coast Guard on the other side of the Caribbean?

And why let a Biden Judge toss the whole thing out or is such an asshole the prosecution goes with reduced charges in the hopes the judge doesn't sabotage the case.

Plus we'll end up paying far more in overtime, trial prep, incarceration than ordinance. Oh, and pay to incinerate the drugs.

Ordinance is cheaper and creates working class family factory jobs, not lawyer jobs. And is Biden Judge free!

1. It's cocaine
2. This is like saying "Long Beach doesn't make the Goods"

This is Rand Paul's "Fishing boat", where poor Venezuelans speed into the middle of the Caribbean with no purpose, no fishing equipment, etc. in a very low profile boat not conducive to anything but lowering visibility both eye and EM... with a bunch of blue barrels aboard.

We all know 3 outboards, no nets, no poles, near no fish-rich waters, is a most efficient way of catching fish.

Fun Fact:

No State has ever needed an official declaration to destroy pirates and smugglers on the high seas in all of human history.

And if we did it the way Rand wanted, with only arrests and trials, which would easily cost a billion?

"Hurr Durr the National Debt, can't afford it"

DemoralizerOfPanicans says

Fun Fact:

No State has ever needed an official declaration to destroy pirates and smugglers on the high seas in all of human history.

Rand shoots down Senator Kennedy's proposal to not pay the Senate during the shutdown, claiming he wants to pay "More People"
https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1986563287019143245

Very Libertarian!

Rand shoots down Senator Kennedy's proposal to not pay the Senate during the shutdown, claiming he wants to pay "More People"
https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1986563287019143245

Very Libertarian!

Rand votes to repeal some Tariffs on Canada
https://patrick.net/post/1385961/?start=-39#last

DemoralizerOfPanicans says

This is Rand Paul's "Fishing boat", where poor Venezuelans speed into the middle of the Caribbean with no purpose, no fishing equipment, etc. in a very low profile boat not conducive to anything but lowering visibility both eye and EM... with a bunch of blue barrels aboard.

We all know 3 outboards, no nets, no poles, near no fish-rich waters, is a most efficient way of catching fish.

I’m also concerned about the buyers. Why do we have so many addicts buying that garbage that there’s entire industry.

FortWayneHatesRealtors says

DemoralizerOfPanicans says

This is Rand Paul's "Fishing boat", where poor Venezuelans speed into the middle of the Caribbean with no purpose, no fishing equipment, etc. in a very low profile boat not conducive to anything but lowering visibility both eye and EM... with a bunch of blue barrels aboard.

We all know 3 outboards, no nets, no poles, near no fish-rich waters, is a most efficient way of catching fish.

I’m also concerned about the buyers. Why do we have so many addicts buying that garbage that there’s entire industry.

The addicts aren't the immediate buyers of whatever these boats are carrying. This is the black-market equivalent of BTB trade - wholesale to wholesale.

As far as why - ask the CIA ; they invented this. It's the triangular trade of the past 70 years.

DemoralizerOfPanicans says

"with a bunch of blue barrels aboard. We all know 3 outboards,"

So... the blue barrels are what? Gasoline for the 3 outboards?

The_Deplorable says

So... the blue barrels are what? Gasoline for the 3 outboards?

Yep! Apparently fishing requires the ability to go at high speeds, and we all know fish love the loud sounds of outboards.