Your top fiscal priority this session?
We’ve lived way beyond our means. We’ve got to fix our budget now. We don’t have the luxury of kicking this further into the future. My family doesn’t deserve that. Nobody does. Controlling spending — that’s the whole theme of this Congress.
So you agree with the plan to cut $100 billion?
It’s a good start. We have to be serious and can’t talk in pennies. That was the message in November. I’m hoping we don’t lose track of that. We have a mandate and we have to do what we said we would. It takes a strong stomach.
Your view of raising the debt ceiling?
Raising it is irresponsible unless there’s real reform. We’ve gone beyond our credit limit and told our lender, ‘I can’t pay you back, but I still want to spend a lot of money.’ If we keep doing that, we’ll never attack the real problem.
How will you create new jobs?
By letting people keep what they have. They’ll reinvest when they have money. Our big government demands so much. The states do too. That puts pressure on people. Everyone expects to take something away.
Do you support reforming entitlement programs?
We have to. How could you not? There’s no responsible person out there who doesn’t know what needs to be done. The question is where to start. When it comes to reform, everything must be on the table.