President Trump slammed conservative Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Tuesday for pledging to vote against his “big, beautiful bill”, accusing the Kentucky lawmaker of voting “NO on everything” and “never” having “practical or constructive ideas.”
Paul said he could vote for the 1,116-page budget reconciliation bill that passed out of the House last month if it didn’t include language to raise the federal debt ceiling by $4 trillion.
Paul’s comments sparked Trump to fire back on social media, accusing Paul of having “crazy” ideas.
“Rand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can’t stand him. This is a BIG GROWTH BILL!” Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform.
In a separate post, Trump declared Paul has “very little understanding” of the bill and doesn’t grasp “the tremendous GROWTH” it would unleash from the economy.
“Rand Paul has very little understanding of the BBB, especially the tremendous GROWTH that is coming. He loves voting ‘NO’ on everything, the thinks it’s good politics but it’s not,” Trump wrote.
“The BBB is a big WINNER!!” he wrote.
Paul says he can’t vote for Trump’s bill because he is fundamentally opposed to heaping several more trillion dollars onto the national debt over the next two years.
He told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that “the math doesn’t really add up” on the cost of Trump’s bill.
“I think they’re asking for too much money,” he said.
Paul warned before the Memorial Day recess that “the anticipated deficits per year now will be $2 trillion a year for the next two years.”
He said that Republicans are going to shoulder the blame for huge future federal deficits if they vote to raise the debt ceiling by another $4 trillion or $5 trillion to give the federal government enough room to finance its spending and debt obligations past the 2026 midterm election.
“I think the problem for conservatives is they lose their high moral ground. These will be their deficits,” he said. “These will be GOP spending bills, GOP deficits and there is no change in the direction of the country.”
Paul said the spending cuts in what Trump calls his big, beautiful bill “wimpy.”
“They got a $300 billion increase in spending for the military and the border,” he said. “We don’t need another $46 billion for a [border] wall,” Paul said. “There’s nothing conservative about this.”