It's unsustainable and unacceptable to keep raising the nation's debt limit, but it's also "unsustainable and irresponsible" for the White House to say it won't negotiate on the issue, Rep. Scott Perry, who chairs the House Freedom Caucus, said on Newsmax Saturday.
"Let's be clear right now; we've crossed the debt limit, and we're into what's called extraordinary measures," the Pennsylvania Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "It's not the first time that we've been here, but we've probably got until May or June to figure this thing out."
But for the administration to say that they're not willing to negotiate the change, "the trajectory is untenable, it's unreasonable, and it's irresponsible," said Perry. "Most people know when they spend more money than they have when they break their credit limit, it's time to do something. Something isn't working, right? I don't have enough money to pay my bills. Regular families that deal with this basis every single day know that something has to be done."
But with President Joe Biden, "they think that you're just going to keep spending money that you don't have and keep printing and creating that money."
That increases prices for all Americans on all goods and services, he added, and people are "sick of the high prices and the fact that they can't afford the normal things that they did in their lives just because Joe Biden wants to be president and go out and hand out money to all their friends and political allies. It's not going to work."
The solution, Perry said, is to acknowledge that "we're just spending too much."
"In 2019 we were at about $4.5 trillion as the annual budget or the annual spend," he said. "In 2020 we went to $6.5 trillion and we stayed at $6.5 trillion because of the pandemic. We get that the government told people they couldn't work. They had to wear masks, they had to get vaccinations, and all that stuff. We get that."
But Biden has said the pandemic is over, Perry added, "so if the pandemic is over, why are we spending the $2 trillion additionally associated with the pandemic response? That's a great place to start. Let's just talk about what we can save and the things that we don't have to spend, related to a non-existent pandemic."
Meanwhile, the debt ceiling argument is an opportunity for both sides "to work together to get our fiscal house in order, and one side simply isn't interested," said Perry. "It's the normal fearmongering by the left. 'The Social Security payments aren't going to show up. The military is not going to get paid. Some other country's going to invade our country.'"
But that, he said, is "absurd conjecture that happens every single time. This is now January. We have until the summertime to work this out. Being in a position where you say I'm not going to negotiate is an unacceptable, irresponsible, untenable position."
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