Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., told Newsmax on Wednesday that the spending negotiations on Capitol Hill require compromise.
He said compromise would be needed to avoid another government shutdown.
Ricketts told "The Chris Salcedo Show" that it is admittedly difficult to agree to higher spending than you want sometimes to get the desired result: "When it comes to actually getting our appropriations bills passed, we still need to get 60 votes."
Ricketts pointed out that Republicans don't have that many seats in the Senate.
"And since we only have 53 Republicans, we need Democrat help to be able to do that," he noted, "and that's where getting enough votes to be able to pass our Trump budgets is going to require the Democrats to go along.
"So it's going to have to be a compromise process."
The Nebraska Republican said Americans need to know that America's economic picture is improving. "So, one of the things I think it's important to remember is that while Republicans are working to bring down our costs, and certainly President [Donald] Trump is doing a great job on that," Ricketts said.
But another key to America's economy, he said, is the deficit. "You're going to see that the deficit is down close to 20% because of a variety of things, in cutting spending, because of the growth in government, and the tariff money as well," Ricketts explained. "You're seeing that deficit come down, and that's a good thing."
Ricketts said the new round of spending negotiations won't be easy since most Republicans want to cut spending while Democrats want more spending.
But they still have to compromise to get enough votes for approval.
"And that's in fact the way our founders set it up to be, that you would have that sort of give and take in the Senate to be able to get that done. That's a feature of our system here," Ricketts said.
He explained that it is a key factor in the length of time to get a consensus in the Senate when neither party holds 60 seats. "It does mean that it takes longer for us to get things done in the Senate, but that has protected us when we've been in the minority in the past as Republicans," he said.
Ricketts said one of the major factors behind increased government spending is the spending policy of former Democratic President Joe Biden. "He took government spending up. He more than doubled our deficit," Ricketts said. "He took the government, the number of people in government, up from 2.8 million to over 3 million.
"It takes a while to unwind all that."
Congressional negotiators have until Jan. 30 to either pass new budget bills or be forced to approve spending extensions to avoid another government shutdown.
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Jim Mishler ✉
Jim Mishler, a seasoned reporter, anchor and news director, has decades of experience covering crime, politics and environmental issues.
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