U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., made headlines on a tour through the early-primary state of New Hampshire this week.

In one instance, he criticized the Social Security Disability Insurance program, saying at a stop Wednesday in Manchester, N.H., that there are people who are “gaming the system.”

“The thing is, in all of these programs, there’s always somebody who’s deserving. But everybody in this room knows somebody who is gaming the system,” a video of the event shows. 

“What I tell people is, if you look like me and you hop out of your truck, you shouldn’t be getting your disability check,” he said. “Over half of the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts. Join the club. Who doesn’t get up a little anxious for work every day and their back hurts. Everybody over 40 has a little back pain.”

The comments come at a time when the Republican Party seems to be preparing for changes to the disability program.

The Hill reported that House Republicans approved a change in rules last week that would make it more difficult to allocate payroll tax revenues to the Social Security Disability Trust Fund. The fund is expected to run out of money in 2016.

Democrats quickly attacked Paul’s statements, CNN reported.

Ray Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, told reporters the comment resembled one Mitt Romney made during his bid for president in 2012 that nearly half of Americans supported President Barack Obama because they rely on government support, CNN reported.

Paul also was in the news this week for comments made about the United Nations at an event at the Londonderry Fish and Game Club in New Hampshire. Bloomberg reported the event was closed to the press, though at least one reporter didn’t get the notice that it was closed.

“I dislike paying for something that two-bit Third World countries with no freedom attack us and complain about the United States,” Paul said, according to Real Clear Politics website. “There’s a lot of reasons why I don’t like the U.N., and I think I’d be happy to dissolve it.”

Paul took time out of his New Hampshire tour this week to take part through video conference in a forum at Sullivan University in Louisville about the REDEEM Act co-sponsored by Paul and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. 

The Record Expungement Designed to Enhance Employment Act would:

•set up a broad-based federal path to sealing criminal records for adults;

•incentivize states raising the age of criminal responsibility to 18 years old;

•provide automatic expungement of records for those who commit nonviolent crimes before they turn 15;

•and automatically seal records of those who commit nonviolent crimes after they turn 15 years old, according to a news release from Paul’s office.

“We still have, in many ways, two Americas, where people are treated differently,” Paul said during the forum, according to a news release. “I don’t think it’s on purpose, but people are inadvertently treated differently. The racial outcome of the war on drugs has disproportionately incarcerated folks. I think there is a whole world open to us to reform.”

— Follow government beat writer Katie Brandenburg on Twitter at twitter.com/BGDNgovtbeat