On Sunday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Sunday Show,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) stated that the reported freeze on domestic spending in the debt limit deal “is a problem” because there is going to be inflation and stated that while Republicans didn’t get what was in their debt ceiling bill on spending levels, people in negotiations “overreach, and hopefully, when we bring it back to the middle, we’ll get to where I actually want to be.”
Crockett said, “I’m not excited about it. I’m going to be honest, and it will be interesting to see how the progressives overall respond. What people need to understand is, number one, they’re talking about this is fiscal responsibility, this is about saving money, but they haven’t told us how much money it’s going to save. The president had proposed a budget that would actually cut the deficit by $3 trillion. Part of that was bringing in additional income. The one thing that McCarthy said yesterday was that there will be no new taxes. … And so, it’s frustrating to me that we are going to balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable people in this country. And honestly, it’s still not going to be balanced. And so, we, as the American people, understand that if our bills outweigh our income, we go out and we get more income, we get a second job, we get a third job. Essentially, that’s what the president was proposing. So, instead, what we’re going to do is increase defense spending, number one.”
She continued, “But we also know that we’re dealing with inflation right now, and that is something that both sides have acknowledged. And so, what you’ve decided to do is lock in the amount of money that we’re spending. We’ve got the same budget. So, if my budget was $1,000 a month, but my rent has gone up to $2,000 a month, that is a problem. And so, what we’re going to have is we’ve got increased costs, but we’re locking in how much we’re spending, except for defense. And we know that defense has, historically, had some problems where it’s like, oh, we spent $10,000 for something that really was supposed to cost $300. So, I look forward to the Oversight Committee doing its work to make sure that we are being honest about what’s going into that defense spending as well.”
Crockett concluded that while the lack of an increase is better than what Republicans initially proposed, “anybody that’s ever negotiated knows, listen, I’m not going to ask for what I really want. I’m going to overreach, and hopefully, when we bring it back to the middle, we’ll get to where I actually want to be.”
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