Jack Kingston: “I want to say the concept of PAYGO sounds great, but it is an absolute fig leaf when you look at the practicality of it…”

“I want to say the concept of PAYGO sounds great, but it is an absolute fig leaf when you look at the practicality of it only applying to 2 percent of the budget. It's just not a genuine proposal. But I want to say this: I think it is good to have this discussion. But both parties have been spending too much money, and not just Congress, but the Federal Reserve. Just think about 2008. Bear Stearns bailout, $29 billion. A Bush stimulus bill in May of 2008, $168 billion. The Fannie Mae bailout, $200 billion. The AIG bailout, $85 billion, going now to $140 billion. And that was under the Democrat majority in the House, and President Bush signed it into law. So both parties have been in this mix. And then comes President Obama. A $787 billion stimulus bill that brought our unemployment from 8 percent to 10 percent. An omnibus spending bill, $410 billion. A health care proposal that costs over $1 trillion. Cap-and-trade that will cost American households $1,500 per house. And another stimulus bill that the Democrats, under Speaker Pelosi, just passed in December of about $60 billion. Therefore, we have a debt ceiling. The debt ceiling is a mechanism, an outside trigger to force Democrats and Republicans to come together and cut spending.”