During a town hall event on Sunday, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) was asked about proposed budget cuts.
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00:00Can we call a new number?
00:03Yep.
00:04439-183.
00:08439-183.
00:12Can we take like five numbers?
00:14439-183.
00:23Oh, you can hold it?
00:24Okay.
00:25All right.
00:25So, a little background.
00:27All right.
00:28I've had my own software company for 40 years.
00:33Okay.
00:33I've had my own software company for 40 years.
00:37In that time, I've written software for the poultry industry.
00:41And I've seen...
00:42I'm sorry, for which industry?
00:43The poultry industry.
00:44Poultry?
00:45Okay.
00:45And I've seen the FDA inspectors and the Department of Agriculture work,
00:51keeping our food safe.
00:53Okay?
00:53The budget cuts that we're doing right now is taking that away.
00:59What I do now, since my retirement, is I drive an ambulance.
01:05And my whole business and life right now is saving lives.
01:09What this administration is doing is going to hurt people or kill people.
01:16So, my question is, you talk about pushing it back against all these cuts that you're doing
01:24to the NIH, to the FDA, to whatever.
01:31So, my point is, if you don't get anything done, then maybe you should say you failed and you should leave.
01:37What do you think?
01:39My question is, what are you going to do to make sure that you're successful?
01:43Well, again, when you are in elected office, okay, you're, in the case of Congress, one of 435, right?
01:55In the case of a county legislator, one of 17.
02:00In the case of a town board, one of five.
02:03You have a responsibility to build consensus, which means you actually have to engage in conversation with people,
02:10even if you disagree strongly with them.
02:14And oftentimes, and I will tell you, this is a mistake that my Democratic colleagues are making right now.
02:19It's not just enough to resist or say you hate the person in power or you hate the administration.
02:31You actually have to go engage in conversation.
02:34And I could stand on the street and yell and scream and hold signs and do that.
02:41But that, in and of itself, that, in and of itself, is not actually going to find compromise when you're dealing with these situations.
02:51And so what I have done, what I have done, and what I continue to do, is engage directly with the president, with his cabinet secretaries, with the administration, with the staff, on a daily basis.
03:11And sometimes we're successful in getting them to reverse.
03:15And other times we're not.
03:17And that is just a reality of government, okay?
03:21And so when you're talking about a budget as big as we have, $7 trillion, and we're blocking off roughly 87% of the federal spend, we're saying we're not going to touch this.
03:38So you're talking about arguing and fighting over 13% of the federal spend, okay?
03:48And so that is where, when you're running $2 trillion deficits, and you're unwilling to touch all of these other programs, which are vital, which are vital.
03:58But if you're not, folks, folks, folks, taxing the rich is not going to close our budget deficit.
04:10I hope you realize that.
04:12It really will not.
04:15It really will not.
04:16Let me ask you a question.
04:18What rate would you propose?
04:20What rate?
04:21What rate?
04:23What rate?
04:26What rate?
04:27The fact is, the fact is, the fact is, the fact is, you are not going to be able to close this budget deficit, okay, just through the issue of taxes.
04:45The fact is, we are spending at astronomical levels.
04:50As I said before, both parties are responsible for adding $30 trillion in debt in the last two decades.
05:00$30 trillion in debt in two decades.
05:03When I was in high school, we were in single-digit trillions.
05:06So the fact is, you cannot just solve this through taxes.
05:12You have to get spending under control.
05:15And that's just a reality.
05:17Whether people like it or not, that is a, it's just basic math.
05:27Okay.
05:29Folks, we're here to hear the congressman.
05:31We're here to hear the congressman.