Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) spoke out against President Donald Trump‘s $4 trillion “big beautiful bill” now sitting before lawmakers in the upper chamber, arguing the budget legislation is fiscally irresponsible.
The Senate is considering Trump’s signature tax cuts bill after the House passed the legislation 215-214 on Thursday. The bill also faced some opposition from fiscal hawks in the lower chamber, although House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was able to assuage some of their concerns with concessions on Medicaid work requirements.
During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Paul said that while elements of the bill, such as extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, have his support, he was worried about provisions raising the country’s borrowing limit. The House’s version of the bill allows for the debt ceiling to be raised, clearing the way for $5 trillion to be added to the national debt, the senator said.
“I still would support the bill even with wimpy and anemic cuts if they weren’t going to explode the deficit,” Paul said. “The problem is the math doesn’t add up.”
“Somebody has to stand up and yell, ‘The emperor has no clothes.’ Everybody is falling in lockstep on this — ‘Pass the big beautiful bill. Don’t question anything,’” he continued. “Well, conservatives do need to stand up and have their voices heard. This is a problem we’ve been facing for decades now, and if we don’t stand up on it, I really fear the direction the country is going.”
Because Republicans hold only a narrow majority in the Senate, Trump can’t afford to lose more than a handful of votes in his push to get the “big beautiful bill” across the finish line. The slim majority is a challenge for the president, as Paul isn’t the only senator threatening to vote against the tax legislation.
Others, including Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), have voiced similar concerns about the bill’s steep cost, worrying that it is “mortgaging our children’s future.”
“It’s immoral, it’s wrong, it has to stop. And so he [Trump] may not be worried about that. I’m extremely worried about that,” Johnson said during a CNN interview Sunday.
Johnson argued that after seeing government spending surge amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Senate GOP now has a unique opportunity to reset federal spending to pre-pandemic levels.
“This is our moment. We have witnessed an unprecedented level of increased spending, 58% since 2019, other than World War II,” he said. “This is our only chance to reset that to a reasonable pre-pandemic level of spending.”
Johnson’s and Paul’s latest comments highlight the divide among Republicans on the matter.
WILL THE GOP TAX CUT PAY FOR ITSELF?
In an appeal to Republican holdouts on Friday, former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich argued that to oppose Trump’s bill would be a vote “for a giant tax increase.” The president’s 2017 tax cuts are set to phase out unless Congress renews the policy through the legislation.
“I would simply say to all the senators, when you’re done amending and you’re done arguing, you have to vote yes because to vote no is voting for a giant tax increase. It’s voting to cripple the government. It’s voting to make it very difficult for President Trump to create the kind of America that he was voted to create. And frankly, it goes against the wishes of virtually every Republican who put the senators in office,” the former House speaker said.