Seth McLaughlin | May 27, 2025

(The Washington Times) — Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday he would consider voting for President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” if GOP leaders scrap plans to raise the nation’s borrowing limit.

Attention shifted to possible Senate GOP holdouts after House Republicans last week passed Mr. Trump’s measure, which contains sweeping tax and spending cuts, funding for border security and national defense, and policy changes designed to spur U.S. energy production.

Mr. Paul said he supports parts of the bill, including making permanent the 2017 tax cuts, which expire at the end of the year, and the proposed spending cuts, despite his feeling they should be bigger.

Raising the debt ceiling is a different story, he said.

“I still would support the bill even with wimp and anemic cuts if they weren’t going to explode the deficit,” Mr. Paul said on “Fox News Sunday.” “The problem is the math doesn’t add up.”

Mr. Paul said the House bill clears the way for $5 trillion to be added to the soaring national debt.

“That is just not conservative,” Mr. Paul said. “So I have told them if they strip out the debt ceiling, I will consider it even with the imperfections with the rest of the bill.”

“But I can’t vote to raise the debt ceiling $5 trillion,” he said. “There has to be someone left in Washington who thinks debt is wrong and deficits are wrong and wants to go in the other direction.”

Concerns over the legislation’s impact on the national deficit and debt created some headaches for House Speaker Mike Johnson and House GOP leaders, who spent weeks ironing out intraparty differences before passing the bill on Thursday.

“We’re delivering, and we’re doing it in a big way,” Mr. Johnson said after the bill passed. “To our friends in the Senate, I would just say the president is waiting with his pen. The American people are waiting for this relief.”

Mr. Trump also called on the Senate to get the bill to his desk “AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!” in a social media post.

Senate Republicans are considering changes to the bill but hope to pass it by July 4 through the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process, which allows them to send it to Mr. Trump’s desk without the support of Democrats.

Mr. Paul said Republicans want to raise the nation’s borrowing limit through the proposal because they are too scared to address the issue on its own.

“Every time the debt ceiling raises, the people who have been voting for the spending having to walk in shame to the front of the House or the front of the Senate and say, ‘Yes I have been voting for all this deficit spending and now I am willing to vote to raise the debt ceiling,’” the Kentucky Republican said.

Mr. Paul said he wants Congress to vote on the debt ceiling every three months to force lawmakers to demonstrate their commitment to fiscal responsibility.

“It is a point of leverage,” he said. “It is an inflection point at which we can look back at leadership and say, ‘Hmmm, you promised you were going to cut spending.”

“You promised next week, you promised next week, you promised next year, but you know what?” Mr. Paul said. “You are not doing it.”