Kentucky senator on spending bill and NPR and PBS cuts
(CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the "One Big, Beautiful Bill" passing in the House last month.
Brennan brought up her interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who she said played down the cost of the bill, prompting her to ask Senator Paul if he agrees with the math, to which he said:
"The math doesn't really add up. One of the things this 'Big and Beautiful' bill is is it's a vehicle for increasing spending for the military and for the border. It's about $320 billion in new spending. To put that in perspective, that's more than all the DOGE cuts that we found so far. So, the increase in spending put into this bill exceeds the DOGE cuts. When you look just at the border wall, they have 46.5 billion for the border wall. Well, the current estimate from the CBP is 6.5 million per mile. So, if you did 1,000 miles, that's 6.5 billion, but they have 46 billion. So they've inflated the cost of the wall eight fold. So, there's a lot of new spending that has to be counteracted. But essentially, this is a bill by the military industrial complex advocates who are padding the military budget. There's going to be a lot of extra money. Look, the President has essentially stopped the border flow without new money and without any new legislation. So, I think they're asking for too much money. And in the end, the way you add it up to see if it actually is going to save money or add money, is how much debt are they going to borrow? $5 trillion over two years, an enormous amount."
Brennan followed up by mentioning a social media post made by President Donald Trump who said if Paul doesn't vote in favor of the bill, "Kentucky will never forgive you." When asked if he considered it a threat, Paul said:
"I had a very good conversation with the President this week about tariffs. He did most of the talking, and we don't agree exactly on the outcome. But when I come home to Kentucky, I talk to the Farm Bureau, which is opposed to the tariffs. I talked to the bourbon industry which is opposed to the tariffs. I talked to the cargo companies, UPS, DHL, all their pilots are opposed to it. I talked to the hardwood floor people. I talked to the people selling houses, building houses. I have no organized business interests in Kentucky for the tariffs. So I think it's worth the discussion, and it's worth people remembering that the Republicans used to be for lower taxes. Tariffs are a tax. So, if you raise taxes on the private sector, that's not good for the private sector."
When Brennan further asked if the senator had three other Republicans who will stand with him to block the bill's passage, Paul answered saying, "I think there are four of us at this point, and I would be very surprised if the bill, at least, is not modified in a good direction."
"Look, I want to vote for it. I'm for the tax cuts. I voted for the tax cuts before. I want the tax cuts to be permanent, but at the same time, I don't want to raise the debt ceiling $5 trillion. So, I've told him, if you take the debt ceiling off the bill, in all likelihood, I can vote for what the agreement is on the rest of the bill, and it doesn't have to be perfect to my liking. But I can't be...if I vote for the $5 trillion debt, who's left in Washington that cares about the debt. We will have lost it. The GOP will own the debt once they vote for this," he added.
During the interview, Brennan and Paul talked about the cuts to NPR and PBS.
Last month, the CEOs of NPR and PBS spoke with Brennan saying they were looking to sue the Trump Administration over the cuts.
When Brennan asked if it is the best strategy and if 51 Republican senators will sign off on the cuts, Paul said:
"We'll see if there's the votes to cut it. I don't think we necessarily need government programming anymore. We have so many choices on the internet and so many choices on television, but my preference has always been, in the past, to cut a little bit of everything, rather than cut a lot of something. So what I've done in the past is propose a penny plan budget where we cut a certain percentage of everything, but it includes entitlements, or it doesn't really work. Once you exclude the entitlements, there isn't enough money to cut so you can never achieve balance by not looking at the entitlements. "
To watch more of Brennan's interview with Paul, click here.
