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John McCain isnt the only senator who can toss barbs at a fellow Republican.

After McCain on Sunday criticized President Trumps attitude toward the press, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul castigated the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, saying, were very lucky John McCains not in charge.

Everything that he says about the president is colored by his own personal dispute hes got running with President Trump, and it should be taken with a grain of salt, because John McCains the guy whos advocated for war everywhere, Paul said on This Week.

Paul added that if McCain were in charge the country would be in perpetual war.

If you look at the map, theres probably at least six different countries where John McCain has advocated for us having boots on the ground, said Paul, who noted that McCain supported the Iraq war.

McCain on Meet The Press had earlier compared Trump with whom hes long had myriad differences and squabbles to a dictator.

"The first thing that dictators do is shut down the press," McCain said. And I'm not saying that President Trump is trying to be a dictator. I'm just saying we need to learn the lessons of history.

But Paul said McCains issue with Trump is less about the First Amendment and more about the mens views on overseas engagements.

I think it's more a foreign policy debate, and Trump and McCain are on opposite sides of that debate, Paul said. And I tend to sympathize more with the president. We don't need to continue to have regime change throughout the world, nation-building.

As far as McCains rhetoric saying Trump is trying to shut down the press, Paul cautioned against hyperbole.

I don't agree with his analysis and applying that to the president, he said. I haven't seen any legislation coming forward that wants to limit the press. I see President Trump expressing his opinion, rather forceful in his own -- you know, his own distinct way.

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Rand Paul: US is 'lucky John McCain's not in charge' - Fox News

Sen. Rand Paul said President Trump has made "big progress" on the conservative agenda as the Kentucky Republican came to the defense of a 2016 presidential primary rival he once sharply criticized.

ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl asked Paul on "This Week" on Sunday if he agrees with the president's recent remark that contrary to media reports, the new administration is running like a fine-tuned machine."

"Well, you know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder," the senator said. "And, from where I sit, we have done a lot of good things."

Paul ticked off accomplishments such as the repeal of a regulation on the coal industry that he said would have been "very, very damaging to my state." He also said the Republicans are "on schedule to repeal Obamacare. Big progress." And, he praised Trump's picks for his Cabinet and the Supreme Court.

"His Cabinet picks, from a conservative point of view, have exceeded my expectations. I think Scott Pruitt is going to be great at EPA. I think we're really going to do some conservative things," Paul said. I'm actually very, very pleased with where we are."

Karl pressed the Republican senator on Trump's credibility after he seemed to suggest at his campaign rally Saturday that there had been a recent terror attack in Sweden and he falsely claimed at a press conference Thursday that he had the biggest Electoral College win since Reagan.

"Isn't there a credibility question?" Karl asked.

Paul said, "You can analyze this administration" on two levels. "One, words and Twitter, another on actions. And I tend to look at the actions."

"Not everyone is perfect, but I think there's a lot of good things -- and we shouldn't lose sight of the good things from a conservative point of view of what's happening in Washington," Paul said.

As to the Affordable Care Act, Paul said the White House is still on board with his plan: Legislatively, I think we will repeal Obamacare within the next one to two months."

"There's a debate whether we repeal the whole thing," he said, explaining that "big-government Republicans want to keep 'Obamacare light," by retaining some of the law's provisions.

"The conservatives, we're ready for a fight. The House Freedom Caucus says they will not vote for partial repeal. I'm in the same camp. I'm not voting for partial repeal," Paul said.

The senator, once vaunted for his independent libertarian streak, also addressed speculation that he might be considering challenging Trump in the 2020 Republican presidential primary.

I have no intention of doing that, said Paul. My goal right now is to actually help [Trump]. He's the Republican president. He's doing a lot of things that conservatives are for, [that] I'm for."

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Sen. Rand Paul on Trump: 'Not everyone is perfect' - ABC News

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blastedSen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) Sunday, saying theU.S. is very lucky that President Donald Trump is in office instead of McCain during an interview on ABC News This Week.

The former 2016 Republican presidential candidate derided the 2008 GOP presidential nominee for allowing his personal dispute with Trump to cloud his criticism of the new administration. McCain on Friday said Trumps tweet that a biased media isthe enemy of the American peoplewas the sort of assault on a press press that could lead to dictatorship.

I would say John McCains been wrong on just about everything over the last four decades.

I would say John McCains been wrong on just about everything over the last four decades. He advocated for the Iraq War, which I think destabilized the Middle East, Paul said on This Week. He would bankrupt the nation. Were very lucky John McCains not in charge, because I think wed be in perpetual war.

In particular, Paul suggested that McCain dislikes Trump so much because the Arizona senator and the president vastly differ on their approaches to U.S. military deployment.

Everything that [McCain] says about the president is colored by his own personal dispute hes got running with President Trump, and it should be taken with a grain of salt, because John McCains the guy whos advocated for war everywhere, Paul added. So thats a foreign policy that is at odds with President Trump, and also the idea of engagement. The idea of foreign policy realism, I think, fits more neatly with President Trump. And with John McCain, the neoconservative label of lets make the world safe for democracy and were going to topple every regime hasnt worked.

McCain made headlines over the weekend for comments made during an interview which aired Sunday on NBC News Meet the Press in which he warned the president to take care over the words he uses to describe the press.

If you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press, McCain had said. And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. Thats how dictators get started.

The Arizona Republican took particular issue with Trumps Friday tweet that sent the mainstream media and Sunday talk show hosts into a frenzy.

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People! the president had tweeted.

McCainpushed the reaction to Trump's tweet far into hyperbolic territory.

"[Dictators] get started by suppressing free press," McCain added. "In other words, a consolidation of power when you look at history, the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press. And I'm not saying that President Trump is trying to be a dictator. I'm just saying we need to learn the lessons of history."

But Paul said he disagreed with McCain's "analysis," adding that McCain has a difficult time remaining objective when it comes to the topic of Trump.

"I haven't seen any legislation coming forward that wants to limit the press. I see President Trump expressing his opinion, rather forceful in his own you know, his own distinct way," Paul said. "But I see no evidence that anybody is putting forward any kind of legislation to limit the press. So I think people you know, this is colored by John McCain's disagreement with President Trump. It all is."

As Paul noted, McCain has been a frequent and vocal critic of Trump, his new administration and his policies.

On Friday, McCain told the Munich Security Conference in Germany that the U.S. was carrying out"an increasing turn away from universal values and toward old ties of blood, and race, and sectarianism" under Trump while showing "the growing inability and even unwillingness to separate truth from lies."

McCain, who refused to vote for Trump, also took a swipe at the president over his immigration and travel ban executive orders.

"I worry about the president's understanding of some of these issues and his contradictory articulations. And I think the rollout of the, quote, immigration reform was an example of a need for an orderly decision making process in the White House," McCain added.

For his own part, Paul has shown a willingness to work with Trump on carrying out his policies especially regarding the repealing and replacing of Obamacare, one of Trump's most oft-repeated campaign promises.

"Well, you know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And, from where I sit, we have done a lot of good things," Paul said. "You know, we've repealed regulations for the first time in 20 years using the Congressional Review Act. Three regulations that were going to cost the economy hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs. That is big progress. We're on schedule to repeal Obamacare. Big progress."

"[Trump's] cabinet picks, from a conservative point of view, have exceeded my expectations," Paul added. "I think we're really going to do some conservative things. Supreme Court justice, somebody I could have picked.So, I'm actually very, very pleased with where we are."

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Rand Paul: We're 'Very Lucky' McCain Isn't President - LifeZette

WASHINGTON Efforts of congressional Republicans to reach consensus on how to replace the Affordable Care Act got more complicated this week.

A block of House conservatives backed a proposal by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., putting into question whether Congress will preserve the expansion of Medicaid that insured millions more people under President Barack Obama's signature health care law.

At a press conference, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said conservatives are coalescing around Pauls plan to replace the law known as Obamacare.

Freedom Caucus members who want to get going on a repeal see his bill as moving the ball forward.

House Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said they are working on proposals to repeal the law deliberately.

"Health care is very important to all Americans. We want to get it right, and we've been taking our time to do that," Walden said.

In contrast, Meadows said Pauls plan, sponsored in the House by Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., is ready to go.

Its a definitive plan that addresses many of the concerns my constituents and constituents around the country have raised, Meadows said.

Paul said Republican promises to repeal the controversial law were a big reason for the party's Senate gains in 2014 and again last year.

We owe it to conservatives to repeal, he said at the press conference.

Their plan includes several ideas popular with conservatives. As Paul and Meadows envision it, the House will repeal all of the Affordable Care Act including a requirement that all Americans have insurance, expansion of Medicaid, and subsidies for those buying insurance on state-level marketplaces.

None of those provisions is included in Pauls replacement plan.

Paul said dropping the requirement on what insurers must cover will lower the cost of insurance. This legalizes the sale of affordable insurance, he said.

Sanford said the plan maximizes individual liberty and freedom," and government will not be deciding what is essential to cover.

Their replacement plan calls for individual tax credits up to $5,000. It also would allow Americans to put more into health savings accounts, up to $5,000 per year.

It does not replace Medicaid expansion that has insured about 10 million people in states that chose to take federal money to cover people who previously made too much to qualify for the benefit.

A number of Republican senators from states that expanded Medicaid, including West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, have aired concerns about endangering those whove benefitted. A spokeswoman for Capito didnt return a press inquiry about Pauls plan.

One key player, Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., said in a statement that he will review Paul and Sanfords proposal.

But Guthrie, vice chairman of the House health subcommittee, said he believes Medicaid expansion is unsustainable" and is developing Medicaid reform legislation that will protect the most vulnerable in a sustainable way.

Meadows acknowledged that a safety net may be needed for those insured by the expansion, but the Freedom Caucus wants to eliminate the program.

Additionally, not all Americans would benefit from the health care tax credit.

An outline of a plan released by Ryan included a proposal for a health insurance tax subsidy. Meadows said the Freedom Caucus opposes the idea of a subsidy, and a tax credit only benefits those who make enough money to pay taxes.

Increasing how much money can be put into health savings accounts only helps those with enough disposable income to take advantage of the tax-exempt accounts, said Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Eliminating a requirement that insurers cover such things as maternity care would return the market to the way it operated before the Affordable Care Act, said Pollitz, adding that it was hard to find plans that covered maternity care.

Dropping parameters for what plans cover also eliminates a requirement for coverage of contraceptives, which conservatives have opposed.

Meadows said health care savings accounts could be used to buy contraceptives - an arrangement that conservatives can accept because they won't be subsidizing it through their premiums.

Kery Murakami is the Washington, D.C., reporter for CNHI's newspapers and websites, including The Meadville Tribune and meadvilletribune.com. Reach him at kmurakami@cnhi.com.

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Support for Rand Paul plan adds wrinkle to Obamacare debate - Meadville Tribune

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Rand Paul mocks his duty | Lexington Herald-Leader - Lexington Herald Leader