Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has expressed his opposition to the bi-partisan deal to keep the federal government open as a waste of taxpayer funds, as well as President Donald Trump’s decision to announce a state of emergency to acquire funds for a border wall.
“I’m disappointed with both the massive, bloated, secretive bill that just passed and with the president’s intention to declare an emergency to build a wall,” Paul announced.
Although he previously praised Trump’s negotiating prowess in acquiring border security funds, he was dismayed by both the overall level of spending in the final legislation and the procedural approach adopted to ensure its speedy passage.
“I, too, want stronger border security, including a wall in some areas,” he added. “But how we do things matters. Over 1,000 pages dropped in the middle of the night and extraconstitutional executive actions are wrong, no matter which party does them.”
Paul was joined by a minority of Republicans in opposing the deal, which passed the Senate 83-16. Other notable Republican votes against were Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Sen. Josh Hawley (D-MO), Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).
Every Democrat voted for the deal, with the exception of Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and presidential contenders Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Kirsten Gilibrand (D-NY), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), likely anticipating a possible backlash towards Senators cutting deals with the President in the contentious Democratic presidential primary. However, far-left Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), who is considering a run but has yet to announce, decided to back the deal.
Americans said that they hated freedom 100 years ago because the environment was dirty, there were murders, planes crashed, and medicine was dangerous, but the US is now a police state and the environment is still dirty, there are still murders, planes still crash, and medicine is still dangerous.