US Government SHUTDOWN 'imminent' as Rand Paul PROMISES to block budget
US SENATOR Rand Paul looks set to cause another government shutdown after he pledged to vote against the budget due to not having read the entire 2,232-page budget bill, he revealed.
EXPRESS
The bill must be unanimously agreed by all senators by Friday at midday to prevent the US Federal government running out of money.
Mr Paul is frustrated the budget will raise the debt level and has insisted on reading through the entire budget document before deciding whether to vote for or against the financial deal.
He said on Twitter: “If they insist on voting, I will vote no because it spends too much and there’s just too little time to read the bill and let everyone know what’s actually in it.”
The spending package is worth a total of $1.3trillion (£920billion) and if passed would see increased funding for the military and domestic affairs.
Related articles
Donald Trump has boasted the budget has secured $1.6 billion (£1.13billion) to begin working towards construction of his border wall with Mexico.
The bill has already been voted on in the House of Representatives but must also be agreed by the Senate before Friday’s deadline.
The Senator from Kentucky has argued that since the Republicans have entered Government they have forgotten to be fiscally conservative.
He told Fox news: “When the Republicans are out of power, when they’re in the minority, they’re the conservative party.
GETTY
“But then when they get in the majority, there is no conservative party.”
If no deal is reached, government services will be temporarily shut and thousands of staff employed by the federal state will be forced to take unpaid leave.
Mr Paul has been live-tweeting his reading of the large legal document.
He has slammed his peers for voting on the document without thoroughly reading the detail of the bill.
Posing with a photo of the budget he tweeted: “Well here it is, all 2,232 budget-busting pages.
“The House already started votes on it.
“The Senate is expected to soon.
“No one has read it. Congress is broken.”
The US has already suffered two government shutdowns this year.
Federal services were forced to cease in January for three working days after Democrats refused to give their backing to the bill.
It then faced another temporary shutdown of less than 24 hours in February.
The US also experienced problem passing a budget in 2013 under the Obama administration.
On that occasion the shutdown lasted a total of 16 years.