Kentucky’s Paul, McConnell split on Trump-backed ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Senate vote
President Donald Trump’s biggest legislative undertaking of his second term passed out of the U.S. Senate Tuesday on a 51-50 vote, a margin so close that Vice President JD Vance was called in to break the tie.
One of the reasons the vote was so close was the “no” from Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who has spoken out against the bill due to the size of its spending throughout the legislative process.
Paul, in a social media post explaining his opposition, cited the projected increase to the national debt as a result of the bill.
He said he tried to negotiate a 90% reduction to the debt ceiling, which is a limit on how much the country can borrow to pay for spending required by law. Instead, the bill increased the nation’s debt ceiling by $5 trillion.
“I wasn’t looking for favors. I wasn’t horse-trading. I was fighting for the American people and against our out-of-control debt. Bottom line: I offered my vote for fiscal sanity. Congress chose to sell out taxpayers instead. Only once the bill is released, we will know what the true price was,” Paul wrote on X.
Paul joined all 47 Democrats and two fellow Republicans, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine, in voting no.
In contrast, fellow Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is not seeking reelection in 2026, lauded the bill’s passage as a fulfillment of Trump’s election mandate.
“The American people sent President Trump and Republican majorities to Washington with a clear mandate: secure the border, restore peace through strength and American energy dominance, and give working families and small businesses relief from the Biden economy,” McConnell wrote in a statement. “Our votes today are a step toward fulfilling that duty. We’re bolstering border security, investing in programs that assist our farmers, raising take-home pay for working Kentuckians, and preventing the largest tax hike in American history.”
However, McConnell also expressed some disappointment at how certain defense expenditures were classified as one-time instead of recurring.
The bill now heads back to the U.S. House where that body will attempt to reconcile the differences between the version of the legislation it passed and the Senate’s version. Republicans have a narrow majority in that body, and all Kentucky Republicans except 4th Congressional District Rep. Thomas Massie supported the bill when it first passed.
Many in Kentucky have decried the spending cuts to entitlement programs like Medicaid that are in the bill.
The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy wrote in a statement that the bill makes cuts “harmful” to needy Kentuckians. The group pointed out that one in three Kentuckians get their health coverage through Medicaid and about 562,000 get Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food assistance to help cover food costs.
“These programs are essential to better health and are especially necessary in a time of rising household costs. They inject tens of billions of dollars into the Kentucky economy each year, creating jobs at grocery stores, hospitals and health clinics,” Jason Bailey, Executive Director of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, wrote.
“But the Senate bill makes harmful cuts to both, ensuring that doctor visits and groceries will be more difficult to afford for far too many, while also threatening the very existence of many rural hospitals and grocery stores.”
