During a tele-town hall meeting Wednesday, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was asked about how Democrats could correct deficit spending.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Yeah, thank you, and thanks for having me on and listening to my question.
00:05So I'm not a fan of Trump at all, as most of us on here aren't, and I do not agree with
00:09his policies, but I do have a question on how we can change the narrative to start going
00:15on more of the offensive instead of just reactionary or sitting on our hands like it feels like
00:19we are.
00:20And my question's around our national debt, which right now we're spending $800 billion
00:25a year just servicing it.
00:27Are there any thoughts on Democrats as a whole on what we can do to start tackling the debt
00:32so we can go on the offensive with positive messaging to start getting ahead because the
00:36midterms have started today?
00:40I appreciate that question, Nathan.
00:45All of us, regardless of whether we're Democrats or Republicans or Independents, care about
00:52the fiscal health of our nation, and there are many ways in which we can tackle the debt,
01:03but it's funny for congressional Republicans to talk about lowering the debt when they
01:14are proposing $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and don't have any way to raise revenue in order
01:25for us to be able to bring the debt down.
01:29We also know that President Clinton, when he was president, undertook this task, and
01:37there are ways in which we can be responsible to look at where there might be waste, to
01:44look at programs that are not serving the purposes that they are supposed to serve.
01:49We know that just in the last CR, Republicans gave $6 billion more in defense, and we continue
02:02to grow the Pentagon budget.
02:05And so there are ways in which we can tackle this problem, but it's not fiscally sustainable
02:13when you have one party saying that they are going to lower the debt and they do the opposite.
02:22And so I do hope we get ourselves in a position where we are properly communicating this to
02:31the American people, not just for the sake of elections, but for the sake of changing
02:37the debate and having an honest one.