'This Week' Transcript 10-1-23: Rep. Matt Gaetz

Interview

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"Kevin McCarthy has been a failure. Kevin McCarthy has not fulfilled his promises.

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Kevin McCarthy is going to get his wish. I don't think the adult in the room would allow America to sit atop a $33 trillion debt facing $2.2 trillion annual deficits. I don't think the adult in the room would allow $8 trillion of this debt to come into refinancing at a higher level without serious spending cuts. And I don't think the adult in the room would lie to House conservatives. And that is exactly what Kevin McCarthy did.

In January, to get the speakership, Kevin had to agree to certain guardrails on spending. And he had to agree to a process that would allow us to put some downward pressure on spending. Since the mid-90s, this country has been governed by revolving continuous resolution and omnibus spending bill. And what that means is that America's lawmakers take one up or down vote on the funding of the entire government. That is crazy.

That is the reason we're $33 trillion in debt. We want to move to single-subject spending bills. So, he made that commitment. He broke it. And if, at this time next week Kevin McCarthy is still speaker of the House, it will be because the Democrats bailed him out and he can be their speaker, not mine.

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You'll be seeing it this week.

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That's why I came on the show this week.

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No, I actually think Democrats are going to bail out Kevin McCarthy. So, this is an exercise to show the American people who really governs you and how that governing occurs.

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I'm on a mission to change it where we're evaluating these bills independently. Kevin McCarthy is off making a secret deal on Ukraine as he's baiting Republicans to vote for a continuing resolution that doesn't include Ukraine. So, the one thing Democrats, Republicans, the White House, that we all have in common is that Democrats -- is that Kevin McCarthy, at one point or another, has lied to all of us. But if they want to keep him, then he belongs to them.

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That's not true.

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Well, I don't -- I -- by the way, I don't know until we have them. And, by the way, I might have -- not have them the first time, but I might have them before the 15th ballot. That's the number of ballots Kevin McCarthy needed.

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I am relentless and I will continue to pursue this objective. And if all the American people see it that it is a uni-party that governs them, and that it is always the Biden, McCarthy, Jeffries government that makes dispositive decisions on spending, then I am -- I am seeding the fields of future primary contests to get better Republicans in Washington who will actually tackle these deficits and debts.

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Well, we have a lot of -- look, we have a lot of talented people in our conference. Obviously, it's an awkward discussion while our number two, Steve Scalise, is in treatment for blood cancer.

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So it's -- I'm not going to pass somebody over because they're getting a medical treatment. I want to -- I want to see how Steve Scalise comes out of that.

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Ah, Kevin's new boss. Let's hear from him.

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No, it wasn't a surrender by the MAGA wing. We lost. A defeat is not a surrender. There were 90 Republicans who voted against this bad deal, and we did not prevail because -- here's what I've observed in the 118th Congress. On matters of frivolity, or messaging bills, Kevin McCarthy is fine partnering with House conservatives. But whenever it comes to the money, right, the debt limit, the budget process, Kevin McCarthy's true coalition partner is Hakeem Jeffries.

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The cuts were illusory. That was a mirage.

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The Biden administration had already put out a statement of administration policy that they were going to veto that. The Senate had already said they weren't going to take it up. So, this is about what turf we battle on to reduce spending.

I do not believe that we will ever reduce spending if the manner of negotiation is just, what is the condition or the ornament that we're going to hang on to a continuing resolution. Since the mid-90s this government has been ruled by continuing resolution or omnibus bill. That's why we're $33 trillion in debt.

My plan, to go into single-subject spending bills would actually allow us to put that downward pressure. And I've acknowledged that in divided government you have to work with Senate Democrats. You have to work with the White House.

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But I don't think you should work with them on a continuing resolution or omnibus bill. You should make those Senate Democrats have to take up our defense bill to give troops a raise, take up our homeland security bill to make changes at the border, take up our veterans bill.

And if they did those things, people would have to vote on specific programs rather than just saying, oh, well, you know, I voted for the government funding bill, and sure there's some stuff at the Department of Education I don't like, but I had to be there for the veterans and the troops.

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I'm only talking about substantive de-dollarization.

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Well, a matter of fact, just a couple weeks ago, Kevin McCarthy appointed me to the National Defense Conference Committee on the NDAA, and we spoke about some of our alliance and defense priorities. So, this isn't personal.

Some people make policy disagreements personal because their own policy failures are so personally embarrassing to them. I hold no personal animus to any -- with any of my Republican colleagues, by the way, including my Republican colleague you're about to have on next, who's had terse words for me.
But at the end of the day, this is about spending. This is about the deal Kevin made in January.
I do resent the fact that Kevin is like owned by lobbyists and special interests --

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It's not personal. It's substantive.

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Well, it is an attack on the system that he has used to obtain the speakership.
I am fighting for a different system.

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One based on spending guardrails, agreements on process. Kevin promised us 72 hours to read the bill. We didn't have it.

He promised $100 million wouldn't go on to the suspension agenda without the opportunity for amendments. Broke that deal, too.

And he promised us we could return to pre-COVID spending levels. There's almost no promise he hasn't violated.

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Thank you."

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