By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution

Sen. Joe Manchin III, West Virginia Democrat, says the ongoing scandal surrounding the IRS certainly doesn't help his chances of winning expanded gun-purchase background checks.

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that President Obama violated the Constitution when he made a recess appointment to the National Labor Relations Board, marking the second panel to rebuke the administration and making the issue even more likely to draw Supreme Court scrutiny.

House Republicans cheered their vote on Thursday to repeal President Obama's health care law as the triumph of reason and public opinion over false promises from the White House. Democrats called them insane.

Two of President Obama's second-term personnel picks that have attracted conservative and business opposition moved a step closer to confirmation Thursday.
President Obama once famously told his supporters about political opponents, "If they bring a knife to the fight, you bring a gun." The gun turned out to be the Internal Revenue Service ("Outraged GOP: It's time to audit the IRS; targeting of conservative groups called 'chilling,'" Web, May 12).
Despite all the promises of frugality in Washington, the newest version of the farm bill passed by the House boasts a pricetag near $1 trillion and manages to send plenty of subsidies back to influential special interests in lawmakers' home states.

Two key senators said Thursday that Homeland Security officials should face discipline for their role earlier this year in releasing 622 criminal immigrants, including 32 with multiple felony convictions, in a move the Obama administration initially blamed on the budget sequester cuts.

Gun control advocates in Maryland were bracing for an inevitable challenge to a law giving the state some of the strictest weapons prohibitions in the nation, even as they gathered Thursday to applaud Gov. Martin O'Malley for signing the bill he shepherded through the General Assembly.

Democrats rallied behind President Barack Obama in the long-running, bitter dispute over the administration's handling of the Benghazi attack, arguing that the White House's latest email disclosure undermines Republican claims of a cover-up.

This month is the 100-year anniversary of the 17th Amendment that provided for the direct election of U. S. senators, superseding provisions of the Constitution mandating election by state legislatures.

Even as the Senate is pushing its massive immigration bill, the House is beginning to move pieces of the puzzle through its committees with a vote Wednesday to force the Obama administration to stiffen border security.

Over $2 trillion will be poured into Obamacare over the next decade but even that won't be enough, so the government is going to private health care companies and even lobbyists with a begging bowl.

"These are the tactics of the Third World." — Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican,on the combined effects of the Benghazi matter, the Justice Department seizure of Associated Press phone records and the IRS probe of conservative groups, before the Senate.

The Senate on Wednesday approved President Obama's pick to lead the nation's Medicare agency, sending it a permanent leader for the first time in several years as the nation inches closer to sweeping health care reforms. Marilyn B. Tavenner enjoyed bipartisan support at the committee level before the full chamber voted, 91-7, to confirm her as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Trying to take a positive step in the face of two controversies over untoward government intrusion, the White House has called on Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, to reintroduce a bill that would give more protections to the press when it comes to keeping their sources confidential, a White House spokesman said Wednesday.