Last week, President Donald Trump signed his One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, and the administration celebrated what it claims is the largest tax cut in history for middle-class Americans.
Despite the bill's promises, fiscal hawks are concerned the bill does nothing to address the spiraling deficit.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Newsmax on Wednesday that while he supports the tax cuts in the legislation, "Congress needs to grow a spine and actually cut spending."
"I'm kind of doubtful, unless you have new people. The same people up here showed a serious lack of courage. You know, one of the things that united Republicans as much as 10 years ago was repealing 'Obamacare,' but part of Obamacare was expanding Medicaid and having the federal government pay for the whole bill."
"Well, we tried to cap that in this bill, and we lost about 10 Republicans in the Senate and maybe 20 in the House, because they were afraid of their own shadow and said, Oh, we can't have the states pay their fair share,'" Paul said on "Rob Schmitt Tonight."
The senator said the problem with the government's budget is that "the federal government has no money."
"We have to borrow it from China to pay for Medicaid. We're 2 trillion [dollars] in the hole every year. So do I expect them to grow a spine in the near future? Probably not, but I will continue to work with them to try to do the best we can, given the modicum of courage that we have up here.
"But I'll also continue to be hopeful. The tax cuts will help us, and I'm hoping the first big bill, even though it's going to add to the debt — I'm hoping it will spur economic growth from the tax cuts."
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James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.