South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint calls the fact that President Barack Obama is not willing to consider balancing the budget within 10 years “frightening.” DeMint also told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Tuesday the president doesn’t present proposals but just makes speeches and “we can’t vote on a speech.”
“It is very frustrating to work with someone who never puts their position out — I mean, he talks about things but he doesn’t put anything in writing, so his position is constantly fluctuating,” DeMint said. “You know, he set this debt limit — we didn't. He spent the money that pushes us past the debt limit — he wants to blame Republicans for the economy — but his policies have made it worse.
“He wants a showdown — he has pushed this thing up against the deadline. Republicans have given him the increase in the debt limit he wanted; all we’re asking is that we put the country on a path towards a balanced budget — but he says that’s extreme,” the tea party favorite said. “It is almost impossible to deal with him — he just gives speeches, and we can’t vote on a speech.”
Hannity noted most Americans support a balanced budget amendment and are extremely concerned about the $4 trillion in debt Obama has incurred in less than three years— yet he doesn’t seem to have an economic plan to deal with the nation’s fiscal malaise.
“There’s only one plan that actually is in legislative language that has been passed by the House that will meet the criteria of Standard & Poor's and Moody’s so that we won’t lose our AAA rating — and that’s the Cut, Cap and Balance plan,” DeMint said, referring to legislation recently passed by the House aimed at balancing the budget.
“Americans would support it and understand it. But the fact that the president, Sean, is not even willing to consider balancing our budget over the next 10 years is somewhat frightening to me,” he said. “And we know he’s not serious about the debt, because his budget raises the debt another $10 trillion. So, for him to come back and now say, well, we can cut it one or two trillion— all that means is we’ll add eight or nine trillion to our debt rather than 10 — this is not acceptable.
“I think we are at a point . . . where political solutions are not going to work,” DeMint said. “We need real solutions to cut our debt and the only way to do that is move towards a balanced budget.”
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