By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
Kentucky U.S. Senator Rand Paul says the now-passed Republican budget bill will make the national deficit “way, way more” than in the past.
Paul was one of the few Republican no votes on President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which passed the Senate by a 51-50 vote and the U.S. House of Representatives concurred with the Senate’s changes by 218-214 on July 3 with Kentucky Representative Brett Guthrie’s support.
Defending his no vote, which caused Vice President JD Vance to cast the tie-breaking vote, Paul said “the reason is [a] simple” one.
“[I]t adds over $270 billion to the deficit next year alone and gives Washington a blank check to increase the debt limit by $5 trillion—with no real reforms or guardrails,” Paul wrote in an email. “I offered to support the bill if leadership would drastically reduce how much it added to our debt. I didn’t ask for backroom deals or handouts—just fiscal sanity. Instead, they prioritized billions in targeted welfare for Alaska over a meaningful debt reduction.”
“There needs to be someone left in DC who…asks the tough questions—like whether our deficit will be more or less next year. Sadly, with this bill, the answer is ‘way, way more,’” he added.
Trump signed the bill into law on July 4.
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