Senator Rand Paul has said that while he opposes a government shutdown, spending is out of control and it should not be allowed to continue.

“People worry about the government shutting down, and I understand that, but they should also worry about keeping the government open,” Paul said during a Fox News appearance.

Citing $22 trillion in federal debt, Paul urged that “We shouldn’t willy-nilly shut the government down, but also shouldn’t just keep it open and keep spending money like there’s no tomorrow.”

“If you keep a government open that borrows a trillion dollars a year, are there problems to that?” Paul asked, adding “Is there an ultimate underpinning that is eroding away for the whole country, when we accumulate a $22 trillion debt, when we borrow more than a million-and-a-half dollars a minute?”

Paul added that a government shutdown is “more hype than reality” and that if it makes a difference it can be an effective tool.

The Senator warned, however that there is still a lot of wastage in shutting down the government, and that a long term fix would be to make the government smaller.

“We always pay the people for not working. So they’ll declare 80 percent of the people up here ‘unessential,’ meaning they don’t have to show up for work, but we always pay them,” Paul said.

“I don’t understand that. They’re unessential, we keep paying them and we keep them employed. I’m for if you’re unessential, maybe that’s an argument for making government smaller.” The Senator argued.

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