Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., disagreed with Senator Mitch McConnell’s, R-Ky., labeling him an isolationist after he voted against $40 billion for Ukraine.
“Opposing big government spending is not isolationism, it’s common sense,” said the junior senator in a statement. “Our country faces an inflation crisis and adding more debt now is a mistake.”
McConnell Thursday told Fox News reporter Bret Baier that Paul and the others who voted against more aid for Ukraine represented a tiny part of the party.
“My colleague, Senator Paul, has always been basically an isolationist,” the Senate Minority Leader told Baier. “He’s proud of it and believes that’s where America ought to be. That is a tiny percentage of the Senate Republican Conference.”
“There’s always been a strand of isolationism in our party,” McConnell added, “but it’s not anywhere near the dominant view, which was expressed in the vote that we had today and will be expressed again when we vote on the admission of Finland and Sweden into NATO.”
Ten other Republican senators joined Paul’s quixotic vote against the extra aid: Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), John Boozman (Ark.), Mike Braun (Ind.), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Mike Lee (Utah), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), Roger Marshall (Kan.) and Tommy Tuberville (Ala.).
“If Congress really believed giving Ukraine $40B was in our national interest, they could easily pay for it by taxing every income taxpayer $500,” Paul said in a Thursday Twitter post. “My guess is they choose to borrow the $ bc Americans might just decide they need the $500 more to pay for gas.”
His speech on the senate floor was not against giving $40 billion to Ukraine as much as it was against borrowing the money.
“If the defense of Ukraine is really in our national security interest, shouldn’t their gift come from our military budget?” Paul asked.
“What about cutting wasteful spending?” he continued, noting his office catalogued $50 billion in wasteful spending.”I don’t know about you, but couldn’t we cut programs like the $1 million study to see if taking selfies of yourself makes you happier when you look at the photos later. Or, couldn’t we cut the budget of the National Science Foundation that spends billions studying such burning questions as “Do Panamanian city frogs have a different mating call than country frogs?”
“Wouldn’t it be wiser to cut wasteful spending rather than adding to the debt?”
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