Here & Now

On the national debt, how important is it to stop its growth and how do you do that? Well you've got to get serious about the debt. You can't just talk about the debt and deficit. Senator Johnson likes to do a PowerPoint presentation where he talks about what will happen in 30 years. And that works very well for him because then he doesn't have to tell you what he's going to do specifically. And that's what I believe in. I had experience in the Senate of working on a bipartisan basis of identifying exactly what it is that we think on a bipartisan basis we can cut or get rid of in terms of loopholes and that's why I created what I call my Federal Fiscal Fitness Plan. You won't see a plan like that from Senator Johnson 'cause that means taking a tough stand. It means you're gonna actually introduce a bill that says the federal government should negotiate lower drug prices. That could save the federal government $123 billion. That means standing up to the oil and gas companies who right now have a $40 billion over 10 years oil and depletion allowance. It basically had to do with the dangers of oil drilling back in 1912 and 1920. So there are all kinds of things like this. And I've offered a specific plan with some 30 previsions that I'm ready to act on immediately. You know it's about rolling up your sleeves. You can't just say, "Oh, we've got a problem. And it's gonna be terrible and government is bad." No, you actually have to do your job in the Senate.

And that involves

offer an amendment, get a Republican to co-sponsor it, go to the floor, talk about it and try to get rid of it. This is what I did with something called the Wool and Mohair subsidy. The Wool and Mohair subsidy was put in place decades ago you know so that our troops could have nice wool uniforms. Well you know what? Those don't work very well in Iraq. And so obviously it's an outmoded subsidy that I was able to help get rid of and save the country some money. That's the real work. And I not only feel I'm pretty good at it. I really enjoy it. I like finding wasteful spending because I like coming home and telling people I am trying to be a good steward of your tax dollars. I think that's a high responsibility of an elected official.