Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) called out CNN host Jim Sciutto's questions on Wednesday about the ongoing battle with the nation's debt ceiling is reaching a fever pitch.
Sciutto asked Johnson what "specific programs are you putting on the table to cut?"
"That’s not how a negotiation works. In fact, the law says that the president needs to step forward with a budget first. His team is going to miss their February deadline, they say they are not going to get that done until March," Johnson replied.
"But as you know the debt ceiling relates to budgets already passed by congresses including with Republican votes. What are the positions because a negotiation as you know if you want to call it that involves two sides presenting their positions. Can you name a single program that Republicans would be willing to cut money from to make a deal?" Sciutto asked again.
"See, I think that’s ridiculously unfair and here is why, the credit card bill comes to our family, we have maxed out our credit cards," Johnson shot back, noting Congress is legally obligated to pay the bill but "but rather than force all of the onus on the Republicans which I know y’all love to do, what a responsible, reasonable and sensible family would do is sit down together—"
"By the way, I’m not doing that, sir. I’m not putting all onus on Republicans. That’s the law. The law puts onus on Congress and the nation to pay its bill," Sciutto assured the Congressman.
Johnson said he was not going to negotiate against Republicans on CNN and accused Sciutto of giving viewers "revisionist history" about how Republicans handled the debt ceiling when a Republican was in the White House.
"After eight years of Republican control in the House, discretionary spending was lower at the end of that eight years than it was at the beginning. So why didn’t Republicans go to the brink? It was because they had Republican presidents who were willing to work with them on some of these much needed spending cuts rather than a Joe Biden who says he refuses, he refuses to negotiate," he explained.
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