U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) appeared on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo and spoke about the House’s version of President Donald Trump‘s “big beautiful bill,” which according to the CBO will add $2.4 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years. Paul has been vocal about his opposition to the current bill; he wants to see more cuts to spending.
Bartiromo argued that President Biden “went overboard” by “sending too much money to Americans to help them after Covid,” and asked Paul “what’s the amount of money you would like to see cut, to get us back to pre-pandemic spending?”
Senator Paul: But think about it this way, who caused the deficit? Well, the first Trump administration passed out $2500 checks to everybody. We shut the entire economy down. During the first Trump administration, $8 trillion in debt was added. During the Biden administration, $8… pic.twitter.com/46ggLpcEO2
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 8, 2025
Paul replied with a self-evident formula for saving money: “We have to have less spending next year than we did last year. If you have more spending you’re going to have a bigger deficit.”
And then added: “But think about it this way, who caused the deficit? Well, the first Trump administration passed out $2500 checks to everybody. We shut the entire economy down. During the first Trump administration, $8 trillion in debt was added. During the Biden administration, $8 trillion in debt was added. This is a bipartisan problem.” Paul added: “Right now, spending is going up next year.”
More than a few X users agreed with Paul, with one replying: “I don’t agree with him on everything, but he’s right.”
With Paul essentially saying that both Biden and Trump raised the debt equally, other commenters noted a difference in how the money was earmarked during the respective presidential administrations. One, favoring the Biden administration’s priorities, wrote: “The infrastructure bill of President Joe Biden gave Americans in every state desperately needed infrastructure and high paying jobs. Trump is making his billionaire friends richer & having parades.”
(The latter refers to budgetary matters during Trump’s second term, where priorities include making his 2017 tax cuts permanent and vastly increasing military spending, including funding a military parade in the Capital coinciding with the President’s birthday.)
Note: Biden’s $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provided funds to upgrade the nation’s roads, bridges, water systems and broadband. The bill was passed 69–30 by the Senate in August, 2021. (Proving he’s serious about spending cuts no matter who proposes them, Paul voted against it, although his state was expected to receive over $5 billion for highway and bridge upgrades through the package.)
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who was a chief negotiator of the bipartisan bill, said of its success: “This is what can happen when Republicans and Democrats decide we’re going to work together to get something done.”