Rep. Tom Cotton: Congress Must Be Willing to Shut Down the Government if Obama Won't Budge on the Debt Ceiling

Appearing on the Andrea Tantaros Show with Jason Mattera today, Arkansas Rep. Tom Cotton issued a warning to both President Obama and his fellow Republicans.

“Jay Carney has said, Congressman, over and over and over [President Obama] will not compromise on this issue. So, if Republicans don’t get what they want, and we have a president digging in his heels, are you prepared to shut down the government?” host Andrea Tantaros asked.

“I think we have to be,” Rep. Cotton replied. “We have to be willing to draw the line and say that we have a debt crisis in this country that’s caused by two simple facts: We spend too much, and we have too little growth. We have to adopt pro-growth policies and we have to reduce the explosive deficit spending under the Obama administration to get the economy growing again to confront this debt crisis.”

Tantaros compared the current debt crisis to the tractor-chicken scene in the movie Footloose, urging the Republicans not to “blink this time.” Jason Mattera noted that Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler is floating the idea of having the U.S. Treasury get around the debt ceiling by minting a $1 trillion coin to pay down the debt.

Cotton laughed at the idea, before suggesting that lower taxes and less government would do more to solve our fiscal crisis than just printing more money would. Cotton also said that the next spending fight will play out differently and Republicans will get meaningful spending cuts from the Obama administration because everyone’s taxes are not set to go up automatically as they were during the year-end fight. He also noted that despite Obama’s protestations over negotiating on the debt ceiling, he voted against it when he was a senator.

Rep. Tom Cotton is a freshman congressman, described as a member of the “Hell No!” caucus when it comes to increasing government spending. A Harvard graduate, he served in the U.S. Army in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Andrea Tantaros Show with Jason Mattera is produced by the Fox and Rice Experience.