It’s hard to find an issue today that creates more frustration with more people than the debt ceiling.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, conservative or liberal, young or old … the consensus in America is clear – the debt ceiling is a political problem and requires a political solution.

But that’s where the common ground ends.

So America Speaks went straight to the American people to understand why we keep having the debt ceiling controversy and how best to resolve it quickly, efficiently … and fairly.

The conclusions may surprise some of you.

I’m Frank Luntz, host of America Speaks right here on Straight Arrow News.

We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s get right to it…

SLATE: What does the debt ceiling mean to you?

I don’t remember a time when we’ve had such an important economic issue as this debt ceiling. But then again, we’ve never had a $31 trillion debt. John, and all of you in a sentence, what does this debt ceiling mean to you, John, you’ll go first. To me, it puts our future in jeopardy, present future, and we need to start doing something back.

So when we actually do a future, Christie Jo, I think we have to be very concerned with the debt ceiling, we can’t default on our loans, we can’t have the full credit of the US at all in jeopardy. There has to be some compromises made. And we have to find a way to increase the debt ceiling so that we can continue to function as a country. Alex,

I’m I mean, I think I’m concerned, but I’m not super concerned. I think, you know, Congress and the Federal Reserve have a such close working relationship that I think ultimately something will be done, I think primarily, it just shouldn’t be used as a political ploy. It kind of ruins by either party kind of ruins America’s reputation, that kind of, you know, especially as other countries like China, or converting away from the Dollar as a standard to kind of weakens American hegemony economically,

worldwide. Crystal.
Yeah, I’m scared. My mother is ultimately she relies on Medicare, Social Security, SSI, and I’m terrified about the implications for her. She’s in very bad health and on, she doesn’t need this kind of stress, neither to why. And I’m scared I really am.

Preaching the debt ceiling would be economically catastrophic. And it’s completely avoidable. It’s been two sensors, but it’s been weaponized and shouldn’t be. That is Austin.

This is a, an issue that’s been going on, you know, for decades on both sides. And like families have to do we, as a country, I think, need to realize and fall on hard times in order to come through it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
And intranet.

I’m worried it caused a lot of anxiety, because I don’t only take this on a personal level, but I’m also concerned about the country as a whole, and how it’s going to affect us, you know, with the loss of jobs and people not getting paid the federal employees, military, you know, no access to maybe delays in Social Security. So I think it goes beyond just on a personal level.
Brian,

I think to kind of echo I believe what someone has said prior, you know, I’m not overly concerned about it right now. I think that this has just turned into a political game that’s played every few years. And eventually, I’m sure things will get the it’ll get risen, and we’ll continue making the decisions that we have so far. Rachel,
I’m actually pretty nervous.

On a personal level, nervous for my job. I’m nervous about this looming recession.
I’m nervous about having funds that I can support my children and continue paying for my life. I’m nervous for the country as a whole. nervous for the stock market. I mean, I’m actually quite scared.

And raising the debt ceiling is a scam to give Congress more an excuse to spend money, and they’re just going to keep doing it over and over again. Got to cut it off. Giving more heroin to the heroin addicts is not going to solve the problem. Not scared. If they don’t raise it.
You win the award for best line of the night so far. Giving heroin to heroin addicts. Makes you want to go out shopping right now.

SLATE: Why are you so worried about the debt ceiling?

Okay, who thinks the debt ceiling is overblown? That it’s really not that important? Raise your hands?
Anybody?

Okay, so Alex is the only one who thinks that it would not matter if the debt ceiling was not raised. Okay, I’m gonna ask Alex and Eddie. We have two people here who really think that this isn’t that it won’t be that impactful. Alex, Edie, can you explain why you’re not really concerned about whether or not the debt ceiling was raised?

Um, well, I do think that it’ll be impactful. And I want to make that distinction. I think that there’s less of a chance of it happening than we’re led to believe, by media. I think the debt ceiling is kind of just one of a host of issues that include, you know, everyone’s talking about spending, but nobody’s talking about revenue and how there were major tax cuts recently, how, you know, there’s about I think, a trillion dollars missing from the Pentagon and, and audit, there’s, you know, a lot of both sides of the equation, men, the debt ceiling is kind of just where that anxiety tends to manifest because it’s kind of the most urgent and pressing, you know, cyclical part of it.
For any you’re not concerned, why not? Because it’s just a threat. I mean, obviously, there’s gonna be, you know, hit the stock market, but these things are gonna happen anyway. And they just printed so much money since 2009. This is just another excuse to print more money, and it needs to be cut. You know, they just need to stop and they never will. So, sure, whatever the impact it’s not going to be the birds are still gonna fly tomorrow. The waters still going to be making waves in the ocean, but they always make these threats. Armageddon, the world’s gonna end they do the same thing in 2009. So um, yeah, I’m just tired of it. And in the meantime, they just spend and print more money.

SLATE: Who do you blame the most for the debt ceiling crisis?

What do you think is more responsible for not having a debt ceiling agreement? President Biden or speaker McCarthy?
Anything President Biden Raise your hands?
One? I’m sorry. Can you repeat the question again? Or 567? of you? Eight of you who thinks speaker McCarthy is more responsible and not having an agreement?
1234. Okay, can I get three or four of you? Tell me why you blame President Biden rather than speaker McCarthy for the situation that we’re in? Anybody? 97 days. The speaker met with him on February 1, and can we please talk about this. And then it was radio silence for 97 days until they finally passed a bill once they got into majority, and they got their ducks in a row. So I mean, you can’t say they haven’t done anything. They have a bill.
Like it or not. They have a bill. The next step is it goes to the Senate, it goes to the President or they reconcile or they kill it.
Somebody else? Why do you blame President Biden? Yes. So the the buck stops with the President, right? We’ve heard that millions and millions of times. And that’s, that’s where it lies is the President is in charge. So he asked to come to the table and work things out. And we hear so much about bipartisanship and both sides have really become gridlock. So I think the President needs to reach out to Kevin McCarthy and sit down and talk with him about it.
Who blames Kevin McCarthy? And I blame them both because I mean, they’re gonna print more money and give it to Ukraine. So it’s a giant scam. I blame both of them.

If we had to choose, which would be the priority to address the debt ceiling, raising taxes or cutting spending? Who says raising taxes? Raise your hands. And only two of you who says cut spending? Everybody else? I’m sorry, Alex. So for those who wants to raise taxes, please tell me why there are three of you.

I’ll start well, there was just recently a large tax cut, we’re receiving a lot less revenue than before. I mean, I think tax cuts, think spending also needs to be reduced, but just less than tax cuts. You know, we have such bloated spending on the Defense Department, we have really, really bloated health care spending, that’s ineffectual. That could be even if we had to spend more spent more smartly, higher taxes. You know, it’s been the norm throughout the peak periods of American prosperity, that tax rates were higher, and that kind of benefited everybody. And I think that if you really believe in something, like trickle down economics, then that should only seem

to follow suit. Okay, to more of you, why raise taxes?

Um, yeah, um, I would prefer I mean, I look at both of them as being Bethan. It’s, you know, raising taxes or kinds of spending. What terrifies me about the kinds of spending is there gonna be kind of social net? That’s the first time the Republicans are gonna go after Social Security and all that. And for me, it would be raising taxes to prevent to prevent the social safety net, from being cutting from more than oil, right? Yeah. So if already made lots of cuts to it.

One more person, why raise taxes,

don’t raise taxes across the board, raise them on certain the highest tax brackets, the Trump tax cuts, the Jobs Act, if get the full name of it, you know, wasn’t really helpful. The middle class, it was mostly the highest tax bracket, so you don’t raise taxes across the board, you raise taxes on the corporate taxes, and that kind of thing.

Okay, for those who say cut spending, I want to know why. Brian, I mean, if

any audit that’s ever been done of federal spending, there’s so much waste throughout the entire government that just even doing a sliver of, you know, cleaning up some of that waste, and some of that spending would go such a long way towards improving our financial situation. I know, obviously, it was pointed out that maybe social social nets would be the first to go, that definitely does not have to be the case. You know, there are a number of different areas that we can cut back on without largely affecting, you know, people’s day to day lives.

What else on this discussion would cut spending rather than raise taxes is,

you know, if, if I spent 29%, more than I made on an annual basis, I might last five or 10 years before I went bankrupt. Now, if I had a printing press in my house, maybe I could avoid that, because that’s exactly what our federal government is doing right now, and has been doing for years. It’s got to come to an end, the spending has to be curtailed. We can start with trimming. But we have to make major structural changes, or our country will go bankrupt, there will be no more country.

I think one of the structural changes that needs to take place here is look at the bills that are being passed and how much pork is added into each of these bills. We need to you know, the Congress and this is where I blame Kevin McCarthy and every speaker prior Congress needs to vote on individual bills, individual issues, don’t say we’re going to fund this and then throw in, you know, $10 billion for New York library $30 billion for this, we need to be transparent in what people are voting for. I think that the issue is adding a bunch of pork into these bills where we don’t know what they’re spending

on, you want to get in?

Yeah, I want to actually talk about the, you know, I wanted to cut spending because if you go ahead and raise taxes, you can’t guarantee that that money’s gonna go to the debt. You know, I mean, it happened in Chicago where they raised taxes, because they wanted to get things under control. And then a year or two later, they found out how much of that tax went to the debt. And they talked to the Comptroller, they said none of it. They reallocated to different places. So you need to cut the taxes so sorry, you need to cut spending and start addressing the debt. Start holding these people accountable.

Yeah, there’s Mike from Florida said I mean think about it. What do you what does everybody here do? So in their personal situation, if they get laid off, if their hours are cut, whatever their salaries cut, do they go out and spend more money? Where do they start cutting what they spend, it’s the same thing, just on a bigger scale. And all the money is spent on bogus crap like Ukraine, and, you know, funding who’s paying for all the illegals, and all that. So it’s just an excuse for them to spend more money more poor, it’s got to stop.

Okay, I’m gonna do something here that I probably you’re not expecting. Since so many of you want to cut spending, and even those who would raise taxes, you’d find something, I’m going to ask each of you to name your program that you would cut and why you choose that program. And, Amy, I’m gonna start with you. What would you cut? If you’re a member of Congress?

I guess what he mentioned, I feel like a lot of extra unnecessary money goes into military programs, I guess you could say.

So you think we can address the the debt simply by cutting military?

I believe that, that their costs are so extravagant that by making a cut there would would do something. They’re not small amounts. There. Those are very large amounts taking place on that end. So to make some cuts over there, I think it might do a little something.

Antoinette, what would you cut?

For me, it’s the illegal migrants we just had a lot of these migrants come to my city today and they’re all housed in a hotel and you know, that’s all of our money going into them I have nothing against them. I actually feel sorry for their situation, but at the same time, we have to take care of our own country and our own people.

Edie what program it should cut,

I would cut every penny that goes to Ukraine, I would cut the Department of Education I would cut all this money going to illegals like that. There’s not going to be one thing that’s gonna solve it but all those things so I’ve got to let me in those are just three to start like that.

Rachel but program or programs that you cut, I would actually

cut Social Security. Sorry, Crystal, I just the Ponzi scheme. There’s not going to be any money for me left anyway. So had it.

Krista, what do you think good ideas in this group.

Um, first of all, my mother paid into Social Security. She works for about 4050 years, she paid for it. And she’s gained at that naive as much as she paid in she’s getting maybe a third of it back. Now on to what I would cut I would cut military spending because it is just absolutely obese. When you look at it, I’m not in college.

Okay, called my program which cut?

I think we could streamline some defense spending. I mean, I’m a Democrat. I’m not nearly as like anti defense spending as some people also clawback the COVID funds that have money unused that’s not really cutting something

awake? I never thought that I would hear Democrats say that I’m not for cutting defense the way other people are. Our politics have really changed like holy cow. Good for you. Colton. Austin, what program would you cut first?

Yeah, I would say foreign aid. The FBI I think, you know, we need to restructure that and look into that IRS but you know, this isn’t gonna be solved by cutting one program. This is going to be solved by by cutting every you know, each program, one to 2% and making you know, looking at it as a wholesome unit then, but one one program is not going to save it

If someone said that they wanted to raise taxes on millionaires, what would be your reaction? You could take the money of every millionaire and billionaire in this country bankrupt them, and it would even come close to covering our debt. And then where would we be?
Millionaires also a tricky term there. There are a lot of millionaires in this country, it’s thrown out there. But there’s a lot of millionaires that that, you know, have liquid assets under $100,000. Right? There’s just a collection of your assets, millionaires popular by far left Democrats to attack people. But it’s not it’s not a realistic term. I was gonna say they’ll probably find tricky ways offshore, anyway to hide their money, which I guess is similar to what you were saying, Austin.
I think what Austin said is so much true. Bernie now only attacks billionaires and not millionaires, because he is one you got to
raise the taxes on millionaires is probably the number one item that the public supports for addressing the debt. Why do you not favor it? Well, I mean, what the public thinks they’re not really all that bright. They just say, oh, tax the rich guy in the Lamborghini, but it’s, they’re already paying their taxes on all the money, they spend sales tax, and it just doesn’t even solve the problem. It’s not going to even do anything, it’s not going to make a dent, it won’t even come close to fixing the debt. millionaires are also the ones investing in this country. millionaires are the ones that are building buildings on corners that then house a restaurant that are then providing jobs to other people, you tax them out of being able to invest in this country, it’s going to cause a lot of issues. It’s a dangerous road to go on when you start attacking people for attempting to succeed, because people whether you agree or not, are providing a number of jobs and a number of industries for people and they are paying taxes that nobody’s not paying any taxes. It’s not a revenue problem. It’s a spending problem, right? We’re taking in over $4 trillion a year in tax receipts. There’s more than enough money to spend. We just need to prioritize it live within our means, or there won’t be a country will go broke will go bankrupt. The dollar will collapse. China’s already started pulling half of South America under their wing, and they’re using not the dollar but the Chinese currency. Now, when that starts happening, we’re in huge trouble.
Do you agree or disagree?
Um, I say I’m not just tax wealthy individuals. But what about corporations? So main corporations get tax breaks, and they even call it corporate welfare? Go after that let the corporations pay more pay their fair share in taxes.
Called you nodding your head. Yes. Tell me why?
Because I think that’s like, why are we talking about millionaires? It’s the corporate tax rates that, you know, they tried to pass as part of a thing the inflation Reduction Act that certain senators nixed it’s more like the hedge funds, the corporations, they can take the taxes, they can fund more things. And when they get taxed, you’re not taxing directly. People, people have concerns about millionaires owning small businesses. These corporations are not people owning small built up businesses.
You raise a lot more revenue from corporate taxes, and then millionaire taxes, nature.
So I actually think it should kind of be a mix of both. But I think that corporations with negative externalities pay their share to account for them like co2 emission company polluting rivers, obesity. So McDonald’s, like, similar to, you know, cigarette companies, they pay taxes, tanning salons, they pay taxes, these big large corporations with these negative impacts, they should also be paying taxes to account for that. Eddie, I see you laughing at Rachel. Yeah.
Because negative externalities that’s subject to somebody’s opinion. Okay, because you don’t like what someone’s habits are, where they eat where they drank. That’s none of your business.

We’ve got two major players in the debt ceiling debate: President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for the Republicans. Let’s start with the President.

[INSERT BIDEN CLIP]

To falling on the debt is simply not an option. Our economy would fall into recession, it would devastate retirement accounts increased borrowing cost. And according to Moody’s, nearly 8 million Americans lose their jobs and international reputation would be damaged in the extreme and further let that happen. It’s disappointing that our discussions of the congressional Republicans have not been willing to discuss raising revenues, but the policy differences between the parties should not stop Congress from avoiding default.
Okay, let’s go get some comments here. Anybody? So, you know, the President started off saying that this is going to cause a recession, he’s already caused one, okay, when they spent all this money, even the Fed is saying that we got a 67% chance of hitting recession, what will happen if they don’t raise this debt, and we start not being able to pay bills in a few weeks, it’ll hurt our credit rating, it may weaken the dollar even farther, there may be more countries that flee us.
But it won’t be raining fire.
And I liked how he quoted Moody’s The Great rating agency that did such a good job rating all the banks in 2000 to 2008. So what they say is absolutely correct. Good. Good to quote that. That’s sarcasm, by the way.
Somebody else Joe Biden said, so it was interesting to me is towards the end of that he talked about having plenty of time to debate this, but we constantly see this all the time. This is what they do. They they come back every couple of years. They sit there They bicker, they argue and nothing gets resolved. So there’s really not a whole lot of time to debate because this is all that they do. I think what he’s referring to is he doesn’t want to debate policy right now. He wants him just to blanket past the debt ceiling. He doesn’t want to have the conversation before. But the reality is this is the only leverage that Republicans have to talk about policy, because other than that, they’re just going to shut down every single piece of policy. And it’s the only chance that Republicans have getting any changes of getting any cuts. I mean, the cuts that they’re proposing are two years old. I mean, it’s barely even any kind of a cut compared to what what we’re increasing in spending every year. And the guy from Florida said it I mean, he caused the recession, any five year old could have seen that this was coming several years ago. And guess what, say they do raise the debt ceiling. We’re not going to be in the same situation in the near term future. Same thing all over again. Oh, gonna raise the debt ceiling, and it’ll keep going on and on and on. Ryan, your reaction?
Yeah, I mean, on top of what everyone else has said, I just think that the verbiage that he uses is just hilarious to me. First, he blames congressional Republicans for getting us to this point. And then he also refuses to use the phrases raising taxes and steady says raising revenues, because he doesn’t want a sound clip of him saying that he’s going to raise taxes the year before an election year. It’s just like, again, it’s just a political game being played by both sides and I guess we’re all stuck in the middle here.

[INSERT MCCARTHY CLIP]

but it is possible get a deal by the end the week, it’s not that difficult to get to an agreement. When you think about limits safe grow the bill we passed. We raised the debt ceiling. We kept future spendings. We grow the grow our spending in Congress by 1% Each year, that gives you trillions of dollars of savings. We bring back money that we have already appropriated from the taxpayer that wasn’t spent in a pandemic. We put in work requirements that the President voted for, as the Senator that in Wisconsin just a couple months ago, passed by 82%. It lifts people out of poverty, put them into jobs.

Eddie, you’re shaking your head so much, I thought it was gonna fall off your neck. But I’m sorry. Just a bunch of word salad. He’s talking about green energy here. He’s just talking, you know,

so we’ll raise the debt ceiling, but we’ll cut it in the future versus today. It’s just a bunch of word salad like he was running for political office. I mean, he offered nothing, it’ll create more jobs. I mean, just a bunch of nonsense.

Austin, your reaction to Kevin McCarthy?

I think that, you know, he’s talking policy. whether we agree or not. This is, you know, as a Republican, this is where we fail. Democrats are really good at emotional issues and bringing up topics that are emotionally charging, where Republicans are policy wonks, a lot of a lot of Republicans are policy wonks. And we don’t know how to articulate what he’s saying what he said there is that we’ll temporarily increase the debt ceiling. And then next year, instead of raising the congressional spending five to 10%, we’re gonna raise it 1% To continue to keep up but we’re going to reform require people to work in order to get these benefits. This is to be the difference between Republicans and Democrats, Republicans are focused on these policies and Democrats are really good at bringing up emotional issues.

So I have a feeling you’re on the Democratic side, you agree with that analysis? Ah, it’s, you know, I can remember back with the Republicans, um, they store off saying they weren’t able by people to work and then the next thing you know, they’re kind of snap, which goes to a lot that goes to children. How are you expecting children to go out and work on the police and then cuts to Medicare cuts to Medicaid. I mean, it’s, you know, they start off saying that and then it winds up becoming across the board cuts to everybody.

This is Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s first time leading the Congressional Republican negotiations. What do people think so far?

John, your reaction to Kevin McCarthy. You know, I like what he had to say, you know, but again, it’s all words, I would like to actually like kind of like see the fine print a little bit. read into it. I’d also like to see an independent analysis, not from my right, not from the left just unbiased how this is going to play out how those numbers play out, because any politician says something. Probably not gonna believe everything that they have to say I want to go ahead and see if there’s anything that he’s not saying that’s in the bill. He’s probably saying 70% of the truth, but, you know, it’s what he’s not saying that I want to only go ahead and look into a little bit to Chrissy. Joe, your reaction to Kevin McCarthy?
I think he’s asking for it’s actually pretty simple. I agree with Aston man Republicans are terrible at Trump telling a story man are so bad at and we are policy wonks, but his policy is solid. And it’s in my opinion, not aggressive enough. But the reality of the situation on the ground is I think he’s asking for really reasonable things. Unless someone could point something to me where Grandma’s not going to get her Social Security check. I think that these are really reasonable asks

We’ve got one more wild card in the debt ceiling drama … former President Donald Trump. Let’s see what he’s had to say … and how the American people are reacting …

Okay, we got another individual who’s part of this discussion. Let’s play him, Danny,
and then we’ll talk about him.
Do right now I say to the Republicans out there congressmen, senators, if they don’t give you massive cuts, you’re going to have to do a default. And I don’t believe they’re going to do a default because I think the Democrats will absolutely cave, because you don’t want to have that happen. But it’s better than what we’re doing right now. Because we’re spending money like drunken sailors. So
just to be clear, Mr. President, you think the US should default? If the White House does not agree to the spending cuts, Republicans
will do it now. Because you’ll do it later. Because we have to save this country, our country is dying. Our country is being destroyed by stupid people by very stupid people.
You want said that using the using the debt ceiling as a negotiating wedge? Just could not happen? You You said that when you were in the Oval Office president. So why is it different now that you’re out of office? Now? I’m
not President. Okay, your reaction to what Donald Trump had to say, Rachel, I’m
gonna start with you. And then going to Brian, and then, John.
I mean, I kind of obviously that was funny. I don’t know if he, I don’t know what it was meant to be. But I got a chuckle out of it. I think Donald Trump didn’t do anything to help the situation. I think it’s it’s easy for him to just place blame on others, as he said, he’s not president anymore. So you know, it’s easy to pass the buck off to the next president set the blame with Joe Biden, or whomever that Democratic president may be.
Actually, before I go to China, when I go to Crystal I’m Joe. I mean, like the previous guy said, he has chance to fix the situation. It’s very, you know, I mean, he would love for the economy to crash and then he could go ahead and say, Well, I’m going to save the country and stuff. It’ll get him a bunch of votes, probably. Sadly. Alex,
um, I mean, honestly, I think most of like 99% of what Trump does is just vamping and playing to a crowd. I didn’t really like absorb much of what he said as much as just a tone. You know, like others have said he did have time we hit a congressional majority the first couple years of his term.
You know, I think
he was a pretty ineffectual president, just because he didn’t know how the government worked. So I don’t know if he necessarily would have a solution to the debt ceiling,
per se Joe.
Well, I Trump is a tough one for you, man. He is a hell of a showman but he is also someone who fundamentally believes government should spend a lot of money and he spent a lot of money when he was president. So it’s tough for me to take anything he says about how to fix debt ceilings, when he really wasn’t a very fiscally conservative gentleman himself. So you know, he’s a great showman. You can see why people love to hear him and makes even Democrats laugh because he’s funny guy.

That’s the reaction from the American people to their political leaders – certainly not a stunning endorsement. Now let’s hear what the people themselves would do if they were in charge. Cut spending … raise taxes … a combination of both … or nothing at all? Let’s listen in as they offer advice to Congress…

Final question for you all. Let’s say Congress is listening right now.
What would you tell them to do? When go around all of you, Congress? I’m gonna do it one more time three to one final question. Let’s say Congress is listening to you right now. What would you tell them to do? Gentleman start with you.
Um, raise up, raise the debt temporarily, but tie it to cutting spending, and that’s mandatory
procedure, what would you tell Congress to do? That spending raise the debt ceiling cut spending cuts, spending cuts spending? And, Alex,
take a holistic look at everything and see, you know, what the best mitigating factor is that won’t hurt the most people between cutting spending, raising taxes and, you know, cutting other programs and raising the debt ceiling.
Doesn’t have to be like an all or one.
Crystal
cut military spending, and began taxing corporations more make corporations pay their fair share.
Mike,
pass the bill, which raises the debt and cuts spending by rolling it back to last year’s levels.
Austin Congress is listening to you what would you tell them to do? Stand firm we can’t we cannot continue to kick this down. You know, if we have to fail, we have to fail but stand firm.
Call Tim Carlton.
pass a clean debt ceiling bill.
Joseph, cuts spending, same thing stand firm and you know, to make sure that we’re getting proper cuts.
Edie, spending, you knew you’re lying to rehab, you’re there deal with it. cut spending? How do you restrict the spending? Because discipline enough discipline alone will never be enough.
Cut the spending, I just gave a list. And so but now you’re relying upon their discipline to do so what I’m saying is you have many states have a part of part of their constitution restricts them from being able to spend beyond their means I’m fine with that. And that’s good. Put it in the constitution of state constitutions that they can’t do it. Yeah, of course, they need to be held accountable to cutting spending.
You may want to leave a release valve for when the Red Army comes marching. Because that will probably be rather expensive. So we just just like the COVID just like this, and we’re the ones who always start the wars. So they can start a war tomorrow. So it’s an emergency. You know, we need a mandate.
I see Joe break the tie.
break the tie between Mike and Eddie. I don’t think I can break the tie between Mike and Eddie but I’m fully entertained right now. So thank you for that. Also did not think I find a conservative in California. So appreciate that. I know I’m official

It’s good to know that at least ONE American is entertained by the ongoing debt debate.

Well, we’re out of time. So on behalf of America Speaks on Straight Arrow News, I’m Frank Luntz. Tune in next week for another lively conversation featuring the voices of America. Have a great deal.