The discussions surrounding the potential raising of the debt ceiling skew very heavily Democrat. In a recent appearance on Fox's The Next Revolution, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL-19) said, "newsflash for the admin: We're going to negotiate, we’re going to have meaningful spending cuts & we can talk about the debt ceiling. We should end COVID-era overspending. We have to get our budget back on track! If they think they’ll be cutting some side deal they're mistaken."
Newsflash for the admin: We're going to negotiate, we’re going to have meaningful spending cuts & we can talk about the debt ceiling.
We should end COVID-era overspending. We have to get our budget back on track! If they think they’ll be cutting some side deal they're mistaken. pic.twitter.com/v01vlrLC83
— Congressman Byron Donalds (@RepDonaldsPress) January 23, 2023
Host Steve Hilton begins the discussion playing footage from CBS' Face the Nation in which Robert Costa says President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are working with a large number of Democrats and a very small number of Republicans to raise the debt ceiling.
Hilton asks if this is truly how such a scenario will work.
Rep. Donalds answers this apparent one-sided negotiation is "not how this is going to go down." As he says in his tweet, "newsflash to the White House, we are going to negotiate, we're going to have meaningful spending cuts, and we can talk about how the debt ceiling will be raised."
Donalds cites the massive increase in spending in the past three-and-a-half years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and thus this spending must be cut. Moreover, "a lot of the stuff and what Joe Biden did in his last Inflation Reduction Act; which is really the Green New Deal; and we need to get the nation's budget back on track. If they think they're going to cut some side deal, they are mistaken."
Hilton points out that according to a Wall Street Journal editorial, Republicans such as Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) are "on your side," as in there is a willingness to cut spending. However, the fear is that no alternative would be available in time, and thus Biden would be able to cut a deal on his terms.
To this, Donalds says House Republicans are already working on it. Additionally, "one of the big things that we've been talking about for a long time has been trying to avoid these last-minute deals that Washington frankly thrives on that crush the American people."
As such, Republicans lawmakers say that they are committed to doing "business in the open, so that everybody can see what we're requesting, and you can demonstrate who's being fiscally responsible and who is not."
Concluding, Donalds adds, "we have to find a way back to a balanced budget, we're going to have to do some of the necessary trimming that is needed. Because what has happened over the past two-and-a-half years cannot continue any longer."
