The U.S. government won't default on its debts, but still, President Joe Biden and his administration need to come to the negotiating table with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans to hammer out a solution about the national debt ceiling, Rep. Claudia Tenney told Newsmax on Sunday.
"The excessive spending — outrageous spending — that the Biden administration has carried out was mostly through executive order, and through their one-party rule under Nancy Pelosi," the New York Republican told Newsmax's "Wake Up America," pointing out that 40% of the national debt of more than $31 trillion was incurred while Pelosi was the House speaker.
Democrats are trying to blame Republicans for the spending crisis, Tenney added, but the COVID pandemic meant shutdowns in many states, and "huge subsidies" from the federal government that resulted in inflation.
"Our debt ceiling negotiations were cutting down these green subsidies," said Tenney. "The proposal that we made was modest, actually only about $4 trillion in savings over the next 10 years, very doable by the Biden administration, but they refused to buckle because they are forcing us into this Green New Deal agenda."
Tenney also on Sunday referred to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen as a "disaster" over her comments on the potential of default.
"Janet Yellen is the one that said this inflation isn't there; it's transitory," said Tenney. "Now she's been forced to admit that we have inflation. Inflation is a tax and we all know it's hurting the American people."
In addition, the United States is becoming less energy independent, resulting in inflation, said Tenney, slamming Yellen as a "communist, or at least left-leaning or for authoritarianism and top-down policies."
Yellen is hurting the United States internationally by "trying to put a minimum tax on American companies overseas," she said.
"[This is] exactly the opposite of what President Trump did, which was to incentivize our companies to come home and bring jobs here," she said. "That's what we need to do, smart policies."
Tenney also discussed the current immigration situation and said that there is also a crisis going on at the nation's northern border.
"New York incentivizes people to come to the state in the first place," said Tenney, pointing out that in New York City, under Mayor Eric Adams, homeless veterans are being displaced to house illegal immigrants.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is also "taxing New Yorkers even more, as if we're not taxed enough, to bring people in and take care of them," said Tenney.
The border cartels are also a major problem at both borders, as they have been putting illegal immigrants on planes and sending them to Canada, where they cross over into the United States.
"They don't have to have a visa because the visa requirement was waived," said Tenney. "They meet the cartels. The cartels drive them over the border.
"When they get to New York, they get a driver's license issued to them, no questions asked. And from there, they can go anywhere they want in the entire United States, which makes New York the gateway, and that's why you're seeing an increase of over 800% at New York's northern border."
The cartels "feel like they're overwhelmed at the southern border," she continued. "Just recently, we had four people, including two children, die in the marsh right outside the border of Quebec and New York State.
"That is exactly what's happening. And so when the cartels feel like they're overwhelmed at the southern border, they're taking advantage of our northern border."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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