Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) tore into his fellow Republicans on Fox News Wednesday for considering a coronavirus relief package that could cost more than $1 trillion, calling on them to apologize to President Obama "for complaining that he was spending and borrowing too much" during his time in office.
Why it matters: Paul's comments, while tongue-in-cheek, underscore the divisions within the Senate Republican conference, where as many as 20 GOP senators are likely to vote against any coronavirus relief bill — even if a deal is reached between Democrats and Trump administration.
The state of play: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that she's willing to settle for a price tag of $3.4 trillion, which is the cost of the relief package that House Democrats passed in May. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Wednesday that he's "extremely doubtful" the two sides will reach a deal if negotiations continue past Friday.
What they're saying: "Republicans and Democrats compromise every day of the year to spend money we don't have. We were already running a trillion dollars short just with our normal budgetary expenses for the year. We added $3 trillion, now they're talking about another $1-$2 trillion. We're going to borrow another $5 trillion in five months," Paul told Fox News.
"They might lose this election because they are acting like Democrats now. I am very upset with my colleagues. They went 8 years. They should apologize now to President Obama for complaining he was spending and borrowing too much. He was a piker compared to their borrowing and what they're doing now."
Go deeper: GOP Sen. Sasse slams Mnuchin and Pelosi as "big government Democrats"
CrudelyAnimated on August 6th, 2020 at 13:55 UTC »
Maybe the GOP should stop sending millions of dollars to millionaires and billion-dollar companies. Imagine for a purely hypothetical moment here. There were 128.58 million households in the US (Edit) "in 2019". If every household got $1,000, that'd be (round) $129 billion. If you did that for 7 months, that'd be $1 trillion over 7 months, not even adjusted for "middle class and below". Instead, we have mega-churches and Trump family businesses and businesses with 10-digit revenue getting 7-digit pandemic support checks.
Remodeling the White House and buying jets for the Pentagon shouldn't be part of a Covid relief package. Say THAT, Senator Paul.
wubwub on August 6th, 2020 at 12:28 UTC »
The GOP is pivoting to caring about spending and deficits again.
Soon they are going to start worrying about private email servers, hiring cronies for key positions, and how often the president golfs again.
And starting January 20th they are going to be wondering why the president can't show leadership in the face of a global pandemic and wondering how the US could have let 200,000 people die. Oh, and the unemployment rate will be a scandal again.
no_war_deescalate on August 6th, 2020 at 12:10 UTC »
He guys, we're about to lose power. Time to shift back to obstruction by pretending to care about spending - Rand Paul
Edit to all those who claim Paul is principled, this comes from the fucking HILL of all news outlets. The man is as firm in his principles as a floppy dong bouncing in a nudest colony 100m dash:
Rand Paul has a Vladimir Putin problem, a national security problem, a presidential stature problem and a commander in chief problem. Paul began his short national career by staking out nonintervention positions so extreme that reasonable people might worry Paul as president would be the Neville Chamberlain appeaser of our time, guaranteeing a green light for aggression to bad guys such as Bashar Assad as he mass murders Syrians and Putin as he bullies and bludgeons Ukraine.
Apparently realizing that his earlier isolationist philosophy had poorly positioned him in a dangerous world, Paul has shape-shifted to a new opportunism of incoherence and vacillation.
One moment Paul says he might support a military attack against Iran. Then he implies he might accept a nuclear-armed Iran and follow a policy of containment. Then he says he won’t tell us what policy he prefers, comparing himself to Ronald Reagan.
First Paul charged that Dick Cheney championed the Iraq war to make money from Halliburton. Then he retreated. Maybe Cheney’s motive for the Iraq war was not money, he flipped, but then maybe it was, he flopped.
In his self-appointed national address answering President Obama about Syria, Paul claimed that Obama would ally with al Qaeda, which was a lie. He then opposed any effective U.S. response to Assad’s mass murder in Syria, for which Assad would be grateful.
Then Paul opposed American economic aid to Ukraine, claiming this aid would help Russia, when the aid was designed to help stabilize Ukraine against Russia.
During the 2016 GOP primaries, one or more Republican primary opponents will almost certainly suggest that Rand Paul is Vladimir Putin’s poodle.