“A Drunken Sailor” Would Do Better: Scalise Explodes on US Spending as Debt Crisis Nears

Appearing on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” and speaking to Maria Bartiromo, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise sounded off on the federal government’s spending and said that even a drunken sailor could do better at limiting spending than the federal government, telling her:

Joe Biden is the one who needs to take ownership and responsibility for this. And he’s refusing to meet with Kevin McCarthy up to this point. I don’t think that’s sustainable, Maria, because if you look 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 not be associated with the level of spending you’ve seen out of Washington.

Continuing, Scalise then said that the debt limit is approaching because the “credit cards are maxed out” and we’re hitting the debt ceiling as the government spends more and more money, telling her:

And so what happened is the credit cards are maxed out. That’s basically how you hit the debt ceiling. It’s the ability to print more money, and that expires when you hit the debt ceiling. And so the only way to address it is to control spending or to increase the debt ceiling or a combination of the two.

He then added that we can’t keep spending like we have been, telling her:

But you can’t just keep increasing the debt limit and let President Biden keep spending like he’s done. That’s just not it’s not attainable for the future generations. Our country can’t handle that. So we’ve got to get control of our spending as we’re having this conversation. And Joe Biden has got to recognize this right now. He’s living in denial.

Scalise’s comments were similar to those made on the subject by Sen. Joe Manchin, who said during an interview with Chuck Todd that the system isn’t working because Congress can’t even get a normal budget done, saying:

“I’ve been here 12 years. We haven’t had a budget yet. There’s nothing that holds us accountable. Nothing at all. We can say, ‘oh, we’re gonna do it,’ but as I’ve said before, 12 years, we haven’t had a budget. That’s ridiculous.”

“The process isn’t working. How come we’re not held accountable to have the appropriations bills done at a certain time before the end of the fiscal year… you know what happens, it rolls over into an omnibus bill at the end, everything’s thrown into it and, ‘Okay here. We got it guys. That’s it.’ It makes no sense.”

He also said, when discussing the debt ceiling limit and budget problem on CNN that “Every American has to live within a budget. If they don’t, they’re in trouble financially. Every business that is successful has to live within a budget. Every state has to live within a budget. Shouldn’t the federal government have some guardrails that say, ‘hey, guys, you’re getting over — you’re overreaching here and you’re overspending?’”