David Gregory asks a simple question of Republican Representatives John Cornyn (R-TX) and Pete Sessions (R-TX): what tough decisions will the GOP make to deal with the deficit they hate so much if they gain control of the US House of Representatives. (Keep in mind the war in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Bush Tax Cuts for higher income Americans are the three huge contributors to our current deficit).
MR. GREGORY: But, Congressman, that’s a, that’s a pretty gauzy agenda so far. I mean, what specific–what painful choices are Republicans prepared to make? Are they going to campaign on repealing health care, for instance, repealing financial regulation? Would you like to see those two things done?
REP. SESSIONS: Well, first of all, let’s go right to it. We’re going to balance the budget. We should live within our own means, and we should read the bills and work with the American people.
MR. GREGORY: How do you do it? Tell me how you do it. Name a painful choice that Republicans are prepared to say we ought to make.
REP. SESSIONS: Well, first of all, we need to make sure that as we look at all that we are spending in Washington, D.C., with, not only the, the entitlement spending but also the bigger government, we cannot afford anymore. We have to empower the free enterprise system. See, this is where…
MR. GREGORY: Congressman, these are not specifics.
via July 18: Cornyn, Menendez, Sessions, Van Hollen – Meet the Press – Transcripts – msnbc.com.
As you can see in the following video, Gregory is actually knocking up against the real issue here, but he doesn’t go far enough.
Either the Republicans have no idea what they want to do or they don’t want to talk about the real cuts they want to make to trim the deficit. I would imagine the specifics, from previous platforms, the Republicans would really like to do things like privatize Social Security, cut every business tax possible, further deregulate any industry that affects our lives, cut funding to the US Department of Education and make sure every defense and intelligent contract gets full funding. This Meet the Press appearance sums up the current Republican messaging: just trust us, this time it’ll be different.