Democrats talk about why they oppose a Republican plan to cut federal spending

WASHINGTON, DC – Democrats on Capitol Hill slammed Republican legislation aimed at reducing the country’s $32 trillion debt, with some blaming former President Donald Trump for the country’s massive bills.

“It’s a terrible, terrible bill,” Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern told Fox News. “It’s cruel, it’s mean, and this whole game they’re playing trying to pay our nation’s bills represents an all-time high of recklessness and stupidity.”

“This is not a conversation, this is a ransom note,” he added.

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House Republicans passed legislation by a vote of 217 to 215 to cut spending and raise the debt limit in a bid to stem a looming debt crisis.

According to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the Limit, Save, Grow Act will save taxpayers $4.8 trillion over 10 years. He said it will reclaim unspent COVID-19 money, add work requirements for specific handouts and help the supply chain. The bill stands in stark contrast to President Biden’s hopes for a clean debt ceiling hike.

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California Rep. Jimmy Panetta called the bill “not serious.”

“This is going nowhere,” he said. “I’m hoping to get to a point where we can all get together and make sure all the options are on the table.”

California Rep. Ro Khanna said we “can’t hold the country hostage over whether we pay our credit card bills.”

“In America we pay our bills,” he added. “It’s patriotic.”

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MP Jason Crow stressed the importance of avoiding defaults.

“I’ve always been concerned about the risk of a default, it would be devastating to our economy, it would cause tens of thousands of Americans to lose their jobs, and it would cost us billions of dollars,” the Colorado Democrat said. “So that shouldn’t be an option.”

Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan said the Republican bill had no chance.

“All we’ve really seen from Republicans are bills that go nowhere,” he said. “I will look forward to having these conversations during the averaging process.”

Several Democrats pointed to spending during the Trump presidency.

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“They had no problem increasing the national debt when Donald Trump was president to pay for the trillions of dollars that his tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires added to the debt,” McGovern said.

Khanna told Fox News that Democrats know how to cut the deficit.

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“The last president who had a balanced budget was a Democrat, Bill Clinton, and then we had the Trump tax cuts, the Bush tax cuts,” he said, adding that “these overseas wars drove the deficit up drifted.”

Khanna also said the Democrats’ plan to avoid growing debt is to “get out of a lot of these overseas wars” and “get very wealthy people to pay the same taxes as firefighters and teachers on their Social Security.”

Click here to read more about what Democrats think about the national debt and the debt ceiling.

Ramiro Vargas contributed to the accompanying video.