House Speaker Mike Johnson barely whipped together the votes to push President Donald Trump's "big beautiful" bill through the lower chamber. On Sunday, Sen. Rand Paul foresaw a similar fight in the Senate.
Speaking to "Fox News Sunday" host Shannon Bream, Paul worried that the bill that Republicans have been promoting as a cost-cutting measure would absolutely "explode" the deficit. Paul called the spending cuts in the bill "wimpy and anemic" and said the bill's "math doesn't add up."
"They’re going to explode the debt by — the House says $4 trillion, the Senate’s actually been talking about exploding the debt $5 trillion," said Paul. "That’s just not conservative."
The concern about the bill's deficit-raising extends well beyond Paul's libertarian circles. Provisions in the bill could raise the deficit so high as to trigger mandatory cuts to Medicare, on top of planned cuts to Medicaid.
Speaking to Bream, Paul worried that Americans would come to regret the bill in the near future.
“People are going to wake up in about two months and say, 'How come the deficit’s still $2.2 trillion?'” Paul said. “Where did the savings go? People are going be very disappointed...They’re not cutting spending. Somebody has to stand up and yell, the emperor has no clothes!"
Paul said he couldn't believe his fellow conservatives were falling in line behind the bill, just because it carries the gilded imprimatur.
"Everybody’s falling in lockstep on this. Pass the big, beautiful bill. Don’t question anything," Paul said. "Well, conservatives do need to stand up and have their voice heard!"
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