In the News

Majority Whip Tom Emmer joined Newsmax’s The Record with Greta Van Susteren to discuss Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s upcoming meeting at the White House and call on Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer to pass House Republicans’ responsible debt ceiling plan.

Click here or above to view the interview.

Whip Emmer on Speaker McCarthy’s upcoming meeting at the White House:

“I’m sure Speaker McCarthy is going to listen to whatever they have to offer. But bottom line, Greta, is Speaker McCarthy asked the – for the good of the country – asked the president to sit down and negotiate when they first talked back in January. The president, as I understand, suggested he was willing to do that and then never came to the table. Our Speaker had another chance to mention it to the president on Saint Patrick’s Day at an event, and again, there was no response. So our Speaker then sent a letter, I believe, before the end of March outlining what he as the leader and his members would like to set as parameters to try and jump start negotiations. And, quite frankly Greta, much like everything else we’ve seen so far this new Congress, there’s no ideas coming out of the White House. There’s no solutions, let alone activity, coming out of the Senate. I think the biggest thing the Senate has done since the beginning of the year is declare March maple syrup month. So Kevin McCarthy and the House Republicans did what we’ve been doing since the beginning of the year, which is we led again. Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans passed a debt ceiling solution last week. It’s sitting over in the Senate. And look, if they don’t have any ideas coming from Joe Biden’s White House or from Chuck Schumer’s Senate, it’s time to take the Republican bill up and pass it.”

Whip Emmer on Washington’s out-of-control spending:

“This is no way to run a government because no one would run their household like this. No one would run their business like this. You correctly point out that government tax receipts have never been higher. They’re record numbers. But I will point out, it’s not more than we have going out. For every record dollar this government is collecting right now, Greta, we’re spending $1.29. And people need to understand that, sadly, the only real fiscal reforms that we’ve had in the last 30 years have come as the result of debt ceiling negotiations. So again, Republicans in the House have passed the debt ceiling solution – incredibly reasonable proposal, which will put this country back on a path towards financial success. It’s just the first step of several that we need to take. If the president and Chuck Schumer’s Senate don’t like it, then, hopefully, next Monday, when they sit down with our Speaker, they’ll suggest what they don’t like and what they’d like to see. And I’ll leave it to our Speaker to determine whether they’re sincere about negotiating something. Regardless, we cannot default on our debt.”

Whip Emmer on Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer’s failure to be a part of the solution:

“Well, it’s crisis management from an incompetent White House and an inactive Senate. The House Republicans, led by Kevin McCarthy, have been leading for four months. There’s been no crises in the House. We passed things like overturning the criminal friendly D.C. crime bill. We passed the Parental Bill of Rights. We passed H.R. 1, which was an above-all energy strategy to restore energy independence and try to bring prices back down in this country. And now, we, with Kevin McCarthy’s leadership, have passed a solution to the debt crisis – by the way, Greta, well in advance of the crisis that may or may not be at the beginning of June. So I agree with you. It’s lack of leadership coming from the top, not from the House and Kevin McCarthy.”