A Democratic congressman called out his own caucus peers over “theoretical BS” used in arguments on spending that “would make an accountant’s head explode.”
(Video: NewsNation)
Friday marked what many considered to be a step in the right direction after a fight to fund the federal government resulted in hundreds of pages getting slashed from a bloated bill as the clock was reset to run out in March. Joining NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo with commentary on the showdown Friday, Washington Rep. Adam Smith took shots at both sides of the aisle as he chided fellow Democrats for suggesting that to save money, the government had to spend money.
“We’ve got a fiscal problem, but no one wants to really admit why we have a fiscal problem,” he said on the latest installment of “Cuomo.”
“We have a fiscal problem, basically, because, as a country, we want roughly $5 in goods and services for every $1 in taxes that we’re willing to spend. And also, politicians have gotten very good on the campaign trail of creating the illusion that we can deliver that,” he said.
Smith suggested New York Rep. Mike Lawler (R) “hit on one of the big ones — reducing revenue doesn’t actually reduce revenue. And I’ll tell you something, Chris, I’ve got a lot of Democrats that come to me on a spending program and they say, for every $1 we spend on this program, it saves, I’ve heard as high as like $13.”
“It would make an accountant’s head explode, okay, ’cause that’s all just theoretical BS, alright? It doesn’t work,” the lawmaker called out. “And then you wind up with a $35 trillion deficit because we’ve told people, we can cut your taxes, we can increase your spending, and everything’ll be fine.”
He then attempted to pivot to claiming conservatives weren’t earnest with the intention of the proposed Department of Government Efficiency, suggesting there had been no specific cuts presented to reach the target of slashing $2 trillion from the budget.
Smith’s claim belied the litany of wasteful spending that had been called out by DOGE and elected officials seeking to fulfill its objective with attached price tags in the hundreds of billions for programs that had long since expired, failing agencies, and the open border crisis.
The legislator was particularly critical of DOGE’s co-chair designee, Elon Musk, as the world’s richest man had nearly doubled his net worth following the result of the presidential election.
“He didn’t care about the American people,” argued Smith. “You know, he cares about his own bottom line.”
A skeptical look from Cuomo to that point was followed by the host asserting, “Well, he benefitted from it, but [Musk] does say he did it out of civic duty also, though. He says it’s not a gambit for him — that he wants to put his expertise to play and help with what he thinks is derailing the country both culturally and economically.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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