Senator Rand Paul has called out his Republican colleagues following a heated meeting to discuss the possible second stimulus package. Known for being fiscally conservative, Paul wasn’t thrilled at the idea of more federal spending in response to coronavirus.
“I find it extraordinary that I came from a GOP caucus meeting that could be the Bernie Bros. or progressive caucus,” Paul told Fox News on Tuesday. “The debt clock in my office, we’ve gone up $3 trillion in the last few months, and going up more is irresponsible. They said that President Obama is for borrowing and spending — they’re talking about spending another trillion dollars. There should be a law that they are no longer allowed to talk about the debt. We are sending money to people who haven’t lost their jobs — we are losing the country.” While he added that “there has to be a voice left for fiscal conservatives,” he also took his grievances to Twitter, echoing many of the same sentiments.
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Just came from Progressive Democrat, whoops, I’m mean Republican caucus:
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 21, 2020
They’re going to spend $105b more on education, more than we spend every year on the Dept of Education. Anyone remember when Reagan conservatives were for eliminating the Federal Dept. of Education?
The comments from Paul come after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had stated that $1 trillion would be a “starting point” for the second stimulus package. While Congress had only reconvened from the July 4 holiday on Monday, they have three weeks to hammer out a stimulus package, unless it gets tabled for their upcoming August recess.
Paul had previously come under fire from social media back in June after he’d gone after Dr. Anthony Fauci. During a Senate hearing, Paul railed against Fauci for not providing more “optimism” in his testimony. During the testimony, Fauci had expressed that he was also quite concerned about what we are seeing evolve right now in several states … they need to follow the guidelines that have been very carefully laid out concerning [reopening] checkpoints … in some, they’re going too quickly and skipping over some.”
The issue Paul took with Fauci’s testimony was over the prospect of schools not reopening, even commenting how it wouldn’t be safe for baseball to start. He also accused Fauci of being “presumptuous” regarding the spread of the virus. The Kentucky Senator had himself had the virus, which he recovered from back in May.
