Two conservative GOP senators on Sunday said the “big beautiful bill” passed at President Trump’s behest by House Republicans needs to be cut down to size, signaling huge challenges in enacting Trump’s plans in the Senate.

The two GOP senators, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, are both Trump allies, but signaled they are unhappy with House legislation that they say will bust the budget.

“I think the cuts currently in theill are wimpy and anemic, but I still would support the bill even with wimpy and anemic cuts if they weren’t going to explode the debt,” Paul said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

Paul had earlier said he was a hard “no” on the House GOP bill, which was passed by the House on Thursday.

On Sunday, Paul said “the math doesn’t add up” and that language allowing the government to increase the debt ceiling by $4 trillion has to be removed because it is “not conservative.”

“There’s got to be someone left in Washington who thinks debt is wrong and deficits are wrong and wants to go in the other direction,” he said.

“Somebody has to stand up and yell, ‘The emperor has no clothes,’” Paul added. “And everybody’s falling in lockstep on this, pass the ‘big, beautiful bill,’ don’t question anything.”

Johnson has not said he would vote against the House bill, but he was similarly dismissive on Sunday.

“We need to be responsible, and the first goal of our budget reconciliation process should be to reduce the deficit,” Johnson said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper. “This actually increases it.”

Johnson warned the bill is not going to get to Trump’s desk in its current form, expressing confidence there were enough votes in the Senate to stop it.

“I think we have enough [senators] to stop the process until the president gets serious about the spending reduction and reducing the deficit,” Johnson said in remarks likely to be noticed in the White House.

Republicans are using special budgetary rules to move the Trump package through the Senate and around a Democratic filibuster. As a result, Democrats cannot block the bill given the GOP’s 53-47 seat majority. Every Democrat in the House opposed the package, along with two House Republicans.

If Johnson and Paul both opposed the bill but the other 51 Republicans in the Senate were unified in support, the bill could still inch through the Senate and even still lose another vote, with Vice President Vance positioned to a break a 50-50 tie in such a circumstance.

However, Johnson and Paul’s defiance likely signals problems for the bill from other conservative senators.

Even in the House, there were conservatives who reluctantly provided votes for the bill despite their worries it would add trillions to annual deficits.

“The consequences of this bill will add to the debt, and if we don’t get the bond market under control, then we’re going to be paying a whole lot of money,” Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), a Freedom Caucus member, said after the vote. “We’re already close to a trillion dollars in debt payments now. That is a real concern. It ought to be a concern of more people in Washington that this is an unsustainable path. We’ve got to get that under control.” 

At the same time, there is likely to be pressure in the Senate to make some changes to the bill that could actually increase the measure’s cost.

Reforms to Medicaid that according to the Congressional Budget Office could cause more than 7 million people to lose coverage have particularly caused heartburn.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has described cutting Medicaid as bad politically and politically suicidal given the large number of GOP voters who enjoy Medicaid benefits. His concerns have been joined by some other Republican senators, such as Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Reductions to green energy tax credits in the House bill have also won scorn from some GOP senators, indicating another battle in the Senate.

The House bill includes a big change to the ceiling for state and local taxes that was a big win for a group of New York House Republicans. It may be targeted in the Senate by Republicans seeking to pay for other changes to the bill, but that could cost the package votes in the lower chamber, where it would need to be approved again.

Both chambers are also dealing with some huge deadlines.

Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent has said the debt ceiling will need to be raised in July, which sets up one critical deadline for the package.

The “big beautiful” bill’s key provisions are the extensions of the 2017 Trump tax cuts. Congress essentially the rest of the year to get those extended and prevent a massive tax hike, raising the possibility that the debt ceiling portion of the bill could be cut off from the rest of the package. But getting a debt ceiling increase done separately may not be easy given the reluctance of many Republicans in both chambers to take such a vote.

Johnson in his remarks on Sunday was careful to compliment Trump’s work in the bill, but he also emphasized the need to reduce spending.

“I have nothing but support for what President Trump is trying to do, and I love the way he’s acting boldly and swiftly, decisively, to fix the enormous messes left by the Biden administration,” Johnson said. “We have to reduce the deficit, and so we need to focus on spending, spending, spending.”

For his part, Paul said it was critical for conservatives to stand up and be counted.

“Well, conservatives do need to stand up and have their voice heard,” he said. “This is a problem we’ve been facing for decades now, and if we don’t stand up on it, I really fear the direction the country is going.”