Rand Paul Issues Blunt Warning About Non-Starters As Reconciliation Budget Bill Heads To Senate

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) discusses the reconciliation budget bill after its passage in the Senate.

Transcript

00:00Who's got a question?

00:04So what do you make of the House reconciliation bill that just passed?

00:07Can you tell us your thoughts and would you be willing to support it unless there are changes?

00:11The House bill is going to add about $4 trillion to the debt ceiling.

00:14The Senate bill adds $5 trillion.

00:17There's nothing fiscally conservative about expanding the debt ceiling more than we've ever done it before.

00:23This will be the greatest increase in the debt ceiling ever, and GOP owns this now.

00:28The deficit this year will be $2.2 trillion.

00:32The GOP owns that now, too.

00:34But if you borrow $5 trillion and you have a $2.2 trillion deficit this year,

00:39it means you're anticipating a $2.8 trillion deficit next year.

00:42There's just nothing conservative about borrowing $2 trillion a year.

00:46People are lost in this.

00:48I'm like, how much are the cuts?

00:49$800 billion to $1.5 trillion.

00:52No, what matters is how much comes in and how much goes out.

00:56What is the net?

00:56Is it positive or negative?

00:58And borrowing this money just isn't fiscally conservative.

01:01I've told them I can support the package if they separate the debt ceiling off and have a separate vote on that.

01:07I want nothing to do with that.

01:08I didn't vote for the spending.

01:10I didn't vote for the debt.

01:11And I'm not voting to make it easier on people who want bigger government.

01:14Senator, some of your House colleagues said the same thing,

01:16that they're not going to support the bill because it adds too much to the deficit,

01:19but then they ended up voting for it.

01:20Do you think the president could put pressure on you and others?

01:22I'm not persuadable to go against the principles of conservative government.

01:27I was elected and told people I wanted to come up here to try to make things fiscally responsible to balance the budget.

01:34And I'm certainly not going to vote to send things the opposite way and borrow $5 trillion.

01:39I mean, it is astonishing to me that any fiscal conservative has gone along with this.

01:44They do it for the lack of President Trump.

01:46I like President Trump.

01:47I'm supportive of him on many, many things.

01:50In fact, I like the tax bill.

01:51I supported the tax bill in 2017.

01:53Still support it.

01:54Support making the taxes permanent.

01:56Support spending cuts.

01:57And would be persuaded to support even an imperfect bill.

02:01But I'm not voting to raise the debt ceiling $5 trillion because that's not fiscally responsible and that's not conservative.

02:07So you'd only vote for this if they split it up?