President Trump on Tuesday lashed out at Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, for refusing to go along with a bill carrying his domestic agenda, part of an intensifying pressure campaign he has undertaken to exhort senators in his own party to quickly embrace and pass the legislation.
In a pair of social media posts, Mr. Trump claimed that Mr. Paul had little understanding of the measure, adding: “His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can’t stand him.”
“He loves voting ‘NO’ on everything, he thinks it’s good politics, but it’s not,” Mr. Trump wrote of Mr. Paul, calling the legislation a “big WINNER!”
His broadside came as Senate Republicans began contemplating the bill, which squeaked through the House late last month over solid Democratic opposition. Even as Speaker Mike Johnson has implored senators not to make major changes that could jeopardize the measure’s chances of final approval in the House, they have made clear they intend to put their own mark on the package.
On Monday, Mr. Trump publicly urged Senate Republicans to move swiftly on the measure, touting its provisions cutting taxes, beefing up border enforcement and deportations, rolling back clean energy programs and scaling back Medicaid and food assistance, among others.
“I call on all of my Republican friends in the Senate and House to work as fast as they can to get this Bill to MY DESK before the Fourth of JULY,” Mr. Trump wrote.
That may be easier said than done. Senate Republicans have a slim majority, and can afford to lose only three votes on the bill. Several Republicans have already expressed objections to the legislation as approved by the House.
One group, led by Mr. Paul as well as Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mike Lee of Utah, is agitating for deeper spending cuts, noting that the bill as written is projected to balloon federal deficits. Mr. Paul also opposes the measure’s $4 trillion increase in the debt limit, a boost that the Treasury Department says is needed to avert a federal default as early as July.
Another faction — including Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri, Jim Justice of West Virginia and Susan Collins of Maine — has expressed concerns about a provision in the bill that would limit strategies that states have developed to tax medical providers and pay them higher prices for Medicaid services. The senators’ worry is that the change could adversely affect rural hospitals in their states.
Still another group of senators, including Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Curtis of Utah, have indicated unhappiness with the legislation’s aggressive — and almost total — repeal of clean energy tax credits created by legislation passed during President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s administration, which he named the Inflation Reduction Act.
“I just want Republicans to be thoughtful and not reactive. Just because it was in the I.R.A.,” Mr. Curtis told reporters, referring to the law by its abbreviation, “doesn’t make it bad.”
Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, also has raised concerns about both the Medicaid cuts and the repeal of the clean energy tax credits.
Jonathan Swan contributed reporting.
Catie Edmondson covers Congress for The Times.
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