Trump says Paul siding with Democrats if he votes against ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’

Sen. Rand Paul said in a Sunday interview on CBS News’s Face the Nation that he wants to vote for the bill and its tax cuts but not for an increase to the debt limit. Paul said “If I vote for the $5 trillion debt, who’s left in Washington that cares about the debt? We will have lost — the GOP will own the debt once they vote for this.” AP FILE

President Donald Trump said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is siding with Democratic colleagues if he votes against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Trump wrote in a post on social media platform Truth Social that Paul will be “playing right into the hands” of Democrats if he opposes the bill, which is reconciliation legislation submitted by committees in the House of Representatives.

“If Senator Rand Paul votes against our Great, Big, Beautiful Bill, he is voting for, along with the Radical Left Democrats, a 68% Tax Increase and, perhaps even more importantly, a first time ever default on U.S. Debt,” Trump wrote. “Rand will be playing right into the hands of the Democrats, and the GREAT people of Kentucky will never forgive him!”

The reconciliation bill, designed to expedite the process for considering legislation, reduces taxes, reduces or increases spending for various federal programs and increases the statutory debt limit. Richard Rubin, U.S. tax policy reporter for The Wall Street Journal, said last month there wouldn’t be any 68% tax increase.

If the tax cuts Trump approved during his first term expire, “something close to that share of households would see their taxes go up,” Rubin wrote in an X post.

The Bipartisan Policy Center think tank estimated in March that, without congressional action, the Department of the Treasury will no longer be able to meet its financial obligations in full and on time sometime between mid-July and early October. Paul said in a Sunday interview on CBS News’s Face the Nation that he wants to vote for the bill and its tax cuts but not for an increase to the debt limit.

“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),’ ” Paul said in recalling a conversation with Trump. “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 — the GOP will own the debt once they vote for this.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., pledged Sunday his Democratic colleagues will use “every tool at our disposal” in what he called a “battle” against the bill. The legislation is a “ruthless power grab by the nation’s most wealthy at the expense of American families, millions of Americans’ healthcare, and the very core of our democracy,” Schumer wrote in a letter to his colleagues.

“This partisan monstrosity is nothing short of a billionaire handout paid for by American families and we will fight it with everything we’ve got,” Schumer said.

Trump has described the bill differently, telling reporters it’s beautiful because of “all of the things” included, like tax cuts.

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