Free Republic

@RandPaul On @MeetThePress, I made it clear: America needs diplomacy over endless war, real debate before military action, and fiscal sanity, not $2–3 trillion deficits from either party. I’ll stand with President Trump when he’s right and stand up to government overreach when he’s not.

Amid a wave of U.S. military strikes in the Caribbean and plans for covert operations in Venezuela, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is leading a bipartisan effort to force a vote to stop President Trump from unilaterally declaring war on the South American nation. Kaine, a longtime proponent of Congress' powers to declare war, filed the resolution late Thursday, a move that will force the Senate to take up the legislation after a 10-day waiting period. Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., co-sponsored the plan. Kaine said concerns about war in the Latin American region are growing. "The pace...

The Washington establishment is once again working overtime to undermine the best of President Trump’s restraint-oriented foreign policy instincts. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which Congress is currently debating, includes three separate provisions that reduce the president’s ability to reposition or withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, Europe, and South Korea. The hypocrisy is blatant. Congress is content to avoid tough votes by abdicating its warmaking powers to the executive branch. It has not formally declared war since the Second World War. Yet when the President displays a willingness to end wars and consolidate America’s overstretched military, Congress seeks to...