Paul Opposes Spending Deal

The Hill reports:

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a founding member of the Senate Tea Party Caucus, is urging his colleagues to vote against the spending deal between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

Paul, who has proposed cutting $200 billion or $500 billion from discretionary spending over the rest of 2011, said the cuts agreed to Friday night are negligible.

“The much-ballyhooed 2011 continuing resolution will leave the federal government spending $1.6 trillion more than it takes in,” Paul wrote in a letter to Senate and House colleagues. “Despite descriptions of cuts, the 2011 Congress will spend more than it did in 2010 and with a larger annual deficit. It is the third year in a row with a record deficit.

“Only in Washington can a budget that spends more than it did the year before, with a larger deficit, be portrayed as ‘cutting’,” he wrote.