Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) doubled down on his objections to President Trump’s House-passed big, beautiful bill in Tuesday comments.

Paul said he strongly opposes raising the debt ceiling, which would be hiked by $4 trillion under the current legislation. Lawmakers have speculated the increase could cause debt to swell by $30 trillion over the next decade. 

“I want to see the tax cuts made permanent, but I also want to see the $5 trillion in new debt removed from the bill. At least 4 of us in the Senate feel this way,” Paul wrote in a Tuesday morning post on X. 

Republicans have a majority in the upper chamber but can only afford to have three defects to ensure the bill’s passage. 

Paul, alongside Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), has urged his colleagues to cut down on spending allotments to rein in the country’s debt. 

“The math doesn’t add up. I’m not supporting a bill that increases the debt by $5T. I refuse to support maintaining Biden spending levels,” Paul wrote in a separate Tuesday post. 

Earlier in the day, Trump slammed the senator in a fashion similar to his rebuke for Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who has also railed against the bill. 

“Rand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can’t stand him. This is a BIG GROWTH BILL!” Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform.

Hours later, Paul appeared on Fox News, defending his position on the legislation. 

“I think I’m the most vocal on all fronts. But there are more starting to come to this realization. I think looking at the 10-year and looking at the bond sales being anemic, people not really wanting to buy the government debt, the ratio of purchase to buy orders, bid to buy orders has gone down,” Paul said.

“So I do think that there is some alarm growing. I think what the real thing is going to happen, and we won’t know this, I think, before the bill comes due, but second-quarter growth. If second quarter growth is weak, I think there’s going to be a generalized freak out about these tariffs and a generalized freak out about not doing anything about spending or debt,” he added, noting his constituents sent him to Washington to fight “reckless debt.”