The Senate passed its $1.3 trillion spending package by a vote of 65-32 Thursday night, but it took a late-night call from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to a hesitant Rand Paul to get it done.
“It’s never really been about how long we stay here,” Paul told reporters after coming to terms. “But it is to a certain extent, when you lose, trying to draw attention to your cause. We look for victories any way we can, knowing that we don’t have the votes to win.”
Although Paul ultimately agreed to let the spending bill go through unimpeded, he didn’t go quietly. Instead, as he reviewed the massive bill last night over some pizza, the Kentucky senator left a Twitter trail for posterity that included all his objections to “all 2,232 budget-busting pages.”
Check out the highlights:
Well here it is, all 2,232 budget-busting pages. The House already started votes on it. The Senate is expected to soon. No one has read it. Congress is broken… pic.twitter.com/izvJlUEgUM
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
1. On page 207. 2000+ pages to go! Reading about the ever wasteful $6 billion National Science Foundation.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
2. Remember the $350,000 NSF spent asking if japanese quail are more sexually promiscuous on cocaine?
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
3. Reading this monstrous bill full of grant programs begun decades ago reminds me of Reagan’s critique: the nearest thing to immortality is a government program.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
Page 240 good news for states rights:
no funds will be spent to prevent any state’s medical marijuana initiatives.
Thank you Congr. Rohrbacher
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
Page 278. (1954 to go!)
$961 million to destroy our chemical weapons. Who was it, exactly, who convinced our government to pay billions to develop weapons we now find deplorable?
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
Page 281 of “crumni-bus”.
CIA retirement funding. Wouldn’t it be great to amend out the retirement benefits of Trump hater John Brennan and Congressional dissembler James Clapper? pic.twitter.com/rRG6qGKcx6
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
o $1m for the World Meteorological Organization
o $218m for Promoting Democracy Development in Europe (yep..the birthplace of democracy needs promoting)
o $25m for International Religious Freedom
o $10m for disadvantaged Egyptian Students— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
o $12m for Scholarships for Lebanon
o $20m for Middle East Partnership Initiative Scholarship Program
o $12m in military funding for Vietnam
o $3.5m in nutrition assistance to Laos
o $15m in Developmental assistance to China
o $10m for Women LEOs in Afghanistan— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
on page 355. NSA prohibited from targeting US persons with FISA 702 program.
sounds good —but — privacy advocates fear that NSA still does back-door targeting of US persons.
Courageous Senator Wyden has asked how many US persons caught up in supposedly foreign data base.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
Page 348 of terrible, rotten, no-good budget busting bill, a nugget that I wish we obeyed
sec. 8103: none of the funds may be used in contravention of the War Powers Act
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
hmm . . . that would mean we shouldn’t be spending $ in undeclared wars in Yemen, Libya, Niger, Somalia, Afghanistan
wonder why the party that talks about the rule of law, doesn’t obey the rule of law?
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
and I’m STILL reading. This bill is no @bradthor thriller.
Page 365:
Overseas contingency operations. aka military slush fund that circumvents budget caps.
All told, we’ve spent over a trillion dollars in this budget busting category.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
Page 376 of terrible, rotten, no-good budget busting bill:
I found it! I found it! Border security, what President Trump wanted!
no . . .wait a minute section says Defense can spend what funds it determines to enhance the border security of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Tunisia
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
eyes getting tired but really someone should read this beast.
Page 392 sec 9007: no $ shall be spent “for the permanent stationing of US forces in Afghanistan”
Wonder what they meant by permanent? Some might argue that after 16 years we approaching the definition of permanent.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
eyes getting tired but really someone should read this beast.
Page 392 sec 9007: no $ shall be spent “for the permanent stationing of US forces in Afghanistan”
Wonder what they meant by permanent? Some might argue that after 16 years we approaching the definition of permanent.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
Page 447: a little over $30 billion for Dept of Energy
Wonder if anyone would notice if we had no Dept of Energy
Put oversight of nuclear waste in DOD and let supply & demand be our Energy policy
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
Page 485: No $ used by the IRS to target citizens for exercising 1st amendment rights.
Do you think Lois Lerner knew about this part of the law before she targeted Tea Party groups? pic.twitter.com/t41kZ63oD8
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
And then came the pizza, because it takes a LOT of fuel to go through 2,200+ pages of uninhibited government spending.
Ordered some pizza to help me get through. Still going… pic.twitter.com/FKDO3DkRHe
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018
Page 587:
No $ for the President to request FBI background report on any individual.
If we had amendments, this would be a good place to add no $ for partisan hacks in the Intel community to unmask any American without a judicial warrant.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 23, 2018
I shared 600 pages tonight. I’m done tweeting them for the evening. If they insist on voting, I will vote no because it spends to much and there’s just too little time to read the bill and let everyone know what’s actually in it.
Thanks for sticking with me.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 23, 2018
Victory for conservatives today is that all of America now knows what a budget busting bomb this bill is. Hopefully, today’s battle will embolden conservatives to descend on Congress and demand Constitutional government.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 23, 2018
Love him or hate him, unlike other lawmakers it would be hard to accuse Senator Paul of not reading the bills!