--- title: Rand Paul: Why I Am Against More Spending and GOP Congress description: The Republican Senator from Kentucky writes that even Republicans shouldn't accept everything just becomes from a GOP Congress canonical: https://time.com/5142115/rand-paul-spending-congress/ author: Rand Paul article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-09T18:53:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:39.185Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Sen. Paul: Congress Is Full of Hypocrites. I Took a Stand og:description: Conservatives shouldn't 'accept anything just because it comes from a GOP Congress' og:url: https://time.com/5142115/rand-paul-spending-congress/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt04f4ae8586e3efb6/698926db7cdbac4d33d5be43/gettyimages-915962764.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Congress To Hold Vote On Budget Bill As Shutdown Deadline Looms og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sen. Paul: Congress Is Full of Hypocrites. I Took a Stand twitter:description: Conservatives shouldn't 'accept anything just because it comes from a GOP Congress' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt04f4ae8586e3efb6/698926db7cdbac4d33d5be43/gettyimages-915962764.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sen. Paul: Congress Is Full of Hypocrites. I Took a Stand > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Rand Paul Is Leading a Last-Minute Fight Against the Budget Deal [Watch (HLS stream): Rand Paul Is Leading a Last-Minute Fight Against the Budget Deal](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/oXWtDb4B.m3u8) (1:16)  _Published 2018-02-09. On Thursday evening, Congress steeled itself for the second government shutdown in less than three weeks, with Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky taking to the Senate floor to delay a crucial vote on a government spending package hours ahead of the deadline._  by [Rand Paul](https://time.com/author/sen-rand-paul/)  ## Rand Paul Feb 9, 2018 6:53 PM UTC  Sen. Rand Paul takes a break from the floor of the U.S. Senate with Rep. Justin Amash and Rep. Thomas Massie at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 8, 2018. Sen. Rand Paul takes a break from the floor of the U.S. Senate with Rep. Justin Amash and Rep. Thomas Massie at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 8, 2018. Win McNamee—Getty Images  by [Rand Paul](https://time.com/author/sen-rand-paul/)  ## Rand Paul Feb 9, 2018 6:53 PM UTC Last night, for a few hours, your government shut down. Most likely, you slept soundly while this happened. The sun rose, and the world went on. The Government is open again. But the reason for and message behind yesterday’s debate and action in the [Senate](http://time.com/5137777/two-year-budget-deal-senate/) is still here. The Senate was set to vote on a 700-page bill that added over $[500 billion](http://time.com/4479327/congress-september-spending-shutdown/) in new spending to our already out-of-control debt. It was a massive and destructive bargain struck by the leaders of both parties, where both got to blow up the spending “caps” they agreed to just a few short years ago. I simply asked for one thing in this broken process: a 15-minute vote on whether those caps should or should not be broken. The furor this request set off among leadership, the wailing and screeching among Big Government advocates in Congress and in the media — well, you would think I had asked them to shut down forever. No. I didn’t want them to shut down at all. Not really. I simply wanted them to act like their spending matters. Like the voices of the people elected to serve matter. Like the process matters. Right now in the Senate, nothing seems to matter except the will of a small circle of Big Government, free-spending leaders who demand silence and “take it or leave it” votes. I chose to leave it. I wasn’t elected to be anyone’s rubber stamp. I wasn’t elected to allow business as usual —whether it’s out-of-control spending or out-of-control rules that stifle debate and votes. Seven hundred pages of bill, spending over 500 billon new dollars. It’s a lot to throw at someone the day of a shutdown deadline. But of course, the leaders knew that. They count on no one to challenge them. They count on rubber stamps and yes-men who will fight them “the next time.” Yesterday, I wanted to show my colleagues and the voters that sent us that the time is now. Our debt is $20 trillion and growing, and our party seems to only want to be fiscally conservative when they’re in the minority. We now control the House, Senate and White House, and we should stand for less government and less spending. Instead, we see a massive increase that would make [President Obama](http://time.com/5141050/senate-shutdown-rand-paul-filibuster/) cringe. Some have asked how I could vote for tax cuts that added to the deficit. The simple answer is that I didn’t. Tax cuts are not spending. They are allowing you to keep more of your own money. We should plan for spending what comes in. In fact, per budget rules, the tax bill I voted on and supported was required to be paid for, and Congress had a year to figure out how. Ninety-one senators, including all Democrats, later voted against my effort to keep it that way. I’ve voted against [spending](http://time.com/4154635/rand-paul-paul-ryan-omnibus-spending/) more, and I’ve proposed specific ways to cut spending and balance our budget. But I refuse to concede that we have a tax problem — we have a spending problem, and I will continue to fight to fix it. You’ll read a lot of stories today, fed to a lot of reporters by a lot of tired staffers, and they’ll tell you all about how I wouldn’t play nice with them and let them get their massive spending bill in secret. It didn’t work. Millions of people saw what they were doing. People tuned in to TV, followed on social media, and had the debate trending number one all night. Why does that matter? Because I wanted people to see what was happening. I want them to remember. And I want them to send more people up here who care about reforming our process and fixing our out-of-control spending. Turning on the lights is necessary to expose what is going on in the darkness. Our future is at stake. Our country’s debt is out of control. I hope this causes fiscal conservatives across the country to pay careful attention to this Congress. To not accept just anything because it comes from a GOP Congress. I hope this makes conservatives across the country realize that right now, they aren’t getting what they voted for in Washington. It’s not too late, but in Washington, nothing moves unless it’s pushed. ## Transcript Observing the right to object. I run for office because I was very critical of President Obama's trillion dollar deficits. Now we have republicans hand and hand with democrats offering us trillion dollar deficits. I can't in all good honesty and all good faith just look the other way because my party is now complicit in the deficits But really whose to blame, both parties. We have a 700 page bill that no one has read that was printed at midnight. No one will read this bill. Nothing will be reformed The waste will continue and government will keep taking your money irresponsibly and adding to a 20 trillion dollar debt. There are no amendments being allowed. This is the most important debate we will have in the year over spending and no amendments are allowed. We should have a full amendment process. We've been open for business 10 hours today. You can do our amendments an hour. We could have done 40 amendments. So it's [ INAUDIBLE ] to say we can have one amendment and can spend 15 minutes debating whether or not it's good for the country to add a trillion dollars in debt. So Madam President I object ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5142115/rand-paul-spending-congress/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5142115/rand-paul-spending-congress/"},"headline":"Sen. Paul: Congress Is Full of Hypocrites. 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