As the House searches for a new speaker and the Senate works to get Ukraine assistance back into a spending bill come November 17 when the current deal expires, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., says there is a "growing movement" within the Republican party to cut additional funding altogether.

"We have problems funding Social Security, we have problems funding, Medicare, Medicaid, all the things that have already been promised to our people we have trouble funding, and we just don't have extra money just to be sending to another country," Paul told Fox News Digital in an interview this week. 

The U.S. has sent more than an estimated $100 billion of taxpayer dollars to Ukraine since the war began, according to the White House. 

Republicans who are opposed to additional funding the war-torn nation scored a victory last weekend when then-House Speaker McCarthy passed a spending patch without the additional multi-billion dollar Ukraine assistance as requested by President Joe Biden, ultimately averting a government shutdown. The temporary funding patch expires Nov. 17, bringing Congress to another potential showdown in a few weeks. 

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Paul — prior to Rep. Kevin McCarthy's ouster — said that all eyes will be on what the House speaker does in the next go-around of spending discussions, citing a caveat that may "dampen" efforts to continue sending funds to Ukraine, which has been gripped by a Russian invasion since last year.

"The Republican Conference in the house has a rule, that if a majority of the Republican Conference is for something or against something, the speaker can't bring it up by rule," he said. 

That unwritten practice is known as the Hastert Rule, which sets the precedent that the speaker will not bring a bill to the floor unless "the majority of the majority" is in favor of it. 

"I think it's a good question for some of the opponents on the House side," Paul said. "Will the conference rule hold that will prevent [the speaker] from bringing it up? Because if it does, that ends up being perhaps a deal killer on this as it moves forward."

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Other GOP lawmakers in the upper chamber opposed to more assistance, at least without additional oversight, include Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, John Kennedy, R-La., Jim Risch, R- Idaho and Roger Wicker, R-Miss.

Aside from being trillions in debt, Paul said the secondary reason is that Ukraine "is not really a shining example of democracy, they canceled the elections." 

"So, a country that doesn't have elections is hard-pressed to be describing themselves as a paragon of democracy," he said.

And Republicans aren't the only ones concerned about Ukraine's purported ethical failures. A recent U.S. State Department strategy memo detailing the top priorities for Ukraine — ravaged by war against Russia since last year — shows even the Biden administration has concerns over purported corruption in the Eastern European country but still supports continued aid to the region.

According to the 22-page document, called the Integrated Country Strategy, the "biggest challenge is winning the war," but "Ukraine has a unique opportunity in the current moment to commit to the anti-corruption and judicial reforms needed to realize the aspirations of the Ukrainian people."

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"I think it's obscene to do it [send more aid] without an inspector general in place," Paul said. "There's still a healthy amount of corruption in Ukraine."

Meanwhile, Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday following the GOP's weekly luncheon that adding more aid is "still a major priority."

"I think a majority of the members of both parties still support it," McConnell said of assistance to Ukraine. "We need some direction from the [Biden] administration as to how they intend to go forward."

Rep. Carlos Gimenez is taking aim at fellow Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz for his efforts in leading the charge against former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, arguing that it has hurt GOP efforts to secure the border. 

Gimenez, R-Fla., spoke to Fox News Digital the day after Gaetz successfully led a push to remove McCarthy from his position, days after the speaker brought a "clean" continuing resolution to the floor to fund the government -- a measure that passed due to Democratic support. 

Gaetz and other conservative Republicans had previously voted against a temporary stopgap funding resolution that would have funded the government while including most of the House’s signature border security package — except E-Verify. The continuing resolution that passed did not include those provisions.

"Matt Gaetz and his gang effectively blocked a measure for the funding resolution that would have forced the Biden administration to actively control the border and to have a reduction in overall spending," Gimenez told Fox News Digital. 

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"That's all on Matt Gaetz and his gang. And so now that we don't have a speaker, all those efforts for us to try to force the Biden administration to actually do their job and follow the law, I think everything comes to stop until we get a new speaker," he said.

Gimenez said that those looking to cross into the U.S. should be thanking Gaetz for his work.

"This doesn't help the border one bit. So that's why I’ve said that those crossing the border right now should have on their chest a big sign saying ‘Thank you, Matt Gaetz’, or maybe ‘gracias Matt Gaetz’ because Matt Gaetz and his gang effectively blocked our efforts to control the border."

Gimenez, who has been sparring with Gaetz on X, formerly known as Twitter, accused Gaetz and others of being "Machiavellian" in their strategy.

"Why did they do that, knowing full well that… the alternative was something that none of us really wanted and many of us didn't want it. But we had to keep funding the government because we were going to spend more taxpayer money unnecessarily and cause pain unnecessarily."

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The criticism echoes that of McCarthy, who said those who voted against the border security-inclusive stopgap were not conservative.

"They voted against border security, they don’t get to say they're conservative because they’re chaotic and angry," McCarthy said Tuesday.

Gaetz responded to that criticism Tuesday evening on "The Ingraham Angle" in which he pointed to the border security provisions that had passed as part of a DHS appropriations bill last week -- including E-Verify.

"We passed a Department of Homeland Security border bill that would have required E-Verify with a host of other reforms. Then on a continuing resolution, Kevin McCarthy wanted us to surrender every other fight, Jack Smith, weaponized government, everything else going on just to isolate the border thing," he said.

"Now I don't believe the way conservatives get ahead is surrendering everything but the border in order to address the border -- and I don't think the way to address the border is to pass E-Verify and then say the strong border position is the abandonment of E-Verify in a vote that occurs 14 hours later."

Concern has also been expressed in the Senate, with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., arguing that the "chaos" make it "harder to talk about the failed Biden Presidency and address our broken southern border."

Gimenez told Fox Digital that now, the Senate needs to take the Secure the Border Act, which passed on its own in the House earlier this year, and that it will also be up to the Biden administration — or a future Republican administration — to secure the border.

"The Biden administration has to have the will to control the border. If you don't have the will to control the border, and if you also have the will to actually violate the law like I believe the Biden administration is doing right now, it's going to have marginal effects," he said.

"The only way that we're going to control the border, in my opinion, is with a new president, a new Republican president that will follow the law and has the will to control what's happening at the southern border, not only with migrants, but also with the drugs that are flowing in that are killing tens of thousands of Americans."