NY Rep. Tenney: Biden should slash federal spending amid debt ceiling battle

02/01/2023 / By Belle Carter

New York Rep. Claudia Tenney said President Joe Biden should compromise and implement austerity measures on federal spending. The Big Apple representative made the remark during a recent interview with “Wake Up America” host Rob Finnerty.

Tenney was reacting to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s interview footage about his scheduled meeting with the president regarding the debt ceiling battle. “I know the president said he didn’t want to have any discussions. But I think it’s very important – our whole government, it’s designed to find a compromise. I want to find a reasonable and a responsible way that we can lift the debt ceiling, but take control of this runaway spending,” McCarthy said.

Tenney told Finnerty that Biden should compromise on spending because it is the primary driver of inflation.

Elsewhere in the interview, Finnerty brought up concerns about Social Security and Medicare. Biden previously said they could be on the chopping block, while McCarthy said they should be protected. (Related: To increase or not to increase: Republicans and Democrats clash over $31.4 trillion debt ceiling.)

“I care a lot about this because, in less than a week, I am going to be eligible for Social Security,” Tenney said. “We want to preserve them. So we can actually expand them going forward, but you have to fix them because this path they’re on is unsustainable for future generations.”

She pointed out that the Social Security Trust Fund should not be touched. “Stop taking money out of it to use for programs that the rest of Americans don’t approve of, make it whole,” Tenney said.

The congresswoman also pointed out how Biden’s administration is implementing bad energy policies. “They are forcing us into this electrification and part of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which Democrats claimed to be the biggest climate bill ever passed,” she said. “It’s basically the green new deal.”

According to Tenney, America is spending billions of dollars on subsidies to green energy, which are going to have a negligible impact on emissions and are only going to drive inflation even higher.

“Thirty percent of energy costs are part of what is driving inflation, particularly in upstate New York, where we are dependent on fossil fuels or fertilizer for driving our cars for mowing and maintaining our farms,” Tenney said.

White House: Biden is not open to negotiating debt limits

The White House recently stated that the administration will not be open to policy concessions in exchange for lifting the debt limits. The president himself has scoffed at the idea of negotiating spending cuts.

“We shouldn’t be negotiating over whether or not we should pay our bills. That’s our position,” Washington Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told “Fox News Sunday.” “Right now, the Republicans don’t have a plan. Their plan, as led by the extremists in their party, is to complain about spending, not raise the debt ceiling, but not actually offer a plan that says, ‘This is what we’re going to cut.'”

In an Associated Press interview last weekend, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she’s expecting Congress to ultimately vote to raise the limit. But she said the GOP’s demands for spending cuts in exchange for backing an increase were “a very irresponsible thing to do” that could risk creating a “self-imposed calamity” for the global economy.

Follow GovernmentDebt.news for more on the growing U.S. debt.

Watch the full segment of “Wake Up America” with Rob Finnerty featuring Rep. Claudia Tenney below.

This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.