Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., warned that “Obama-era deficits” would return as a deal reached by party leaders would ignore budget caps so they can increase spending and nondefense spending in an omnibus bill that is expected to be completed next month.
“Well, because it spends too much money, borrows too much money,” Paul told Fox News host Neil Cavuto when asked why he was opposed to the budget plan. “Actually, we’re going to bring back Obama-era deficits. I was elected to combat Obama-era deficits. I remember running for office and saying ‘We’re going to have trillion dollar annual deficits.’ That’s what we’re going to have this year. So now it’s Republicans in charge, busting all the spending caps. The Democrats are complicit. Both parties, the establishment, want to spend more money.”
Paul noted that the bill, which would raise the budget caps by approximately $300 billion over the next two years, requires too much borrowing and spending.
But first, Congress needs to pass a short-term spending bill to avoid a government shutdown at midnight, but Paul is holding up continuing resolution legislation to protest the budget bill.
“All Senator Rand Paul is asking for is a 15-minute vote on his amendment to restore the budget caps,” Paul spokesman Sergio Gor said. “He is ready to proceed at any time.”
Paul is delaying a unanimous consent agreement to expedite the process of considering the continuing resolution. This would allow it be passed ahead of the midnight deadline and a government shutdown would be avoided.
During his interview on Fox News, Paul decried how Republican values appear to change in terms of spending when they shift from being the minority party to the majority party.
“We think when Democrats are in charge, the Republicans are the conservative party. The problem is when the Republicans are in charge, there’s no conservative party.”
.@RandPaul: “We think when Democrats are in charge, the Republicans are the conservative party. The problem is when the Republicans are in charge, there's no conservative party.” pic.twitter.com/LwXmzCoIoI— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 8, 2018
If Paul doesn’t agree to the resolution, the Senate could take up the bill after midnight. This would cause uncertainty concerning whether the government would be open or not on Friday.
