Rand Paul on Budget Deal: ‘I’m Going to Do Everything in My Power to Stop It’

Philip Wegmann / 

Rand Paul has promised to filibuster the budget deal. (Photo: Brad Zucroff/Polaris/Newscom)

In an interview Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, doubled down on his promise to filibuster the Boehner-Obama budget deal reached by President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner.
“This is a disaster,” Paul told Fox News about the deal, which would allow Congress to spend another $85 billion in the next three years. “I’m going to do everything in my power to stop it.”
The Kentucky senator criticized the proposed budget for giving Obama “unlimited borrowing power” at a moment when the federal government borrows “a million dollars a minute.”
“It’s a rotten deal and it stinks,” Paul said. “I haven’t met one Republican outside of Washington who thinks it’s a good idea to give unlimited borrowing power to the president, to bust the budget caps, to spend more on the military, more on domestic spending.”

Brian Darling, a former senior Paul aide, tells The Daily Signal that a filibuster could delay the vote, allowing legislators and grassroots groups “to actually read the bill.”
“At a minimum, a filibuster could stretch this process out by two or three days,” he said.
Announced Tuesday, the proposed agreement would fund the government by lifting the debt ceiling until March of 2017 while increasing defense and domestic spending by $80 billion, breaking the caps agreed to in 2011.
Paul explained that Congress typically raises the debt limit by “a certain amount” but described the budget deal as letting the president “borrow as much as he wants until March 2017.”
Paul’s filibuster vow comes as the Nov. 3  debt ceiling deadline looms over Congress.
Paul first floated the filibuster to reporters on Tuesday in Colorado.
“I will do everything I can do stop it. I will filibuster it,” Paul told reporters. “I will not let them condense the time, I will make sure that the country is aware that really both sides appear to have given up right and left.”