Rand Paul: No regs without congressional approval

Rand Paul, the GOP's Senate hopeful in Kentucky, wants to eliminate the power of White House officials to create rules unilaterally — a change that would have an enormous impact on a healthcare reform law that punts hundreds (if not thousands) of decisions to the Health and Human Services Department.

Paul, a Tea Party favorite running to replace retiring Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), said the current system simply grants too much power to "unelected bureaucrats."

"We have bureaucrats now writing laws," Paul said Tuesday on CNN's "American Morning." "I think we should sunset all regulations unless they're approved by Congress. And that doesn't mean we won't have regulations, it just means that Congress should be approving the regulations and you shouldn't have unelected bureaucrats making regulations."

That, Paul said, is just one among "a lot of structural things" Congress should change in the months ahead. 

"I see these as big-governmental reform issues and not just who is going to be in charge of this or that," he said. "Really, government's broken and that's why it's out of control."

Paul, who defeated the GOP's preferred candidate in the party primary, also reiterated his vow to take on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), rather than simply toeing the party line.

"We will challenge him from day to day," Paul said, "but I think there are also many areas in which we agree. 

"Most Republicans feel like we're spending too much, the deficit's too high, but sometimes when we've gotten in power, we've gone along and not really stayed the course.

"Both sides, not just Republicans, not just Democrats, have both shown themselves to be untrustworthy," he said. 

Election handicappers say Paul has a slight edge over Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway (D) going into Tuesday's election.