President Donald Trump on Tuesday blasted Sen. Rand Paul after the Kentucky Republican criticized the massive Trump-backed budget bill over its provision to raise the debt ceiling by trillions of dollars.
Paul, a staunch libertarian, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that he is “just not open to supporting $5 trillion … in debt ceiling increase” that the Senate’s version of the bill currently includes.
Trump lashed out soon after, writing on Truth Social that the senator “has very little understanding” of the budget plan that the president has dubbed the “one big, beautiful bill.”
Trump claimed Paul does not grasp that the bill, which includes a slew of tax and spending cuts but is projected to significantly widen national deficits, will spur “tremendous GROWTH.”
“He loves voting ‘NO’ on everything, he thinks it’s good politics, but it’s not,” Trump said of the senator.
In a follow-up post, Trump attacked Paul in more personal terms.
He “never has any practical or constructive ideas,” Trump wrote, adding, “His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can’t stand him. This is a BIG GROWTH BILL!”
A spokesperson for Paul’s Senate office did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Trump’s posts.
The president’s heated reaction is part of a broader pressure campaign to convince Republican holdouts to vote for the massive bill, the centerpiece of Trump’s domestic policy agenda.
The budget package narrowly passed by the House last month would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, and add new exemptions on workers’ tips and overtime, seniors’ Social Security and more.
It would also impose work requirements for the government-run health insurance program Medicaid, and it would reform the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, that millions of low-income Americans rely upon.
The version of the bill that passed the House in late May would also increase the U.S. debt limit by $4 trillion. The version currently pending in the Senate would hike the debt ceiling even more, $5 trillion total.
The debt ceiling increase is “the main thing that I object to,” Paul said Tuesday on CNBC.
Setting the ceiling at $5 trillion is “an indication that we’ll borrow that much,” he said. “It’s an indication that will put the debt on the back burner.”
“I do want the tax cuts. I want them to be permanent. I’m throwing a lot of spending cuts, but I’ll compromise and get as much as I can,” he said.
“I’m just not going to take responsibility for the debt,” said Paul.
The bill is moving through Congress via the reconciliation process, which would enable to the 53-47 Republican Senate majority to bypass the traditional 60-vote threshold and approve the bill without any Democratic support.
But that also means that Republicans can only afford to lose three votes in the chamber.
Paul said Sunday that he believes there are currently four Republicans opposed to the package as it stands. But if the debt ceiling hike were cut from the bill, Paul said, then he would vote for it.
“I would be very surprised if the bill, at least, is not modified in a good direction,” he told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
