Fox News "The Story with Martha MacCallum" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Chip Roy

Interview

Joining me now, one of the opponents of that deal, Republican Congressman, Chip Roy, a member of the budget committee. You know, there's a Washington Examiner piece that said, you know, President Trump is draining the swamp of the tea party? Is that true?

REP. CHIP ROY, R-TX: Well, good evening, Martha. Thanks for having me on.

MACCALLUM: Thanks for coming.

ROY: You know, look, when I ran for Congress about 18 months ago, I decided to run because I wanted to make sure we secure the border that we'd balance the budget. We had a strong military with a clear mission, had health care freedom, and they got out of the way of the American people. And the people of Texas sent me here to do that.

And let me tell you, $320 billion added on top of the budget caps when we are already at $22 trillion in debt is not what the people of Texas sent me to Washington to do. We are racking up about a $100 million of debt per hour. You think about, a $100 million dollars of debt per hour. So --

MACCALLUM: So, I mean, you can't even wrap your brain around it.

ROY: You can't.

MACCALLUM: It's not possible.

ROY: You can't. Look, this deal is about as swampy of a deal as you could possibly have and only in Washington does this deal makes sense. I can tell you all the people in Texas 21 are lighting up my phone lines telling me this is a bad deal.

MACCALLUM: I want to play Larry Kudlow, economic advisor to the president, when he was asked about this today. Here is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KUDLOW, DIRECTOR, U.S. NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: We never get the spending restraints that we would like to get, but I must say, in the difficult atmosphere today, one of the key things as Steve Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, we got a two-year extension on the debt limit so there is no threat to our credit standing. And by the way, in terms of the overall budget numbers, they are really manageable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Well, fine, Chip.

ROY: Yes. I mean, this is Washington speak, right? I mean, this is what you hear constantly in this town. Look, the sense of self-reliance in this town, the sense of our character as a nation, that's what at stake when we are talking about racking p this kind of debt for our children and our grandchildren.

There is no justification for spending this amount of money when we are running trillion-dollar deficits.

MACCALLUM: It's interesting. Tell me why. you know, I think as people, regular citizens out there in America, all you see is gridlock. That no one can agree on anything, but then all of a sudden, it's like, well, suddenly we got an agreement and the agreement is to spend a lot more taxpayer dollars and both sides shake hands. They say isn't it great? See, we can do things on a bipartisan basis. We disagreed to spend a whole lot more money.

ROY: But that's precisely the problem. Right. They never have to sit down on a table like families do have to sit around their kitchen table, or businesses have to do to meet a bottom line. They just sit down in a table and say, all right, well, we want to spend more on defense, let's throw it away.

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: Throw it away. That's great.

ROY: Check. We want to spend money on defense.

MACCALLUM: Everybody wants it.

ROY: And then they want the budget.

MACCALLUM: But you know, I spoke to Hogan Gidley of the White House just a few moments ago and that's what he said is the problem.

ROY: Yes.

MACCALLUM: He said we are so committed to increasing defense spending he said at the White House --

ROY: Right.

MACCALLUM: -- that we cannot get the House to go along with it unless we give them what they want in terms of non-defense spending as well. He said, you know, we are in a box. We have no choice.

ROY: Well, I don't agree with that. I'm proud to represent Fort Sam Houston, the army futures command in Austin, Texas, and about 90 to 100,000 veterans in Texas 21. It's critical that we give them a clear mission and the tools they need.

But let me tell you, they don't want to have the future of the nation mortgage on their backs. And that's precisely what this deal will do and it's unconscionable that we're doing that to our kids and grandkids.

MACCALLUM: All right. We'll stay tuned. Thank you very much, Congressman Roy. Good to see you tonight.

ROY: Thanks, Martha.

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