Jennifer Jacobs

jejacobs@dmreg.com

Sioux City, Ia . - U.S. Sen. Rand Paul told Iowans here Monday afternoon that the threat of a president who thinks he can legislate without Congress on issues like immigration is "a great danger to the republic."

"It's almost petulance," Paul said in an 11-minute speech to a crowd of about 50 gathered at the local GOP Victory office. "It's almost like, 'Oh, I'm not getting what I want, and I have no choice but to act.' The arrogance and petulance of that ... I think it's a significant constitutional crisis that he'll be creating by doing that."

Sioux City was Paul's second stop on a three-day Iowa tour, following a kickoff appearance in Council Bluffs Monday morning.

President Barack Obama has expressed deep frustration with Republicans, blaming their obstructionism for tanking proposals to deal with immigration problems, and saying he'll act on his own.

Paul said: "When did he get elected king? ... He's got his pen and he's got his phone and he's going to act. Now we can have all kinds of various discussions over what we should do in a legislative manner over immigration. But the one thing that unifies all of us is: He doesn't get to do this by himself."

Paul, the tentative national front-runner among Republicans eying the 2016 presidential race, traveled in a caravan of two Ford Expeditions along the western edge of Iowa Monday, from Council Bluffs to Sioux City along Interstate 29. Later Monday night, he was to speak at a fundraiser in Okoboji for U.S. Rep. Steve King. He's 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 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, Monday's Real Clear Politics polling average showed.

Asked by a reporter in Sioux City if he'll run for president, Paul answered with a smile: "Maybe."

"I'm thinking about it. I'm talking it over with my family. It is a big decision for my wife and I to make. And I haven't made a decision. I'll probably make a decision in the spring of 2015."

During his Council Bluffs stop, Paul urged 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, told a crowd of about 50 people at a campaign office for GOP candidates.

Paul talked about the idea of raising the retirement age by a couple of 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.' ... But for my generation or below, we have to, or there will be no Social Security."

Later in Sioux City, Paul touched on government spending and the role of government.

"We now spend $3.8 trillion. We take in $3 trillion. Sometimes people in the media will say, 'Oh, you don't believe in any government. You don't believe in this or that.' No, I believe in about $3 trillion worth. What comes in is what we should spend."

A 12-year-old boy named Sam Wessels tried to pin Paul down on government aid for those with autism, like himself.

Wessels said he had been speaking to politicians since he was 5, starting with Sen. John McCain, "including your father, great guy by the way, and the current president twice. And they all promised to help me, but after seven years, little if anything has changed. Can you be the one we can really count on?"

Paul answered: "I'm going to give you an answer you probably have never gotten before. ... Here's the real answer. Government's never going to find — and I'm not saying government can't help, I support some government help for autism — but the answer's going to come from scientists. And politicians get in the way of most answers."