House Speaker Mike Johnson locks horns with Sen Rand Paul over ‘wimpy’ spending cuts in Trump’s bill
WASHINGTON, DC: The battle over President Donald Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” seems to have turned into an all-out family feud in the GOP.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) went on the defensive this weekend, locking horns with Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), who described the debt and spending framework as “wimpy and anemic.”
The showdown played out live on 'Fox News Sunday', where both lawmakers lobbed veiled grenades at each other’s take on the legislation.
“It sounds like his biggest objection is the fact that we are extending the debt ceiling,” Johnson said of Paul’s critique. “That's a critically important thing to do. We have to do it. We're not going to get any Democrats to assist on that.”
He warned of economic disaster if the bill doesn’t pass.
“So to get it through the Senate and make sure we don't crash the US economy and default on our debts for the first time in history, it has to be part of the reconciliation package,” Johnson said. “And that's why President Trump and all the other Republicans in Congress, House, and Senate understand the necessity of this.”
But Paul wasn’t buying it, Fox News reported.
Rand Paul rips the math by House Speaker Mike Johnson
Later on the same program, Senator Rand Paul accused GOP leadership of pretending to slash spending while “exploding the debt.”
“I supported the tax cuts in 2017. I support making them permanent, so I support that part of the bill. I support spending cuts,” he began. “I think the cuts currently in the bill are wimpy and anemic, but I still would support the bill, even with wimpy and anemic cuts, if they weren't going to explode the debt.”
But that’s exactly what he says will happen. “The problem is the math doesn't add up,” Paul declared. “They're going to explode the debt. The House's is $4 trillion. The Senate's actually been talking about exploding the debt by $5 trillion.”
For Paul, that’s a nonstarter. “There's got to be someone left in Washington who thinks debt is wrong and deficits are wrong and wants to go in the other direction,” he said.
Rather than handing the government a blank check, Paul proposed a plan to keep the pressure on — raise the debt ceiling by just $500 billion every three months, forcing Congress to revisit the issue regularly.
“The deficit is a threat to our country. I think it's the greatest threat to national security. And so I think you can't do this,” Paul warned.
The Kentucky senator is now leading a faction of GOP skeptics in the Senate, pushing back against what they see as a fast track to national bankruptcy. And he’s not alone.
Senator Ron Johnson joins the revolt
Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) declared during an appearance on CNN’s 'State of the Union' that there are “enough” Republicans ready to slam the brakes on the bill unless spending is slashed.
The Wisconsin senator called out the legislation for “mortgaging our children’s future,” pointing to an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office that estimates the bill would add $2.3 trillion to the federal deficit over 10 years.
According to Johnson, congressional Republicans should examine spending "line by line, like DOGE has done" to find areas to eliminate.
The internal squabbling comes as the Senate gears up to consider amendments to the House-passed bill, which squeaked by with just a single vote, setting up yet another fiscal cliffhanger as Congress barrels toward Trump’s July 4 signing deadline, NBC News reported.
Meanwhile, Trump is still bullish — but open to tweaks.
“I want the Senate and the senators to change, you know, to make the changes they want, and we’ll go back to the House and we’ll see if we can get them,” Trump told reporters Sunday. “In some cases, those changes may be are something I’d agree with.”
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