Sen. Rand Paul said his colleagues' budget deal is causing uncertainty in the stock market and stated that "this country is going to hell in a hand basket" with such profligate spending. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo GOP rips Rand for shutdown The Kentucky Republican came in for harsh criticism — from his own party — for sending the government over the brink.

Rand Paul took a stand, consequences be damned. And Senate Republicans are livid about it.

After driving the government into a brief shutdown over his demand for an amendment to cut government spending, the Kentucky Republican took friendly fire from a significant number of his Republican colleagues for delaying an inevitable passage vote in the Senate. They accused the senator of misusing the Senate's time for no real reason other than to draw attention himself.


"It's a colossal waste of time," said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.). "He never gets a result."

"He's tilting at windmills. Don Quixote, you know," said Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.).

The Paul-driven shutdown, however short it may be, was sparked by the libertarian-leaning senator's insistence that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) grant him a vote to amend a budget deal that includes more than $300 billion in new spending over two years. McConnell refused, reasoning that would open up the bill to too many amendments. In turn, Paul declined to allow a vote before midnight, when government funding expired.

Asked if he's worried about singlehandedly inheriting the blame for a shutdown, Paul replied: "No. I think it's an important enough thing that we should have a discussion over."

"Somebody's got to stand up and fight," Paul said in an interview.

While Paul received some praise from allies like Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) for his latest stand, several Republican senators criticized him on the Senate floor. Even McConnell got in on the action, reminding the Senate that President Donald Trump supports the bill and Paul "does not join the president in supporting the bill."

After the midnight deadline, McConnell introduced Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a Paul ally, to a pair of senators on the Senate floor with a trademark crack about Paul's current low standing among congressional Republicans.

"I want to introduce you to a congressman who likes the senator from Kentucky," McConnell said with a grin.

As soon as Paul began speaking, McConnell left the Senate floor. Paul was unmoved by the internal criticism and blamed his party for abandoning its deficit hawk ways now that it is in power.

"The hypocrisy is astounding. Every one of these Republicans complained about President Obama's deficits," Paul said.

Because the budget deal was filed on late Wednesday, the Senate needed consent from all 100 senators to hold a vote before the midnight funding deadline, giving Paul significant leverage to make his point that the Senate should be more open to debate.

As the shutdown neared, Paul's colleagues ganged up on him as they grew increasingly frustrated with a member of their own party. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) blamed Paul directly for "wasting everybody's time."

"It's just grossly irresponsible," Cornyn told reporters, explaining why Republicans would not grant him his amendment. "Why reward bad behavior?"

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Paul is waging his fight "probably to help Rand Paul."

And Cornyn, McConnell, Graham and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) tried repeatedly to set up a vote before the shutdown deadline. Each time, Paul objected, much to Tillis' frustration.

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"Do you want to be a senator that wants to make a point or you want to make a difference? You know what? I don't see how points alone can make a change in America," Tillis fumed on the Senate floor. "You can make a point all you want. But points are forgotten. There's not a whole of history books about the great points of the American Senate."

After Paul withstood a barrage of criticism from his colleagues, the like-minded Lee came to the floor to defend him. He said individual senators are “left out of the process” and left with a binary choice of voting yes or no, with no alterations to legislation.

"Rand has every right to do what he's doing. He's making some good points," added Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). "I'd rather that there not have been a shutdown. But it's not much of a shutdown."

Despite the celebration among many lawmakers in both parties about the massive $300 billion budget deal reached Wednesday, leaders miscalculated by waiting until the last minute and hoping Paul would go along. The result was the second government shutdown in a period of three weeks, though it will likely be brief. The House is expected to vote sometime Friday morning.

"I'm not advocating for shutting down the government. I’m also not advocating for keeping the damn thing open and borrowing a million dollars a minute. This is reckless spending that is out of control," Paul said on Fox News.

Some of Paul's colleagues said they were less concerned because of the short nature of the expected shutdown.

"I would be more critical if I thought this was shutting down government for a period of time," said Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.).

Paul's one-man bout of brinkmanship is just the latest lonely stand for the libertarian-leaning senator who's briefly caused a shutdown of surveillance programs, opposed Republican budgets and upset GOP leaders' plans to repeal Obamacare last year. But Paul said his colleagues' budget deal is causing uncertainty in the stock market and stated that "this country is going to hell in a hand basket" with such profligate spending.

Paul insisted McConnell was not angry with him over the row.

"We get along fine," Paul said.

Paul had been threatening to block quick passage all day, and then gave an interview to Fox News just before 5 p.m. that sealed Congress' course. Shortly after Paul went on Fox, he marched to the Senate floor with a series of charts about how much he dislikes the bill. He spoke for more than an hour.

"Your grandkids are being stuck with the bill! Mark my words, the stock market is jittery" over the debt, Paul said. "It's worth a debate whether we should borrow a million dollars a minute."

Paul spoke to Trump on Thursday, and urged the president to direct McConnell to grant a vote on his amendment.

And he admitted that his amendment would only get 15 to 20 votes. But he is discouraged by the lack of debate and ability to amend such a large budget deal.

Yet with just hours to go before funding expired, GOP leaders were in no mood to open up the amendment process. Democrats also wanted to amend the bill if Paul was allowed to.

"It's hard to make an argument that if one person gets an amendment, that everybody else won't want an amendment,"said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Republicans tried to accommodate Paul with a procedural "budget point of order" vote that would easily fail, but Paul resisted, preferring to use the Senate floor and the ticking clock to garner attention for his lonely cause.

John Bresnahan, Seung Min Kim and Ayanna Alexander contributed to this report.