http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/263836-paul-nobody-read-the-11-trillion-omnibus-billDecember 20, 2015, 06:00 am
Paul: Nobody read the $1.1 trillion omnibus bill
By Bradford Richardson
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Sunday said he voted against the $1.1 trillion government spending bill that passed Congress last week because nobody had a chance to read the behemoth legislation.
“It was over a trillion dollars, it was all lumped together, 2,242 pages, nobody read it, so frankly my biggest complaint is that I have no idea what kind of things they stuck in the bill,” Paul told host John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on New York’s AM-970.
“I voted against it because I won’t vote for these enormous bills that no one has a chance to read,” he added.
“We were given it yesterday or the day before the bill came forward, and so this is not a way to run government. It’s a part of the reason why government is broke.”
Paul said his Republican colleagues in the House and Senate are just as complicit as Democrats for the legislation.
“Once again this came not at the behest of just the Democrats,” he said. “It came at the behest of right-wing Republicans who want military spending and left-wing Democrats who want welfare spending, and that’s the dirty little secret.
“Both parties are at fault for it,” he added.
The GOP presidential candidate said he is worried about the climbing national debt, adding that Congress should only spend the money it has.
“I think we should balance our budget and only spend what comes in,” he said.
