Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is on the Senate floor right now opposing the spending bill. You can watch his remarks live on C-SPAN or online here.

I'm speaking out on this terrible deal and our out of control spending now on the senate floor. Watch here: https://t.co/9GEF7frVHp

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) February 8, 2018

Paul is denouncing the spending bill as “intellectual dishonesty” and hypocrisy from the Republicans, who were previously opposed to budget deficits under President Barack Obama but seem to have lost their ability to object now that they have power.

He acknowledged the need for disaster relief to help Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico recover from last year’s hurricanes, but asked why the money couldn’t be shifted from somewhere else.

One of his major objections has to do with the ongoing failure to reduce our growing national debt, and he questioned the priorities of some spending items, including sending money to countries who haven’t been the best allies.

“Instead of nation building abroad, why don’t we build our nation here at home?” asked Paul.

We should “quit sending [money] to countries that burn our flag and chat ‘death to America,'” he added.

“A country cannot go on forever spending this way, and what you’re seeing is recklessness being passed off as bipartisanship.”

Paul also criticized the bill for being over 700 pages and no amendments allowed. No one is reading the bill, and it’s been presented as take it or leave it.

“Well, you know, I’m going to leave it,” said Paul.

Paul also made several of the points I made in a post last month: the underlying problem is that Congress has repeatedly failed to follow their own budget rules.

At the time this post was written, about 5 hours and 45 minutes remains before the next shutdown deadline. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Paul is describing in detail a series of wasteful spending programs and has humorously illustrated posters to make his points. My favorite so far is the selfie cat. Paul’s staff are posting several of the posters on his Twitter account.

The National Science Foundation helped fund a study to figure out whether Neil Armstrong used the preposition “a” on the moon. The State Department gave One TV, a for-profit Afghan television station 850K to support a cricket league. Am I the only one outraged by this nonsense? pic.twitter.com/7jcVwU1vNL

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) February 8, 2018

This kind of ridiculous waste goes on decade after decade. Read more on the waste reports here: https://t.co/VlK4BG7khK pic.twitter.com/L7iRtbpeJe

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) February 8, 2018

Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter: @rumpfshaker.

[Adapted for a post at The Capitolist.]