GOP Rep. Reschenthaler: Spending Cuts Alone Aren’t Enough, We Have to Grow GDP Through Tax, Regulatory Cuts

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” House Chief Deputy Whip Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) said that while keeping spending under control is important, “We’re not going to be able to cut our way out of this.” And we also have to grow GDP through tax cuts, decreasing regulations, or both.

Reschenthaler said, [relevant remarks begin around 12:10] “When it comes to defense spending, we’ve got to be very careful here because…increasing defense spending by about 5% above inflation, for I believe the next five to 10 years…we’re going to need to do that if we want to compete with a growing Chinese Communist Party that’s getting very militant. So, we’ve got to keep our eye on that. But we’ve got to do two — we have to do a two-pronged strategy here, Maria. Number one is we’ve got to control spending. Additionally, we have got to grow the GDP. We’re not going to be able to cut our way out of this. We just have to be reasonable, sensible, and responsible when it comes to spending increases or where we spend. But we’ve got to grow the GDP and there [are] only two ways to grow the GDP, you either cut taxes or you reduce regulations or you have a combination of those two. If we can do that, grow GDP, increase revenue, and hold the line on spending, we get out of this without cutting defense.”

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