00:00Sir Paul, have you been receiving calls from your constituents who are agreeing with yourself and with Elon Musk that this feels too good?
00:07You know, when I'm home, and I was just home last weekend, what I hear from people is the same concerns they've had for a long time.
00:14$2 trillion in debt is too much, $1 trillion in interest is too much, and we have to do something about it.
00:21And really, we have to look at all spending.
00:23So we've narrowed our focus to just a couple of items in the budget,
00:27and you can never balance the budget by only looking at a few items.
00:29You have to really look at everything.
00:31So when I'm home, I hear from people that the debt's a real problem.
00:34They understand that it causes inflation, that the inflation problems under the Biden administration
00:39will continue under the Trump administration if we don't address the debt.
00:43So, no, I think I feel nothing but support when I'm at home.
00:46Are they asking you to hold the line on this bill and really push this?
00:49I've told people for six months that I'm not voting to raise the debt ceiling $5 trillion
00:54because that's how much they'll borrow.
00:57And it's like having a teenager that you give a teenager a credit card when they're 16,
01:02and they run up $2,000 in debt within the first couple weeks on, I don't know, booze and gambling.
01:08And you say to your teenager, oh, well, that's too bad.
01:11Why don't I give you a $10,000 limit?
01:14Congress is like a bunch of drunk teenagers.
01:16That's their record.
01:17They aren't very good with fiscal restraint.
01:20The debt's $36 trillion.
01:22They can't seem to vote to cut anything.
01:24So would you give them a bigger credit line or a smaller credit line?
01:27I would give them a very short leash, which means I'd give them about three months of borrowing power,
01:32and then we'd have this discussion again.
01:35I'd vote on the debt ceiling three or four times a year.
01:37Now, other people don't like to do that.
01:39They say, oh, it's a bother, and it draws too much attention, slows us down from what we want to do.
01:45But what we want to do is slow down the spending.
01:47And so if we did a three-month increase in the debt ceiling, what you'd find is, you know, in September, what's going to happen then,
01:53it's going to be another big, beautiful bill, but it's going to be a big, beautiful omnibus or continuing resolution to keep government open.
02:00But if they keep spending at the same rate, it'll be another $2 trillion in debt, and that's why they're borrowing $5 trillion.
02:04So it's all interconnected.
02:06And, yes, I am where I am.
02:08I'm willing to vote for the bill, but they've got to get rid of the debt ceiling.
02:12If they take the debt ceiling off, I'm a yes.
02:13Senator Paul, many of your colleagues have said that these are okay because the tax cuts will pay for themselves with economic growth,
02:20and they reject the CBO's projections as a result of that.
02:23Do you buy the argument that tax cuts pay for themselves?
02:25A lot of times, yes.
02:27In fact, that's not my big argument with this bill.
02:29If you had just the tax cuts alone, I'd vote for them.
02:31Because seven years ago, when I voted for them, I do believe the tax cuts did pay for themselves.
02:37In the Reagan terms, when they reduced rates, I think they did pay for themselves, too.
02:41The debt went up under the Reagan years because spending never came down, and they exploded spending on both sides, non-military and military.
02:47It's still the problem here.
02:49The debt has gotten worse in the last seven years.
02:51But really, if you look at the lines on the revenue, the revenue really is about equal for the seven years that we've had with this.
02:58That was with a dip during the pandemic of all revenues.
03:02So, no, I think the tax cuts actually do mostly pay for themselves.
03:06My objection is on the spending side of the ledger, not necessarily on the tax side of the ledger.
03:10Senator, do you agree with Elon Musk, then, with his criticism of this bill that it adds to the debt?
03:16We both seem to be on the same wavelength and that we're very, very skeptical.
03:20I think that what happens is it's not all just in this bill.
03:24Some of it's what the bill doesn't do.
03:26So, the taxes is one issue.
03:28But I would vote for the taxes.
03:29I don't think they really – I don't agree with CBO score.
03:32But on the spending side of things, I don't think that there are sufficient spending cuts to change the direction of the country.
03:38And that's because they've narrowed their focus.
03:41There's no Social Security.
03:42There's no Medicare.
03:42And then when they got to Medicaid, they're, oh, no, let's – oh, look at this much Medicaid.
03:46And so, you know, one of their key cuts they have in the first year is they're getting rid of the forgiveness of student loan program,
03:55which has been ruled illegal by the courts and is going away anyway.
03:58Is that a real cut if they never forgave the student loans?
04:01It was a Biden idea.
04:02The court struck down.
04:03That's going to be a way – that's $150 billion savings right there.
04:08And so, I don't know that that's even real.
04:10We do know that the bill spends $300 to $400 billion.
04:13Spends $150 billion new money on the military, $150 billion new on the border, which I don't think is conservative.
04:20Look, I'm for some more agents, some more salaries.
04:23If I'm not for $150 billion more, look, he's virtually controlled the border with no new legislation and no new assets,
04:29which is a great compliment to President Trump, but it doesn't mean we need 10 times as much money there as we have.
04:35How do you feel about the focus that not only President Trump, but some of your Senate and House colleagues have made
04:40on investigating the Biden administration and his alleged cognitive decline?
04:45Do you think that's a good use of time?
04:46I think the auto pen is a valid thing to look at.
04:49I think it's a valid question to ask who ran the auto pen.
04:53In the past, White Houses have been particular about this.
04:56They have a login. It's not like anybody can walk over and auto pen a pardon, right?
05:00It's a pretty big deal.
05:01So I think it's a reasonable question to ask if you were running the auto pen, bring you in under oath and say,
05:06who told you to run the auto pen for the pardons?
05:09And I would think either the president's got to tell you or you're going to say, so-and-so told me.
05:12Then you go to him or her and you say, who told you?
05:15But if the ultimate answer is Jill Biden told me to do it,
05:18or the ultimate answer is Jill Biden's chief of staff told me to do it, you've got a real problem.
05:23You've got a constitutional crisis in those pardons, really, and there could be a real problem.
05:27Somebody's got to ultimately say, and the question is, will they say this and be honest about it?
05:32Did President Biden direct them to do that?
05:35And this isn't like sending a constituent letter out.
05:38Like, we might have a standard letter if you ask a question about Social Security
05:41and 5,000 people ask me that question, and we have a standard letter and an auto pen signs it.
05:46This is law, and it's very important.
05:48Do you think there's a chance that President Biden didn't authorize the pardoning of his son, for instance?
05:52Like, do you think that even—
05:52I think they looked at that when they said it wasn't done with the auto pen.
05:55That one looks like he signed that one.
05:57So you're saying there's other words you're concerned about.
05:58He may have taken particular care in that one because it was personal to him.
06:02But I think that some of it could be, you could say, is overly broad.
06:06But I think the specific question of who ran the auto pen and who did they get permission from, I think is a valid question.
06:12I think we're going to get an answer to it, too.
06:13Do you think those investigations take away—offer a needed distraction for Republicans as you guys try to get together in this big group of a deal?
06:21I don't know.
06:21I think they're just, you know, another issue.
06:23There's a lot of controversies.
06:24How many court cases are going on right now?
06:26I mean, there's two dozen court cases.
06:28So I don't know if you want to call them distractions.
06:30A lot of them are important questions.
06:31Can the president hire and fire certain people in the executive branch?
06:35And actually, I think he's going to win most of those.
06:37He's already winning a lot of those in court.
06:38I think you have to have the president have the ability to hire and fire the executive branch because then nobody would have the authority if he doesn't.
06:45The legislative branch can't fire people in the executive branch.
06:48So I think he's going to win a lot of those cases.
06:50There's going to be cases on impoundment.
06:52You know, there's going to be a lot of cases decided.
06:54There's cases on deportation.
06:57So there's—the courts have probably never been busier.
07:00But the interesting thing is the cases aren't as clear-cut as people on either side make them out to be.
07:05They are very debatable points of all these cases.
07:07But they also define—they're defining separation of powers.
07:12You know, separation of powers are defined by the Constitution.
07:15They haven't really been adjudicated that much.
07:16This will be—there's going to be a lot that will happen under this Supreme Court that will solidify or define what are the separation of powers.
07:24Thank you so much.
07:25Senator, what coordination do you have with House colleagues?
