Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., sought to de-escalate his simmering feud with President Donald Trump by saying he is "not an absolute no" on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but he is precisely that on raising the debt ceiling $5 trillion as the budget bill does.
"I talked to the president last evening after the parade, and we're trying to get to a better place in our conversations," Paul told NBC News' "Meet the Press." "And I've let him know that I'm not an absolute no. I can be a yes.
"I like the tax cuts. I actually agree with Art Laffer and supply-siders that a lot of times when we cut rates we actually get more revenue. So I don't have as much trouble with the tax cuts. I think there should be more spending cuts."
Still, Paul is not going to back down on what actually made him a no in the first place.
"But if they want my vote, they'll have to negotiate, because I don't want to vote to raise the debt ceiling $5 trillion," the famed fiscal conservative told NBC.
Trump has called Paul "the toughest vote in the history of the U.S. Senate," and Paul told NBC he takes "that as a compliment."
Paul wants Congress and Republicans behind Trump to commit to cutting runaway spending from former President Joe Biden's post-COVID-19 levels.
"You know, Congress is awful with money, and so you should give them a more restricted credit line, not an expansive one," Paul told NBC. "Yes, the debt ceiling has to go up, but what I've said is it ought to go up three months at a time and then we should have a renewed debate about the debt.
"We shouldn't put it up $5 trillion and wait two years, go through another election cycle and be almost toward the end of the Trump administration and say, Oh, whoops, we've added a bunch of debt. We should have done better.
"I think we should keep talking about it."
The fix for Paul's vote might be as simple is merely breaking off the debt ceiling provision in the bill.
"Separate out the debt ceiling and have a separate vote on it, and I won't be the deciding vote on this: This is what I tell my supporters," Paul concluded. "If I am the deciding vote, they'll negotiate. If I'm not, they won't.
"So far they've been sending their attack dogs after me, and that's not a great persuasion technique.
"But I will negotiate if they come to me, but they have to be willing to negotiate on the debt ceiling, because I'm conservative and I'm not going to, you know, no longer be conservative just because the president wants me to vote for something."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.