Rand Paul, Mike Lee returns to Trump-backed bill: “We can and must do better”

Republicans Rand Paul (Kentucky) and Mike Lee (Utah) support tech billionaire Elon Musk’s criticism of the giant man set for the House-approved President Trump’s agenda as it heads to the House for review.

“We can and must do better,” Paul wrote on social platform X on Tuesday.

Lee also said in writing: “The Senate must make this bill better.”

Musk’s criticism of the measure touted by Trump and the Republican leaders in the House emerged, just as Musk served as special adviser to government spending and, in fact, head of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“I’m sorry, but I can’t stand it anymore. This huge, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk wrote on the platform X, which he runs. “Shame to those who vote: You know you’re doing something wrong. You know.”

Large-scale tax and spending legislation will extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and increase funding for border and defense priorities, while cutting spending on social safety net programs such as Medicaid and food aid. It narrowly passed the Republican-controlled house in May and is now under review in the Senate. But Paul and other senators have highlighted the forecast that it will add nearly $4 trillion to the country’s debt.

Musk expressed opposition to the measure in a “CBS Sunday Morning” interview over the weekend, saying “it undermines the work the Doge team did.”

“I think the bills can be big, or they can be pretty,” Musk said in the interview. “I don’t know if this is OK – my personal opinion.”

But the stronger condemnation marked a shift in his criticism and defense of efforts to curb government waste.

“This will greatly increase the already huge budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and bear unsustainable debts to U.S. citizens,” he wrote in a follow-up post on Tuesday.

But the White House has refuted Musk’s criticism, the top donor to Trump’s re-election campaign last fall.

“The president already knows Elon Musk’s place on the bill,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a press conference Tuesday. “This will not change his opinion.”

Trump slammed Paul’s “Social Truth” earlier Tuesday, accusing Kentucky lawmakers of voting “not in everything” and “never” with “practical or constructive ideas.”

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