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Former USS Cole Commander Kirk Lippold argues Sen. Rand Paul cant play financial games since lives are at stake amid Russias invasion of Ukraine.

EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is pushing back on a $48 billion business bailout bill, which he calls a "poorly-targeted spending spree," amid rising concerns about historic inflation.

On Tuesday evening, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., scheduled a procedural vote this week on a $48 billion bill that would aid businesses impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

In a letter reviewed by FOX Business to one of President Biden's senior advisers, Gene Sperling, Paul explained his reasoning behind his opposition to the proposed bill, saying it is an "inappropriate moment to spend taxpayer dollars on restaurants and entertainment."

HAWLEY SAYS 'ASTRONOMICAL' $40B UKRAINE AID BILL IS EVIDENCE OF BIDEN'S 'MISPLACED PRIORITIES' AND HURTS US

Paul takes issue with the proposal, which contains "taxpayer-funded grants to restaurants, minor league sports teams, gyms, yachts and limousines businesses and more," because it is being introduced when COVID-19 is "no longer straining our economy," he writes.

Sen. Rand Paul (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Fox News)

The senator argues that additional government spending will only help already-recovering industries at a severe expense to others. Inflation is continuing to hover near a 40-year high and Americans are feeling the pain at the gas pump and at the grocery store as consumer prices continue to rise.

"Congress cannot pass a $48 billion COVID poorly-targeted spending spree if we are truly concerned about inflation," the letter continues.

Sperling has a deadline of Thursday to get back to the senator from Kentucky addressing his concerns.

Paul told FOX Business in an exclusive statement: "COVID-19 is over, and yet Congress is ready to spend $48 billion of borrowed money to bail out yacht and limousines businesses, minor league sports, and luxury gyms under the guise of pandemic relief."

Sen. Rand Paul speaks with reporters after a vote at the Capitol on Dec. 13, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images / Getty Images)

"Now is perhaps the most inappropriate time to spend more taxpayer dollars on a poorly targeted spending spree while Americans struggle with the effects of price increases and supply chain issues caused by Congress last $6 trillion COVID spending extravaganza," the senator continued.

The House of Representatives already passed a $55 billion aid package for businesses and restaurants last month, and the Senate is expected to vote on a procedural motion soon.

The legislation would require 60 votes to pass, which looks unlikely due to Republican opposition and skepticism from Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who would need to get on board in order to pass the measure.

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The Senate's bill comes the same week as it is set to pass a $40 billion Ukraine aid bill, despite opposition from Paul and a handful of Republican senators.

Sen. Josh Hawley speaks with reporters as he leaves the Senate floor in the Capitol on Dec. 7, 2021. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images / Getty Images)

"The amounts we're talking about are astronomical. I think $40 billion would be about three times as much as Europe has contributed combined, all of the European states, for a war that's happening on their continent," Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital Tuesday, saying he's worried it will continue allowing Europe to "freeload."

Last week, Paul blocked a measure that would have fast-tracked the legislation to the Senate floor, saying the bill's direction is muddled and would require additional oversight.

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Rand Paul says timing for $48B COVID business bailout is 'inappropriate' due to historic inflation - Fox Business

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Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., argued Thursday that whoever leaked the Supreme Court draft opinion on overturning Roe v. Wade should be prosecuted and barred from practicing law as justices face protests at their homes.

"I've seen political violence up close," Paul told "Fox & Friends." And this is why it's not just a breach of decorum that they leaked this road decision early. This is really about somebody instigating and trying to foment violence. And I'm very concerned about our Supreme Court justices."

Paul sustained multiple ribs broken and other injuries after he was assaulted by a neighbor at his Kentucky home in 2017.

The senator said even though he is a "stalwart" defender of the First Amendment, disorderly conduct is not protected by it.

VIRGINIA DEMOCRAT SAYS PROTESTS OUTSIDE OF JUSTICES' HOMES 'WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY HAVE THE OPPOSITE EFFECT'

Pro-abortion protesters outside home of Justice Amy Coney Barrett (Fox News Digital)

"You have no right to chant and keep people awake all night in a neighborhood you're invading their privacy, you're invading their private property. Even if you stand on the sidewalk, you do not have a right to keep people awake all night and you should be arrested for disorderly conduct," he said.

Pro-choice protesters led marches outside the homes of Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice Roberts following the leak of the Supreme Court draft opinion signaling the court was getting ready to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Paul condemned the leak as a "huge error" and "serious offense."

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"Whoever did this and whatever clerk did this or whatever person at the prime court did this, not only should they be fired, I think they should be prosecuted and they should be barred from practicing law," he said.

Fox News staff contributed to this report.

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Rand Paul on threats facing Supreme Court justices: 'I'm very concerned' - Fox News

Advocates for independently-owned businesseswarned that restaurants, gyms, and other Main Street businesses across the U.S. will be forced to close in the coming months after Republicans in the Senate on Thursday blocked a $48 billion package to provide relief to owners who have struggled to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.

The bipartisan Small Business Covid Relief Act (S. 4008), which was meant to replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) passed last year, was cosponsored by Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., but stillfailed to getmore than five Republican senators to support it.

The vast majority of GOP lawmakers claimed that helping locally-owned restaurants and bars to stay open and continue employing people in their communities would worsen inflation and contribute to the deficit, with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.,sayingon the Senate floor that "dumping more money in the economy is simply pouring $5-a-gallon gas on an already out-of-control fire."

As a result, said Erika Polmar of the Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC), "we estimate more than half of the 177,300 restaurants waiting for an RRF grant will close in the next few months."

The bill would have given $40 billion to independent restaurants left out of the restaurant relief program which passed last year butran out of fundsin just three weeks, with only one in three applicants receiving grants.

"Local restaurants across the country expected help but the Senate couldn't finish the job," said Polmar. "Neighborhood restaurants nationwide have held out hope for this program, selling their homes, cashing out retirement funds, or taking personal loans in an effort to keep their employees working."

The RRF bill would also have given $2 billion for gyms and fitness centers, $2 billion for live event companies, $2 billion for bus and ferry operators, $1.4 billion for companies near border crossings which have shut down during the pandemic, and $500 million for minor league sports teams.

The Community Gyms CoalitiontoldThe Hillthat although an RRF replenishment bill passed in the House, the Senate "failed to invest in fitness and exercise despite their obvious benefits for Americans' mental and physical health."

"After hanging on for another year, hurting restaurants and bars throughout America, especially in rural communities, may not see any relief despite the House passing a bill just last month to put more money into the RRF,"saidDidier Trinh, policy and political impact director for Main Street Alliance (MSA). "The fate of these small businessesincluding ones owned by women and people of color that were left behindwill be tied to those senators who voted down this lifeline today."

Along with Wicker, Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Bill Cassidy, R-La., were the only Republicans who joined Democrats in voting for the bill. The Democrats needed at least 10 Republicans to support the legislation to reach 60 votes required by the legislative filibuster.

"Senators who ensured this fate instead of providing the relief small business needs now must be held accountable,"tweetedMSA.

Tyler Akin, a board member of the IRC and a chef in Wilmington, Delaware, noted that the GOP's rejection of the bill immediately followed a vote approving$40 billionof military and humanitarian aid for Ukrainemore than $7 billion than President Joe Biden had requested.

"Ironically, this filibuster followed a vote to stand in solidarity at a similar level of funding with a group of European allies that handled some of the worst effects of the past two years with far more grace and unity," AkintoldThe Philadelphia Inquirer. "It's clear that those who aligned with Senator [Pat] Toomey today have little or no desire to support small businesses."

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GOP vote against bipartisan relief bill threatens to kill tens of thousands of small businesses - Salon

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) said his Kentucky colleague Sen. Rand Paul (R), who vocally opposed the $40 billion Ukraine aid package, represented a tiny percentage of Senate Republicans.

My colleague, Senator Paul, has always been basically an isolationist. Hes proud of it and believes thats where America ought to be. That is a tiny percentage of the Senate Republican Conference, McConnell told Fox News Bret Baier on Thursday.

Theres always been a strand of isolationism in our party, but its not anywhere near the dominant view, which was expressed in the vote that we had today and will be expressed again when we vote on the admission of Finland and Sweden into NATO, he added.

Paul was among 11 GOP senators who voted against the $40 billion aid package for Ukraine earlier Thursday. The Kentucky Republican last week kept the chamber from quickly advancing the legislation after it passed the House earlier this month.

We only had 11 votes against the package. I predict we will have even fewer votes opposed to the admission of Finland and Sweden into NATO, McConnell said on Fox, predicting more than two-thirds of the Senate would vote to back Finland and Swedens NATO bids.

The Ukraine aid package that passed the upper chamber Thursday includes $9 billion to refill stockpiles for weapons sent to Ukraine and close to $9 billion for the Ukrainian government to continue its operations and combat human trafficking, among other provisions.

If Congress really believed giving Ukraine $40B was in our national interest, they could easily pay for it by taxing every income taxpayer $500. My guess is they choose to borrow the $ bc Americans might just decide they need the $500 more to pay for gas, Paul tweeted Thursday morning.

Ten GOP senators joined Paul in voting against the aid package: Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), John Boozman (Ark.), Mike Braun (Ind.), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Mike Lee (Utah), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), Roger Marshall (Kan.) and Tommy Tuberville (Ala.).

The passage of the aid package was lauded by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

I praise the [U.S.] Senates approval of the Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2022. $ 40 billion is a significant [U.S.] contribution to the restoration of peace and security in Ukraine, Europe and the world. We look forward to the signing of the law by @POTUS, he wrote on Twitter.

President Biden is expected to sign the legislation soon.

Excerpt from:
McConnell on isolationist Rand Paul opposing Ukraine aid: A tiny percentage of Senate GOP - The Hill

The day following his defeat in the Republican primary to represent North Carolinas 11th congressional district, Madison Cawthorn was uncharacteristically quiet.

That changed on Thursday, as Mr Cawthorn posted to his social media channels thanking a list of supporters who stood by him when the Uni-party coalesced to defeat an America First member. That list included former president Donald Trump, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, and the National Rifle Association.

In a longer message on his Instagram account, Mr Cawthorn, who became the youngest ever member of the US House of Representatives when he was sworn into office last year, said that it is time for for Dark MAGA to truly take command.

These are those rare and hated men/women, Mr Cawthorn wrote of his endorsers.

There are other National figures who I believe are patriots, but I am on a mission now to expose those who say and promise one thing yet legislate and work towards another, self-profiteering, globalist goal. The time for gentile politics as usual has come to an end.

Other elected officials Mr Cawthorn thanked included Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Matt Gaetz of Florida, and Paul Gosar of Arizona three of the furthest right members of the House Republican caucus. Mr Cawthorn thanked a number of other far right media members as well.

The primary defeat caps an extraordinarily chaotic period of months for the first-term representative, who saw his chances of re-election fall as he was mired in scandal after scandal while many establishment figures in North Carolina rallied around his main challenger Chuck Edwards.

Just this year, Mr Cawthorn called Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky a thug and said his government incredibly evil, said hed been invited to orgies by a colleague and seen prominant Washington insiders do cocaine in front of him, and was accused of giving improper benefits to his aides and possibly engaging in an inappropriate relationship with his second cousin.

These were not Mr Cawthorns first brushes with scandal. The North Carolina lawmaker was accused of sexual misconduct during the 2020 election, addressed the crowd that stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and later offered Kyle Rittenhouse, the man who fatally shot two men in Kenosha, Wisconsin during a protest an internship in his office.

Mr Cawthorns antics took a toll. Mr Edwards, a member of the state senate, ran as more understated, responsible conservative and racked up endorsements from the likes of Senator Thom Tillis and former Texas governor Rick Perry.

Mr Trump stuck by Mr Cawthorn, but in the end, voters opted narrowly for Mr Edwards and handed him a one-and-a-half percentage point victory on Tuesday night.

Mr Cawthorn now has just over six months left in his term. If his social media conduct on Wednesday is any indication, he will not go quietly.

We have an enemy to defeat, but we will never be able to defeat them until we defeat the cowardly and weak members of our own party, he wrote on Instagram. Their days are numbered. We are coming.

The rest is here:
Madison Cawthorn thanks Trump, Tucker Carlson, Rand Paul and the NRA for standing by him before election loss - The Independent