Rand Paul: 'The Tea Party Is No More'

WASHINGTON — Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) declared the Tea Party movement dead if the Senate passes the House-approved budget bill.

The two-year agreement, which President Trump supports, raises the debt ceiling through July 2021 and includes approximately $320 billion in new spending.

“It’s the death, the last gasp of a movement that was once concerned about our national debt. Today is the final nail in the coffin. The Tea Party is no more,” Paul said on Tuesday on the Senate floor. “Adoption of this deal marks the death of the Tea Party movement in America.”

Paul said he opposes the budget agreement because it lacks spending caps and permits “unlimited borrowing” for two years that will have to be paid in the future, adding that fiscal conservatives should be in mourning.

“Both parties have deserted you,” he said. “We’re approaching record deficits and neither party cares.”

Paul said both parties have shown “no sympathy for the burden of debt they are leaving the taxpayers, the young and the next generation.”

In a speech on the Senate floor last week, Paul noted that the federal government is “borrowing a million dollars a minute.”