Rand Paul slams new debt ceiling hike: ‘if DOGE cuts are real, why is the government still trying to borrow another $5 trillion’
Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) didn’t mince words this week, delivering a sharp critique aimed squarely at the Trump administration and his fellow conservatives over a proposed $5 trillion increase to the debt ceiling.
During an appearance on Fox & Friends on May 15, Paul questioned the rationale behind what he described as unprecedented borrowing, raising alarms about the long-term impact on the nation’s financial health.
“It’s asking conservatives like myself to raise the debt ceiling $5 trillion. That’s historic. Nobody has ever raised the debt ceiling that much,” he said.
“If the DOGE cuts are real, why are we gonna borrow another $5 trillion?”
Paul was referring to proposed federal budget reductions, including those initiated by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with vocal backing from President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk.
“It’s asking conservatives to raise the debt ceiling $5T. Nobody has ever raised the debt ceiling that much. If the DOGE cuts are real why are we gonna borrow another $5T?”
Though he questioned the size of the debt ceiling increase, Paul did acknowledge the recent push by Trump and Kennedy to halt what he labeled as wasteful government spending.
He took aim at past Health and Human Services (HHS) grants, calling them out as prime examples of waste. Paul pointed to studies like one that funneled nearly $750,000 into researching microaggressions against obese Latinx people, another that investigated whether happy rats use more cocaine than unhappy ones, and a third examining if transgender men can become pregnant.
“This kind of craziness has been going on not for a couple years. This didn’t start in the Biden years. This has been going on since the 1970s,” Paul said.
“Finally we have someone, President Trump, willing to stand up and say enough is enough.”
Paul argued that taxpayer dollars should be directed toward solving major national health concerns such as obesity, diabetes, and cancer, rather than being wasted on what he termed “crazy, looney things that any common sense American would say are nuts.”
In a heated moment during a Senate hearing, Paul defended Kennedy following criticism from Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). Murray claimed budget cuts were to blame for a cancer patient in her district being denied entry into a clinical trial. However, after a follow-up by Kennedy, it was confirmed that the patient didn’t qualify due to medical criteria—not staffing reductions.
Paul was blunt in his response, saying the narrative was misleading and emotionally manipulative.
Paul called the incident “a disgusting way to use someone… as a pawn for political purposes” and said it was misleading to blame budget cuts.
Beyond opposing the proposed $5 trillion increase, Paul advocated for a more measured approach. He proposed requiring Congress to reauthorize smaller debt ceiling bumps every few months to ensure promised spending cuts are actually being implemented.
“If the problem promises are real, we’ll vote to raise it every three months,”
Paul said. “If you’re raising $5 trillion for two years, you just put it on the back burner. We will coast through that money and spend it all. And that’s not what the people want. That’s not what our supporters want.”
“It's asking conservatives to raise the debt ceiling $5T. Nobody has ever raised the debt ceiling that much. If the DOGE cuts are real why are we gonna borrow another $5T?”
— Spencer Hakimian (@SpencerHakimian) May 15, 2025
Rand Paul going at Trump and Elon on Fox News right now.
pic.twitter.com/nUux0PQQC8
For Paul, the message couldn’t be clearer—fiscal responsibility requires more than bold declarations. It demands consistent accountability and a willingness to say no, even to one’s own party.
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