Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) tore into President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful" budget bill for failing to make significant spending cuts.
In a Sunday interview on Fox News, host Shannon Bream noted that millions could lose access to health care and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) if the Senate passed the bill recently approved by House Republicans.
"Well, see, on the one hand, you can offer people free stuff," Paul opined. "And people are, oh, thank you for free health care. But what you don't tell them is we're borrowing the money from China to pay for your health care... I think it's the greatest threat to our national security."
"We bring in about $5 trillion in revenue, and we spend $7 trillion," he continued. "The $5 trillion is consumed by Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and other welfare programs. So the people say, well, we're taking this off the table, and we're not going to touch any of those programs. Well, they're just not frankly serious."
Paul predicted there would be "very disappointed conservatives" unless welfare programs were cut.
"Somebody has to stand up and yell, the emperor has no clothes, and everybody's falling in lockstep on this, passed the big, beautiful bill, don't question anything," he said of the budget bill. "This is a problem we've been facing for decades now, and if we don't stand up on it, I really fear the direction the country is going."
