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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

Rand Paul mocks his duty | Lexington Herald-Leader Lexington Herald Leader Kentucky's Sen. Rand Paul mocks his duty and our democracy by flippantly claiming that Congress cannot investigate the meltdown crisis of the Trump ... and more »

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

WASHINGTON

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul is quickly positioning himself again as a starkly independent Republican, the sort of political branding that fueled his presidential campaign last year.

Paul has a clearly conservative voting record. But just six weeks into the new Congress, he's taken some high-profile steps away from party orthodoxy.

He didn't get very far in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination last year. But he stood out then, and is trying to stand out now, by breaking with the party on the same issues where he attracted a following, particularly among the GOP's libertarian wing.

"I think he was trying to signal to his core supporters that he hasn't lost sight of or given up on the fiscal issues that propelled his movement to begin with," said Scott Jennings, a Republican political consultant in Kentucky.

Paul cast the only Republican vote against his party's first attempt last month to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He was also the only Republican to vote against Mike Pompeo, President Donald Trump's nominee for CIA director.

He's met with members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus _ perhaps best known for forcing a government shutdown and pushing former Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to quit Congress _ to discuss health care changes. And he offered his own health care plan.

Paul would not comment to McClatchy, but spokesman Sergio Gor said the senator "has always been willing to work with individuals across the political spectrum who share the same goals."

Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen, a nonpartisan government watchdog group, said Paul might be able to step in if Republicans turned on Trump or he became unelectable.

"I would fully expect Rand Paul to throw his hat in the ring," Holman said.

Paul continues to maintain his solid conservative credentials. The American Conservative Union gives him a lifetime legislative score of 97, the highest among Kentucky's delegation on Capitol Hill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has a lifetime score of 89.

Yet in a highly partisan, sometimes bitterly polarized Senate, Paul has proved willing to work with Democrats on issues where they agree, whether it's criminal justice, infrastructure, foreign policy or national security.

"I have heard people say that Rand is a well-liked member who has done a good job of cultivating relationships in both parties," Jennings said.

One of Paul's unlikely partnerships involved former California Sen. Barbara Boxer, a liberal Democrat. They pushed a bill in 2015 to change the tax code to raise money for infrastructure.

He's worked with other Democrats who are not ordinarily his ideological soul mates, and they embrace it. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said he'd introduced as many bills with Paul as he had with some of his Democratic colleagues.

Both co-sponsored a bill last year to block an Obama administration arms sale to Saudi Arabia over that country's airstrike campaign in Yemen, which has killed thousands of civilians.

"He's a real conservative firebrand who doesn't see relationships with Democrats as a sign of ideological weakness," Murphy said. "He's always been somebody who reaches out vigorously to Democrats, and that hasn't stopped since the election of Trump."

Paul and New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker have banded together in an effort to keep nonviolent offenders out of prison and ensure they're not deprived of civil liberties.

"He's willing to lean in and work together with us on it," Booker said. "I'm proud that he's a partner with me on that."

Paul has long been a staunch critic of the foreign policy that got the U.S. into a prolonged and costly war in Iraq, and he hasn't spared either of Trump's predecessors, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican George W. Bush. It's a position that endears him to Democrats.

"We are often of like mind when it comes to the hubris America has exhibited in the world," Murphy said.

That doesn't have to mean passing a bill, Murphy said. The Senate voted down their legislation to block the weapons sale to Saudi Arabia. However, they forced a debate on the Senate floor, and a few months later, the administration canceled the sale.

"I think the debate we pushed on the floor had something to do with that," Murphy said.

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon shares a passion with Paul for protecting the privacy rights of Americans. When Trump nominated Pompeo to lead the CIA, Wyden and Paul agreed that senators should know about Pompeo's proposal to expand a bulk data-collection program that alarmed civil liberties advocates.

Wyden, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sharply questioned Pompeo about the issue in his confirmation hearing. Though the committee and later the full Senate ultimately confirmed Pompeo, Wyden and Paul voted no.

Wyden said he spoke frequently with Paul and their staffs communicated, as well.

"National security is what we talk most about," Wyden said. "But our wives like each other."

Jennings said that in an era when Washington was known for its partisanship, Paul's work with Democrats and breaking with Republicans and Trump might not be such a bad thing.

"You're carving out a unique policy position that may align you with unlikely allies," he said. "It probably strengthens your hand when you're arguing on the Senate floor."

Or when you're running for president.

"He wants to shape the Republican Party in his own image," Holman said.

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Rand Paul in 2020? He's showing that independent streak again - MyDaytonDailyNews

In an abrupt and unexpected maneuver, Sen. Rand Paul no-showed at the 2017 International Students for Liberty Conference (ISFLC) in Washington D.C. tonight. The reason given by event organizers was that he was busy with an important Senate vote, but records suggestthat no such vote was taking place.

Wolf von Laer, President of Students for Liberty, claimed that Sen. Rand Paul couldnt make the conference due to pressing Senate business. However, the United States Senate Floors Twitter account reported that the body had adjourned at 1:54 pm in the afternoon, leaving attendees to speculate about the real reason why Rand didnt show up.

Recent controversial decisions from Senator Paulto support border enforcement measures and confirm Sen. Jeff Sessions for Attorney General had spurred ire from left-libertarians. It was heavily rumored that a large walk-out of attendees would have happened when Rand went on stage to protest these actions.

Pro-Islam activist Jeremy McLellan slammed Rand Paul after a taped message was displayed, claiming that Rand was phoning it in for the libertarian cause. McLellan, a purported comedian, didnt prepare much material, but rushed headlong into a diatribe of scripted insults toward Rand Paul. Afterwards, he went on his social media to boast about what he had done.

McLellans words were well-received by the left-libertarian dominated audience, who gave him repeated ovations. Meanwhile, Sen. Paul was treated like a reviled pariah, rather than a champion of liberty, by those in attendance. In fact, the lead singer of Trotskyist group Pussy Riot was much better received than Rand at last years ISFLC conference, even as she wore a pro-Bernie Sanders t-shirt. McLellans slurs against Rand were captured in their entirety:

The rest of the program consisted of a Muslim refugee activist appearing remotely to complain about Trumps temporary travel ban. The night concluded with a panel featuring Grover Norquist and Steve Forbes as well as a performance from the anarcho-capitalist rap group BackWordz. Many attendees were not pleased with how the situation regarding Rand unfolded.

The only reason I came to this event was to see Rand, Macomb Community College Young Americans for Liberty chapter lead Carlo Malaie said. I would have went to CPAC otherwise. It was incredibly disappointing that we were led on by the event organizers.

Even SFL members were disappointed in what took place.

I campaigned extensively for Rand, SFL campus coordinator TJ Roberts said. Most of the people I recruited for this conference attended because Sen. Paul was attending. Because of what happened, I feel like I was cheated and those people were completely mislead.

It remains to be seen whether SFL will providethe real reasons why Sen. Rand Paul didnt appear at the event. The Liberty Conservative will continue our coverage of the ISFLC 2017 as the event continues throughout the weekend.

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Fearing Possible Walkout, Sen. Rand Paul No-Shows Students For ... - The Liberty Conservative