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United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers Tuesday that the United States’ war with Iran has cost taxpayers an estimated $37.5 billion.
But Hegseth was also requesting Congress allocate much more for defense spending, and that is not sitting well with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.
During an exclusive interview Wednesday with the Messenger-Inquirer, Paul lamented that additional funding would be a losing proposition for the country.
“When Secretary Hegseth testified yesterday, part of his testimony was he wanted $37.5 billion more, but he was also clear to say that it’s in addition to the $1.5 trillion he wants in the defense budget,” Paul said. “Well, that’s a $500 billion increase in the base budget and then another $37 billion. So I think a lot of people aren’t quite seeing the whole picture here. They’re basically asking for a $537 billion increase in military spending, which I think is outrageous, extraordinary and threatens our country.
“I think the biggest threat we face as a country is actually our national debt. And if you were to basically increase military spending well over 50% in one year — and no one has ever done anything like that — I think it’s bad for the country. We’re already facing about a $2 trillion deficit for the current fiscal year, and then you add something like that in and it will be well over $2 trillion, might be $2.5 trillion next year.”
Paul said he never thought the war was “advisable,” and he doesn’t see any benefits thus far for the United States.
“I don’t think if you look objectively at the war that you can see that it’s a success in any way,” Paul said. “Before the war, the Strait of Hormuz was never militarized. People have talked about it over the years, but even with a hostile government in Iran, ships still freely moved throughout the gulf. So the fact that it’s militarized now and we have no improvement in the situation with regard to removing their enriched uranium, I think it’s a sign that the war hasn’t been successful.
“The other way I think the war can be seen as less than successful are gas prices are up, fertilizer prices are up, and yet there’s still not a lot of progress on the negotiations. I’ve been a supporter of giving President (Donald) Trump some room to negotiate, but that’s pretty much broken down now, and the ceasefire has gone. There still seems to be no progress on the negotiating front. So I think at this point, whatever we can do to end the war would be good.”
Paul doesn’t believe anything has changed politically in regard to the leadership of Iran, and he doesn’t see a clear path forward to any negotiations being fruitful.
“I think the regime that’s left is not more sympathetic or compliant,” Paul said. “The Trump administration said, ‘Oh, these are much less hardened warriors and aren’t radical Islamists.’ Well, the main guy now, we killed his dad and we blew his leg off. He is apparently disfigured, and (the administration) has insulted him multiple times in the media. I’ve never met the fellow, but my guess would be he’s not eager for peace with people who killed his dad. So that scenario is not an easy one to find peace.
“And I think (Iran) instinctively knows that Trump’s not going to put land troops in. And without land troops in, it’s harder to dictate to them exactly what we want them to do. If you put land troops in, it’s probably going to require 100,000 to 200,000 troops. Then this looks like the Iraq War, with thousands of our soldiers probably dying. I think they are stuck.”
Paul believes a key misstep in the military action with Iran was Trump not initially seeking congressional approval.
“I think it was a mistake to get this started, and I think it was a mistake to ignore the Constitution,” Paul said. “Both times when George W. Bush took us to war, he actually came to Congress and asked for permission. He asked for permission after 9/11 to go to war with the folks that were being harbored in Afghanistan. Then with the Iraq War, which I didn’t think was a good idea, he still came to Congress and we had a vote on it.”
Paul said he continues to support the Save America Act, which tightens voter registration requirements. He said he’s “for the concept that only citizens should vote and we should check on it.”
However, Paul said he feels good about Kentucky’s voter rolls.
“In Kentucky, we have largely done that work; (Secretary of State) Mike Adams has gone through the voting rolls,” Paul said. “I think Kentucky has a fairly good setup for trying to keep honest elections. We do mostly paper ballots — I think we may all be paper ballots now — and if there’s a close vote and it’s like 780 to 780 for a magistrate race, they can go back and count every paper ballot. They keep them for long enough to do it, and they do random checks of it. So I don’t think noncitizens voting is a large problem in Kentucky.
“But I think there are some states that are maybe worse than others, so make it a minimum bar. I don’t understand why Democrats are opposed to it. But I don’t think that there are the votes to do it. You normally have to get to 60 votes to pass something in the Senate, so there is sort of a need for a bipartisan compromise to pass anything. I don’t think you’d get any Democrats getting on board this, so with only Republicans, it’s just not enough.”
While Trump has made election interference by other countries a common talking point, Paul doesn’t see it as much of anything new or a crisis.
“I think all countries interfere in others’ elections,” he said. “In fact, if you look historically over the last 50 years, the country that has interfered in more elections than any other country would be the United States. And there are some arguments that we interfered in the election in 2014 when the Russian-leaning president of Ukraine was ousted — that our NGOs, specifically Hillary Clinton and her followers, were involved in that election in Ukraine.
“But really, if you go back 100 years, you have probably two dozen Central American or Latin American countries where we have these Marines or other folks down in their country not only just influencing, but maybe even creating the outcome of elections. So I won’t say it’s a new thing, but it’s also wrong for the other side to say it never happens.”
Missing for more than a month from the debates on these issues has been Sen. Mitch McConnell, who hasn’t been seen — other than in one picture of questionable authenticity — since being hospitalized for what is said to have been a fall at his home. Paul said he has not had direct contact with McConnell since the incident.
“I don’t have any insight; I’ve read what I’ve read in the newspaper,” Paul said. “I did see the reports of three people that have had extensive conversations with him. I hope he gets better soon and he will be back soon. We have our policy disagreements, but as a human being, I wish him well, and I’m wanting him to get better.
“I want him to be able to serve out the rest of his term, and in all likelihood, that will happen.”
