BURSTAs the “big, beautiful bill” was slogging toward a final Senate vote, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) took the Senate floor to rail against the legislation package’s additions to the deficit.
“In deciding whether to vote for the 'big, not-so-beautiful bill,' I ask a very specific question: Will the deficit be more, or less, next year?” Paul asked, ticking through various estimates of how much the bill would cost.
“Even using the math, even using the formulas that the supporters of the bill like, the deficit will grow by $270 billion next year,” he said. “That doesn’t sound at all conservative to me, and that’s why I’m a no.“
Paul ended up voting against the package, which passed 51–50 on a tiebreaking vote from Vice President Vance. GOP Sens. Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Susan Collins (Maine) joined Paul in opposition.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the version of the bill passed by the House would add $2.7 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years.
Paul said he was a hard “no” on the bill unless Republicans stripped language that would raise the debt ceiling. He met in the middle of the night with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), and the GOP has discussed cutting the debt limit language as a last resort for Paul’s vote.
The Kentucky Republican had said he would support the legislation if it raised the debt limit by $500 billion or another small fraction of the $5 trillion that is needed to extend federal borrowing authority past the 2026 midterm elections.
Paul doubled down on his stance at several points through the morning after an overnight vote-a-rama.
“I wasn’t looking for favors. I wasn’t horse-trading. I was fighting for the American people and against our out-of-control debt,” Paul wrote on social platform X. “Bottom line: I offered my vote for fiscal sanity. Congress chose to sell out taxpayers instead.”