After congressional leaders reached an agreement on the federal budget, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., opposed the temporary bill to avert a government shutdown.The freshman senator and Tea Party darling haddrafted a Shutdown Prevention Act that his office said would essential federal services continue to function in the absence of a spending bill. However, Paul entered the following statement into the Congressional Record just after the Senate approved the stopgap bill by a voice vote.From Politico:“I voted against this short-term continuing resolution for the same reason I voted against the last one and the one before that – because it does not set us on a path to fixing the spending and debt problems our country is facing,” said Paul, a co-founder of the Senate Tea Party Caucus.
“As I have said before, there is not much of a difference between a $1.5 trillion deficit and a $1.6 trillion deficit – both will lead us to a debt crisis that we may not recover from.”
In January, Paul proposed $500 billion in spending cuts in order to reduce the federal deficit. The agreement brokered between Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid makes $39 billion in cuts to this year's budget.