By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
President Obama's nomination of Ernest Moniz for secretary of energy seemed at first to offer some promise for the hapless department.
Weary of waiting for President Obama to provide leadership and relief for fuel prices, Democrats and Republicans in Washington are boarding the bandwagon for the Keystone XL pipeline. Partisan politics stop at the gas pump.
President Obama has often used executive authority to get around Congress — and he has promised to continue that approach in his second term.
![** FILE ** Work has begun on the Keystone XL Pipeline near Winona, Texas, but whether it will ever carry oil sands from central Canada to Gulf Coast refineries awaits a decision by President Obama. (Tyler [Texas] Morning Telegraph via Associated Press)](http://media.washtimes.com/media/image/2013/03/15/20130117-195944-pic-543473233_5_mugshot_four_by_three_s101x76.jpg?38f271e3d49cdfd5d0ef8cac5cad23b117d14f23)
President Obama has often used executive authority to get around Congress. Now, a bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to turn the tables.
President Obama rounded out his good-will tour with a third and final visit to Capitol Hill, telling Senate Republicans he would challenge Democrats on changes to entitlement programs if Republican members relent on raising taxes.
The Senate overwhelmingly confirmed President Barack Obama's choice of five-term Sen. John Kerry to be secretary of state, with Republicans and Democrats praising him as the ideal successor to Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The Agriculture Department is responding to criticism over new school lunch rules by allowing more grains and meat in children's meals.
The Agriculture Department is responding to criticism over new school lunch rules by allowing more grains and meat in kids' meals.
Capitol Hill Republicans say yet another environmental impact study of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline is unwarranted and nothing more than a stall tactic by the Obama administration that threatens the project.
In the age of the Internet, when everybody wants to get his two cents into the debate and anybody can invent his own facts and rant in a blog or sometimes even a newspaper column, endorsements don't mean much. They particularly don't mean much coming from a congressman.
Pushed by budget hawks, the Senate Appropriations Committee has been searching in every nook and cranny for spending cuts, but it may have gone too far in calling for slashing nearly 8 percent from the budget of the government's chief watchdog next year.
Senate Democrats turned the tables and scored a victory Tuesday in a bid to pass $7 billion in emergency disaster relief.
Bashing Rick Perry has become real sport in the press. And no wonder. Journalists realize that the Texas governor could impinge on President Obama's re-election efforts and are acting accordingly.
Stories of people helping one another, often without being asked and demanding nothing in return, were a heartwarming counterpoint to the destruction from unprecedented flooding along the Souris Valley in north-central North Dakota.
Capitol Hill insiders say at least 75 percent of lawmakers privately still think earmarking is a correct and proper use of congressional authority. Yet last week, one of the Senate's champion earmarkers, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, hammered home the nail that officially ended the practice — at least for the time being.
Sen. John Hoeven, North Dakota Republican, urged Mr. Moniz to support a states-first policy for hydraulic fracturing meaning states would be the prime regulators of the burgeoning industry.
"Passing this Keystone XL amendment demonstrates with the clarity and firmness of a formal vote that the U.S. Senate supports the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and finds it in the national interest of the American people," said Sen. John Hoeven, North Dakota Republican and co-author of the bill, along with Mr. Baucus.
Bucking green pressure, Mass. Senate hopeful backs Keystone pipeline →
