Potential 2016 Republican presidential contenders, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio vote against raising the debt ceiling

Several possible Presidential contenders for the Republican Party in 2016 voted no for raising the debt ceiling Wednesday being part of a relatively small group of conservatives to do so.

Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, all widely speculated as having their eyes on 2016, all voted no against the bill.

Senator Rubio released a statement earlier saying, “This debate has never been about whether to have an open federal government, but about whether we are going to fix it so that it stops spending more money than it takes in.  To save the American Dream, we need decisive action to create millions of middle class jobs and stop Washington politicians from wasting taxpayers’ money on a government we can’t afford. 

“I cannot support this deal because it postpones any significant action on pro-growth and spending reforms and does nothing to provide working class Americans even one shred of relief from ObamaCare’s harmful effects. 

“Until we tackle the real threats to the American Dream, we are going to continue finding ourselves in these kinds of messes.  America is better than this, and the American people deserve better.”

Rand Paul also had a few words about the vote– “Tonight, a deal was struck to re-open the government and avoid the debt ceiling deadline. That is a good thing,” Sen. Paul said. “However, our country faces a problem bigger than any deadline: a $17 trillion debt. I am disappointed that Democrats would not compromise to avoid the looming debt debacle.”

Joining Rubio, Cruz and Paul in voting no were Mike Lee of Utah, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Tim Scott of South Carolina, John Cornyn of Texas, Idaho’s Mike Crapo, Wyoming’s Mike Enzi, Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, Nevada’s Dean Heller, Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson,  Kansas’s Pat Roberts, Idaho’s James Risch, Alabama’s Jeff Sessions, Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey and Louisiana’s David Vitter.

There are 46 Republicans in the Senate.