Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., on Monday urged President Joe Biden to compromise in debt-ceiling negotiations, saying it might be the only way to ensure the U.S. won't default on its debt.
In an interview on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," Tenney lamented that rising debt is driving inflation.
"We're trying to leverage this," she said. "This has been done before. [Former] President [Barack] Obama negotiated when facing a debt ceiling in 2011. I think President [Joe] Biden would be well advised to compromise."
Tenney railed at the "so-called Inflation Reduction Act" saying it's "basically a Green New Deal" aiming to reduce the use of fossil fuels.
"We spent billions of dollars on subsidies on green energy with negligible impact on emissions and will only drive inflation higher," she said.
According to Tenney, in upstate New York, "we are dependent on fossil fuels. I have the largest dairy district in the Northeast and largest [agriculture] district in the Northeast.
"We are dependent on those fuels right now. This speedy move to electrification is not only impossible — but hurting small businesses today."
Tenney also defended the GOP's intention to preserve Medicare and Social Security, but said "you have to fix them first."
"We want to preserve that so we can actually expand them going forward," she said, but warned "the path we're on is unsustainable."
"I care a lot about Social Security," she said, but asserted "the Democrats have always been the party that's raided the Social Security trust fund. I'd like to see a bill by Republicans to say, 'Let's protect it … make it whole.'"
Tenney also dismissed Democrats' complaint that Republicans are trying to take away Social Security.
"When Democrats say [Republicans] are taking it away, it's just a scare tactic," she said, adding, "No one on the Republican side wants Social Security to go away."
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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