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'Terrible way to start': Rand Paul threatens to be a thorn in Trump's agenda

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is once again signaling he could be a thorn in President-elect Donald Trump's side — this time on his border and deportation plans, Axios reported.

It's part of ongoing Republican infighting over how to pass Trump's agenda, with senators, led by incoming Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), wanting to focus on a nine-figure budget reconciliation package on energy and border security before moving on to extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts, and House Republicans, facing a narrower majority, worried this could jeopardize the whole scheme.

But Paul, son of famous paleoconservative former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, has a different objection: Trump's agenda costs too much.

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"I'm not a big fan of what Republicans are saying, they're going to spend $100 billion on the border, another $200 billion on military to bust the military caps. I think it's a terrible way to start," Paul told Axios.

This comes after last month he said he doesn't like the idea of using the military to aid in deportations.

"If they send the Army into New York and you have 10,000 troops marching, carrying semi-automatic weapons, I think it's a terrible image and I will oppose that."

It's unclear whether there will be any workable legal basis for Trump to use the military for deportations; however, some experts have raised the alternate possibility Trump might instead enlist the help of so-called "constitutional sheriffs" in border areas of Texas and Arizona to form posses of citizen volunteers to round up immigrants.

This is not the only issue on which Paul has displayed reservations with Trump's plans; he also condemned Trump's idea for broad-based consumer tariffs, warning that it is "a tax on the consumer," and also criticized as impossible Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk's promises to balance the federal budget without cutting Social Security or Medicare.

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