Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul responded to criticism from President Trump over his opposition to the spending in the “One Big, Beautiful” budget reconciliation package currently waiting to be edited by the Senate. “The biggest objection I have to the bill is adding $ 5 trillion to the debt ceiling. I’m actually very supportive of the tax cuts. I don’t accept the CBO’s notion that the tax cuts will lead to deficits. The reason I believe there will be more deficits is that they are raising the debt ceiling by $ 5 trillion,” Paul said during an interview this morning with FBN’s Stuart Varney. “Something doesn’t really add up here, and I can’t be on record as being one who supports increasing the debt by $ 5 trillion.” Paul made the same case during an appearance on CNBC this morning:

The math doesn't add up. I'm not supporting a bill that increases the debt by $ 5T. I refuse to support maintaining Biden spending levels. pic.twitter.com/GRnipwniwi

– Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 3, 2025

President Trump wrote on Truth Social this morning: 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!”

STUART VARNEY: President Trump reiterated the timeline for his big debt ceiling bill. He wants it on his desk and signed by July 4. In a separate post, Trump said there’s a false narrative about spending in this bill. He says that it is the “single biggest spending cut in history by far.” Kentucky Senator Rand Paul joins me now. Mr. Senator, I know you want more spending cuts included in the bill. Can you tell us what specifically you’d want to cut? SEN. RAND PAUL: Yeah, it’s even more than that. The biggest objection I have to the bill is adding $ 5 trillion to the debt ceiling. I’m actually very supportive of the tax cuts. I don’t accept the CBO notion that the tax cuts will lead to deficits. The reason I believe there will be more deficits is that they are raising the debt ceiling by $ 5 trillion. We know that this year, most Republicans- not me- voted to continue the Biden spending levels in March, so we’re going to go through September of this year, and the deficit for this year will be over $ 2 trillion. If you’re borrowing $ 5 trillion, that makes me think you’ll add over $ 2 trillion-maybe $ 2.8 trillion-next year, so it doesn’t show me you’ve turned around. If you look at the spending cuts, it’s complicated because it’s $ 1.5 trillion-that sounds like an enormous number, but it’s over ten years, and $ 150 billion a year. They are also increasing spending for the military and the border by $ 300 billion. That’s actually more than all of those cuts that we found so far. So something doesn’t really add up here, and I can’t be on record as being one who supports increasing the debt by $ 5 trillion. I think that’s irresponsible, and the bond markets are already starting to show they are skittish over this. We’ve got interest rates of over 5 percent on the ten-year bond. There are real problems we face as a country, and we can’t just blindly go on the way we have in the past. STUART VARNEY: Would you offer any kind of compromise? You don’t want to raise the debt ceiling by $ 5 trillion-would you okay it for an extra $ 2 trillion or $ 3 trillion? Would you compromise? RAND PAUL: Yeah, I have offered a compromise, and the compromise I offered was in the form of an amendment recently. I’d give them three months-and everybody says, Oh, that’s not long enough. Well, the purpose is to make them come back in three months and say, What have you done for the spending? Show me where you’ve cut spending, because in three months’ time, we’ll be rolling up on the deadline, and they will be presenting more spending again. So in three months- and three months is a lot of money, Stuart. It’s $ 500 billion for three months. I’d do it for three months and say, Show me now what you’ve done, because the history of this town is people making false promises. In fact, everybody in leadership on the Republican side says, Wait until after the 2026 elections. We just need one more election. Do you remember when they said that about Obamacare? Elect us and we’ll get rid of Obamacare. They flailed away and never did it. Same way with spending cuts. They’ll say, Wait until 2026 or 2027, and we’ll have spending cuts. I’m not waiting, and I’m not voting for $ 5 trillion in debt to see if they keep their promises. STUART VARNEY: How much support do you have in the Senate? Can you muster three, four, five, six votes for your position? PAUL: I think there are four people skittish about the spending levels-some are skittish about the $ 5 trillion. I think I’m the most vocal on all fronts, but there are more starting to come to this realization. I think, looking at the ten-year bond and looking at the bond sales being anemic-people not really wanting to buy government debt-the ratio of purchase-to-buy orders has gone down, so I do think there is some alarm growing. I think what’s really going to happen-and we won’t know this before the bill comes due-is second-quarter growth. If second-quarter growth is weak, I think there’s a generalized freak-out about these tariffs and about not doing anything about spending or debt. STUART VARNEY: What would happen if your measure is accepted, and you give them three months’ worth of debt-raising, and you come to the end of the three months and you still don’t have an agreement on how much more spending to cut? Do we run out of money? Do we shut the government down again? Does that happen? PAUL: You end up having another discussion over how long you’re going to extend the debt ceiling for. And it’s funny-people think I won’t vote to raise it. I already introduced an amendment to increase it $ 500 billion-my Penny Plan, which balances in five years, borrows money for five years-so I’m willing to borrow money as long as you’re willing to change your habits and show you’re willing to do spending reform. But they have to do it. In the past, when they haven’t reformed, the Democrats all vote for it, and the big-government Republicans- in fact, this will be the first time conservative Republicans actually voted for a debt ceiling increase, and the largest increase in our debt-ceiling history. I think it’s a mistake, because once conservative Republicans vote for this, there is no conservative opposition. They will own it. The debt will be owned by the Republicans. There is no more pointing fingers at the Democrats saying, Oh, they are the big spenders. It’ll all be on Republican shoulders, and I’m not going to be one of the Republicans-

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