Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is using President Trump’s legislative agenda to “secretly explode” the Pentagon’s budget by adding $150 billion in military spending onto the national debt.
“This bill is going to spend $300 billion in the first two years … $300 billion on military and border,” Paul, a critic of the House-passed version of the GOP mega bill, told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow in an interview on Wednesday.
Paul said the spending cuts in the bill amount to $1.5 trillion over 10 years or about $150 billion per year.
“In the first year or two you will barely offset the new spending. This bill is really a vehicle for Lindsey Graham to secretly explode … the military budget. They want to explode the military budget beyond that cap, that’s really what this bill is about,” Paul argued.
“If the new spending weren’t in there, it truly would be a bill that would be saving money,” he added.
Paul compared lawmakers on Capitol Hill to teenagers maxing out a credit card they got from their parents on “booze and gambling.”
“Congress is worse than a bunch of drunken teenagers,” he said.
The House-passed bill includes $150 billion in new funding for defense and $150 billion to secure U.S. borders and beef up immigration enforcement actions within the country.
Paul said earlier this week that he strongly opposes raising the debt ceiling, which would be hiked by $4 trillion under the current legislation.
On Tuesday, President Trump said in a post on Truth Social that “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,” the president added. “This is a BIG GROWTH BILL!”
