Jennifer Jacobs

jejacobs@dmreg.com

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Ia. -- Rand Paul, the tentative national front-runner among Republicans eyeing the 2016 presidential race, kicked off a three-day Iowa tour in Council Bluffs this morning by urging changes to Social Security to keep it alive for people his age and younger.

"If you do nothing, there's going to be no Social Security," Paul, a U.S. senator from Kentucky, told a crowd of about 50 people at a campaign office for multiple GOP candidates in this western Iowa city.

Paul talked about the idea of raising the retirement age by a couple months a year for a couple of decades. "Now people say, 'You can't tell people that. They won't vote for anybody that's going to raise the age of Social Security.' It's for me! I'm not raising it you're on Social Security or close to it.

"But for my generation or below, we have to, or there will be no Social Security."

Then he chewed into President Barack Obama for his saying he's "going to have to act alone" to deal with the immigration crisis at the United States' southern border since Congress has failed to reach any agreement.

"Who does he think he is? I mean, really, he's just going to act without the authority of you or your congressman?" Paul said. "...You can't do it by royal edict. You can't have a king doing it."

Paul is touring Iowa from end to end in a Ford Expedition this week, testing his attractiveness to voters in every congressional district. On his fourth trip to Iowa of the 2016 presidential election cycle, Paul has scheduled more than a dozen public and private events. By Wednesday, he will have spent six days in Iowa this cycle as he works toward a decision on whether to seek the White House.

Paul, who has said he won't make up his mind until the first few months of 2015, has a tenuous lead nationally over the potential GOP presidential pack. He's followed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, today's Real Clear Politics polling average shows.

At the end of a nine-minute speech, Paul said the message he wanted to leave Iowans with was that they have "great chances."

"You lost twice to President Obama," he said. "You've got to get your friends and family out. You've got to do more."

Precincts have expanded beyond the old-fashioned sense, he said. "Your precinct is now also your Facebook."

Paul urged the audience to vote for U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst, state treasurer candidate Sam Clovis and Des Moines-area congressional candidate David Young.