WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican senator Rand Paul on Friday appeared to back the Trump administration’s sweeping tax cut plan, saying he was “all in” for massive tax cuts even as the Senate passed a key budget measure without his support one day earlier.
On Thursday, the Republican-controlled Senate approved the budget resolution for the 2018 fiscal year, with Paul casting the lone Republican vote against it. That approval paves the way for their tax-cut proposal that would add up to $1.5 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade to pay for the cuts.
"The Budget passed late last night, 51 to 49. We got ZERO Democrat votes with only Rand Paul (he will vote for Tax Cuts) voting against," Trump wrote on Twitter. "This now allows for the passage of large scale Tax Cuts (and Reform), which will be the biggest in the history of our country!"
Democrats remained united in their opposition to the budget bill and are unlikely to support Republicans' tax plan, which they argue would benefit the wealthy, raise taxes on some middle-class Americans and increase the federal deficit.
The Senate's budget must be reconciled with a markedly different version passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, also controlled by Republicans, a process lawmakers have said could take up to two weeks.