Dem Rep. Sherman: You Can’t Just Cut Waste and Fat from Budget Without Cutting Services

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “At This Hour,” Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) argued that there’s no way to cut government programs “and somehow not cut services because we’re going to only deal with the fat” and Republicans saying we should cut the fat and the waste from the budget is like trying to cut fat from ground beef.

Sherman said, “Well, first, we should be negotiating or discussing spending and revenue. We do that all the time, 24/7. What we should not be doing is letting Kevin McCarthy take as hostage the American people. You see, we’re already hurting our economy by playing around with the debt limit. There are investments not being made, projects not going forward, because we’re stupidly talking about not paying our bills. The thing to do when you have a fiscal problem is you either spend less or you bring in more revenue. You don’t enhance your position by just throwing away the bills and not paying them. So, I hope [President Joe Biden’s] message is, first and foremost, we need to increase or suspend the debt limit. Second, is…show me your budget, because the position of the Republicans is they have no idea what spending they want to cut. So, what they say is cut the waste, cut the fat. That’s like going in and asking for ground round and taking your knife and saying, well, I’m going to cut the fat out of this ground beef steak. The fact is, if you’re going to have a government program, there’s going to be some inefficiency. Everybody’s got some inefficiency in their day-to-day. To say that we’re going to cut programs and somehow not cut services because we’re going to only deal with the fat is absurd.”

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