By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
Business leaders joined a group of House Republicans on Wednesday to denounce a tax on carbon emissions — a concept that they acknowledge has virtually no chance of being translated into law anytime soon.
Why, he's only the most true-blue conservative in the U.S. Senate, according to the National Journal's "Congressional Vote Ratings" released Thursday. The judgment was made by roll-call voting records alone. Sen. James E. Risch, Idaho Republican, has the most conservative voting record for 2012.
With the swearing in of the 113th Congress, the media has been proclaiming the death of the Tea Party’s influence in Washington.
Two top congressional conservatives rejected the notion Tuesday that they must compromise their principles to adapt to changing political winds, as both — the old and new chairmen of the House Republican Study Committee — said they will hold firm in the face of the Obama administration's agenda.
Washington was stunned Thursday to learn stalwart Sen. Jim DeMint will leave Congress in January to run the Heritage Foundation.
Washington is abuzz over whether House Speaker John A. Boehner is purging conservatives from positions of power within his caucus. In a closed-door meeting Monday, Republican leaders stripped plum committee assignments from four outspoken advocates of limited government.
Democrats expect to chip away at House Republicans' 49-seat majority in November, but GOP leaders insisted Monday that they've seized the advantage for the second election cycle in a row and will pocket four to eight more seats.
Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu denied playing politics in his handling of a failed half-billion-dollar loan to solar panel maker Solyndra LLC, days after newly released emails showed his department sought to delay bad news about the company until after the 2010 mid-term elections.
The first nightmare for John and Kathy Struchen, owners of Lanier Sailing Academy in Pensacola, Fla., was the fear of what could happen — tar balls washing up on shore, black sludge invading bay inlets — after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded exactly a year ago off the coast of Louisiana.
BP and the Obama administration are discussing a possible settlement over fines for the company's massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill in an effort to avoid a costly legal fight that would delay that money from reaching the affected states, a congressman said Tuesday.
A federal judge halted President Obama's deep-water oil drilling moratorium on Tuesday, telling the government its justification for the ban was "rather overbearing" and misled the public in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Rep. Steve Scalise, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, told The Washington Times that "the only thing worse than the defense sequester is not to have the sequester at all."
"It is the only way to show that we are serious about controlling spending," said Mr. Scalise, Louisiana Republican. "We can't kick this can down the road. It has been kicked down the road so many times that it barely resembles what it used to look like."
