Shortly after 3 a.m. Friday morning, the Senate passed a two-year budget deal that raises the debt ceiling and increases spending. The agreement already passed the House and has been sent to President Obama, who is expected to sign it.
Senators voted 64-35 for the measure, with 18 Republican defense hawks teaming up with Democrats in support, reported The Hill.
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul, who had promised to filibuster the deal during the GOP debate, delivered a 20-minute speech but was not able to successfully stop it, as his 18 Republican colleagues joined with Democrats to invoke cloture, according to The Blaze.
"These are the two parties getting together in an unholy alliance and spending us into oblivion," Paul said, reports The Associated Press.
"The right's going to get more military money, the left's going to get more welfare money. The secret handshake goes on, and the American public gets stuck with the bill," he said earlier Thursday afternoon. "This deal will do nothing but explode the debt."
The deal would prevent the U.S. government from defaulting next week and reduce the risk of a government shutdown in December. It also raises the debt ceiling and cancels automatic spending cuts, giving the government $80 billion more for military and domestic programs over the next two years.
The increase in spending would be paid for by cutting programs that benefit America's elderly, such as Medicare payments for outpatient services provided by certain hospitals. Money would also be brought in through a number of one-time measures, including the sale of oil from the government's emergency reserves, according to Voice of America.
Sen. Ted Cruz, another GOP presidential hopeful, accused the Republican majorities in both chambers of giving Obama a "diamond-encrusted, glow-in-the-dark Amex card" for federal spending.
"And it has a special feature," Cruz continued. "The president gets to spend it now, and they don't even send him the bill. They send the bill to your kids and my kids. It's a pretty nifty card. You don't have to pay for it. You get to spend it and it's somebody else's problem."
Other conservative leaders criticized the deal for being pushed through Congress on an expedited schedule and for being negotiated too secretively.
"The bill is the product of an unfair, dysfunctional and undemocratic process - a process that is virtually indistinguishable from what we promised the American people a GOP-controlled Congress would bring to an end," Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said from the Senate floor, according to The Hill.
He added that the measure "represents the last gasping breath of a disgraced bipartisan beltway establishment on the verge of collapse."
In a White House statement released early Friday, Obama applauded the bill's passage and said it proves that Congress can "help, not hinder" the country's progress.
"It is paid for in a responsible, balanced way - in part with a measure to ensure that partnerships like hedge funds pay what they owe in taxes just like everybody else. It locks in two years of funding and should help break the cycle of shutdowns and manufactured crises that have harmed our economy," Obama said, according to CNN.
