WASHINGTON — Sen. Rand Paul, a leading Republican critic of the sweeping Trump agenda bill, said during an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that he told President Donald Trump that he is “not an absolute no” on the package.
“I talked to the President last evening after the parade, and we’re trying to get to a better place in our conversations,” said Paul, R-Ky. “And I’ve let him know that I’m not an absolute no.”
“I don’t have as much trouble with the tax cuts. I think there should be more spending cuts, but if they want my vote, they’ll have to negotiate,” Paul said, noting he did not want to vote to raise the debt ceiling by trillions of dollars.
Republicans are working to pass the bill through a budget process called reconciliation, which allows them to pass the bill with a simple majority. Republicans have 53 seats in the Senate, meaning they can only afford to lose three votes if Vice President JD Vance is brought in to break a tie.
Several Republican senators, however, have raised concerns about the bill’s impact on the national debt and Medicaid, throwing the bill’s future into question.
Paul has been sharply critical of the Trump-backed “Big Beautiful Bill” because it is projected to increase the national deficit by about $2.4 trillion over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The senator said last week that he had been “uninvited” to a White House picnic typically attended by lawmakers and their families. Paul said that he believed the White House was trying to “punish” him, calling the move “petty vindictiveness.” Trump later posted to Truth Social, saying that “of course” Paul was invited to the picnic.
The reconciliation package as it stands would increase the debt ceiling. Lawmakers are also running up against a deadline this summer to avoid the U.S. defaulting on its debt. The Treasury Department has asked Congress to raise the debt ceiling by mid-July to avoid default.
Asked what it would take for Paul to vote for the bill, the senator said, “separate out the debt ceiling and have a separate vote on it.”
Paul, a fiscal hawk, has said that while the “debt ceiling has to go up,” he wants the ceiling to increase a few months at a time, “and then we should have a renewed debate about the debt.”
The GOP-led package that passed through the House aims to raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion ahead of a mid-July deadline. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the package would add $2.4 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years.
Trump, however, has called for abolishing the debt limit, saying in a post last month that it “should be entirely scrapped to prevent an Economic catastrophe.” It’s one of the rare areas that the president has found common ground with liberal lawmakers like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who has been a vocal proponent of abolishing the limit.
Trump said that the debt limit was “too devastating to be put in the hands of political people that may want to use it despite the horrendous effect it could have on our Country and, indirectly, even the World.”
Paul also addressed Sen. Alex Padilla’s detainment in California last week, when the California Democrat was forcibly removed from a press conference after trying to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has said that Padilla should be censured for his behavior during the press conference — a measure that Paul opposed.
“I’m not for censuring. I think that’s crazy,” Paul said.
Paul said that he thought the situation “could have ended without the handcuffs,” but added that he did not think there could be a “get out of jail free” for “rushing the stage.”
Video of the incident shared with NBC News does not show Padilla “rushing” toward Noem. Instead, the senator identified himself and tried to ask a question as several men pushed him out of the room. The video did not show the moments leading up to Padilla’s question.
Kyle Stewart contributed.
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