Rand Paul Gives Take On Israel-Iran Conflict: 'Hoping The President Will Not Get Involved'

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill.

Transcript

00:00Senator Paul, do you feel served by your colleagues right now?

00:04You were against raising the debt ceiling and it's been pushed up another trillion dollars.

00:09Do you feel like you're being heard or listened to?

00:11I think the American people are listening.

00:14I think that conservatives across the country are very worried about expanding the credit line to $5 trillion.

00:21Congress has shown an irresponsibility.

00:24They're not good with money.

00:25We shouldn't give them an expansive credit line.

00:27If we give them anything, it should be small and incremental.

00:30My proposal is that we would expand the credit line for three months and check and see how they're behaving.

00:36Are they spending the money more wisely?

00:37Are they conserving the money?

00:39And that's my position.

00:40So I'm not for the bill unless we remove the debt ceiling or unless we do it in small increments.

00:45What do you say to Republicans who say this will not increase the deficit?

00:50The bill?

00:51Yeah.

00:52But the bill is inadequate in the sense that it's not going to turn the tide on the deficit.

00:56We're adding about, like this year, we're supposed to add $2.2 trillion.

01:00Let's say you believed all the cuts, which I don't necessarily believe they'll come into fruition.

01:05But that'd be $150 billion a year.

01:08So that means the deficit this year, instead of being $2.2 trillion, would be $2.05 trillion.

01:12It'd still be an enormous amount of debt.

01:14So none of this is really shifting the accumulation of debt or interest.

01:20And even with that, I could vote for the bill to make the tax cuts permanent.

01:25I think it's good for the economy.

01:27But I can't vote to add $5 trillion.

01:30At the point Republicans vote unanimously or virtually unanimously for the debt ceiling, they own the debt.

01:36They already own the spending.

01:37In March, they used to call them, remember, they called them the Biden spending levels?

01:40They're now the GOP spending levels, minus me.

01:43I didn't vote for them in March.

01:44But the spending levels are now Republican.

01:47The debt ceiling is Republican.

01:49So it's a little hard for Republicans.

01:51You know, they think it'll hurt them in the election to be hardcore.

01:54I think it hurts them in the election to be weak.

01:56Because we roll around at 2026 elections, what are they going to say?

01:59Oh, Democrats, you know, they're for borrow and spend.

02:01That's what we always have said, and it's true.

02:03But now the Republicans will have joined the Democrats in peeing for borrow and spend.

02:08Senator Kinsley, you get the sense that the U.S. is going to attack Iran.

02:13I hope not.

02:14I think the lingering chance for diplomacy comes from restraint.

02:19The president has shown restraint in the past.

02:22The president's instincts are good.

02:24And I'm hoping the president will not get involved with the war.

02:27I think if the United States actively bombs Tehran, the possibility of negotiation goes out.

02:34The president just moments ago posted on...

02:36...

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