Rand Paul live tweets his reading of spending bill

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) began live tweeting his reading of Congress’s 2,232-page spending bill on Thursday.

Paul, who stoked speculation over what he will do ahead of a Friday night deadline to fund the government, has been tweeting out details from the bill as he reads it, counting down the pages he has left to go.

The senator earlier blasted lawmakers for not releasing the massive, $1.3 trillion spending package until Wednesday night, a day before it was to be voted on in the House, calling it “a pox on both Houses — and parties.”

The libertarian-minded senator bashed funding for items like the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.

{mosads}

He also referred to the bill as the “terrible, no good, rotten deficit spending bill” and the “crumni-bus.”

As of the publication of this story, Paul had made it to page 485 of the bill, with more than 1,700 pages to go.

Paul caused an hours-long shutdown in February over a short-term spending bill, but it’s unclear if he will take that same course this week.

The House passed the spending bill on Thursday as lawmakers rushed to prevent the third government shutdown this year. The Senate is bracing for a long weekend, with the earliest the Senate could hold an initial vote under chamber rules being early Saturday.