Senate trashes Rand Paul’s plan to cut federal spending by 1 percent

The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected a budget proposal from Sen. Rand Paul that proposed cutting 1 penny for every dollar the government spends.

Paul introduced his “Penny Plan” budget, and was able to win a vote on his motion to proceed to the plan.

But most Senate Republicans and all Senate Democrats roundly rejected that motion in a 21-76 vote.

“Our insecurity is our enormous debt, $21 trillion,” Paul said on the floor. “This vote is a litmus test for conservatives.”

But his budget plan won almost no support from Republicans, as only 21 favored it, far less than half of the 51 Senate Republicans currently serving.


Paul’s budget plan would cut 1 percent of most of federal spending, except for Social Security, which amounts to a cut of about $30 billion.

In addition to Paul, Senate Republicans who voted for his plan were:

John Barrasso of Wyoming

John Cornyn of Texas

Mike Crapo of Idaho

Ted Cruz of Texas

Steve Daines of Montana

Mike Enzi of Wyoming

Joni Ernst of Iowa

Deb Fischer of Nebraska

Jeff Flake of Arizona

Chuck Grassley of Iowa

Ron Johnson of Wisconsin

John Kennedy of Louisiana

James Lankford of Oklahoma

Mike Lee of Utah

Jerry Moran of Kansas

James Risch of Idaho

Marco Rubio of Florida

Ben Sasse of Nebraska

Tim Scott of South Carolina

Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania

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