House Republicans will be sending a package of bills to the Senate to secure the nation's border, Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Sunday while calling on Democrat senators who have blocked previous attempts to vote on the legislation to get control of the problem.
"We're seeing not just countries from the southern border, we're seeing from countries all around the world, over 150 countries, coming across our southern border because Joe Biden opened it up," the Louisiana Republican said on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo." "He could close it on his own, but he won't. We're going to show the country how to fix the problem. Let's get the Senate engaged so they can pass that bill to the president."
Meanwhile, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said on the program earlier on Sunday that he's reached out to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to set up a meeting concerning the upcoming showdown on the nation's debt limit, which President Biden has said will not be a matter for negotiation, and Scalise on Sunday said Biden is the one who needs to "take ownership and responsibility" for the spiraling government debt.
"He's refusing to meet with Kevin McCarthy up to this point, and I don't think that's sustainable," said Scalise. "For the last two years, Joe Biden has gone on a spending spree the likes our country has never seen before. A drunken sailor would ask not to be associated with the level of spending you've seen out of Washington."
As a result, the government's "credit cards are maxed out" and that's "basically how you hit the debt ceiling," the congressman said.
"The only way to address is to control spending or to increase the debt ceiling or a combination of the two, but you can't just keep increasing the debt limit and let President Biden keep spending like he's done," said Scalise. "It's not sustainable for future generations. Our country can't handle that, so we've got to get control over spending as we're having this conversation, and Joe Biden's got to recognize this."
However, he said, Biden is "living in denial."
"He's used to Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi to just giving him another trillion dollars every other week," said Scalise. "That's not going to work. We're not going to do that, so he's got to get control over spending. That's the lead driver of inflation that's crushing hard-working families."
Scalise was also asked about the push a new global environmental, social, and corporate (ESG) standard, including at the ongoing World Economic Forum in Davos, and he said such calls are from people who have been "wrecking economies all over the world."
"They fly to Davos, and what's the carbon footprint of all these global elitist liberals flying in their private jets to Davos to tell you to change your lifestyle?" he said. "They want to kill the oil and gas industry. Did they have solar panels on the wings of their airplanes? No, they used jet fuel, yet they want to kill these industries, and all they're doing is empowering foreign countries."
Such calls are making the United States more reliant on foreign countries, including OPEC, Russia, and Iran, Scalise added.
"If you want to save the planet, make more things in America," said Scalise. "Drop all the woke agenda that's killing Americans. It's raising prices on those lowest income Americans who can least afford it."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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