It appears Republicans were not willing to stand with Sen. Rand Paul on fiscal responsibility.
The Kentucky congressman called out the hypocrisy after he proposed a balanced budget plan that was killed in a 22-69 vote on Monday with less than two dozen Republicans voting in favor of the measure.
(Video: Fox News)
“We understand no Democrats are for reducing spending up here for reducing the debt, not one,” the Kentucky Republican told “Fox and Friends” on Tuesday.
“The surprising thing to many people, over half the Republicans, I call them big government Republicans, are not for cutting spending either,” Paul added.
The Senate overwhelmingly rejected Paul’s “Pennies Plan” which seeks to balance the budget in five years while cutting spending by $11 trillion. The plan also addressed the Senate budget process as well as adding a provision stating that “the United States will not be a socialist nation.”
The longer we wait the harder it gets to solve this problem as the interest on our debt grows. It’s time to stop kicking the can down the road. Republicans should not say they’re fiscal conservatives unless they vote like it.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 3, 2019
“Basically we would spend 99 percent of what we spent last year,” Paul explained on Fox News Tuesday. “When I present this to even liberal government advocacy groups wanting money, could you live with 99 percent of what we gave you last year, almost everybody says yes. It is so reasonable to most people in America unless you happen to be an elected official in Washington.”
But with 53 Republicans in the Senate, only 22 voted for Paul’s “Pennies Plan,” which required the government to cut two percent – or two pennies – of every dollar of federal spending for the next five years.
“We teach our children that money doesn’t grow on trees, and then they grow up watching politicians pretend otherwise,” Paul tweeted on Monday, ahead of the vote.
We teach our children that money doesn’t grow on trees, and then they grow up watching politicians pretend otherwise. Meanwhile, our debt soars past $22 trillion, endangers our country. Today, the U.S. Senate can vote to put a stop to it and change course. https://t.co/dBjUNVEb1G
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 3, 2019
“If we keep piling on the debt we’re going to come to a day of reckoning. We have a great country and we shouldn’t let it get away from us,” he added later in a separate tweet.
If we keep piling on the debt we’re going to come to a day of reckoning. We have a great country and we shouldn’t let it get away from us. Passing my Penny Plan will only make it better. I urge my colleagues to support my budget. Watch the vote here: https://t.co/9GEF7frVHp
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 3, 2019
Activist groups with the same fiscally conservative view, such as FreedomWorks, contended that “any responsible Republican” would support the legislation.
“Congress needs to operate its budget like American families operate their budget. That means cutting up the credit card and ending excessive annual deficits that balloon the national debt,” the group said in a statement.
.@RandPaul “The #FakeNews media say that tax cuts are the problem. That’s simply not true. Tax revenues are actually up – It’s the entitlement spending that is driving the deficit.” #ampFW
— FreedomWorks (@FreedomWorks) June 3, 2019
“The National Debt exceeds $22 trillion and the federal government is incurring over $1 trillion in annual deficits,” Scott Parkinson, Club for Growth Vice President of Government Affairs, said in a statement. “Congress needs to operate its budget like American families operate their budget. That means cutting up the credit card and ending excessive annual deficits that balloon the national debt.”
Paul also slammed the hypocrisy of the GOP for failing to vote in favor of his plan.
“Every one of those Republicans goes home and tells constituents how conservative he is or she is and how they care about the deficit,” Paul said. “Ask all these people if they care about the deficit, why’d they vote no?”
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Frieda@bizpacreview.com
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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