People only want “abstract” cuts – Saying you want cuts has negative impacts

On Tuesday’s show of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) reacted to a CNN poll showing that most Americans, including most independents, and 45% of Democrats think that the debt ceiling should only be raised if it is tied. to spending cuts by stating that people really want to cut spending “In the abstract” and “saying you want to cut spending is kind of like saying, do you want to eat ice cream? Yes, I want to eat ice cream, but guess what, I’m doing this for a long time, there will be implications. And the cuts that don’t affect Medicare, Social Security and Defense aren’t significant.

Host Wolf Blitzer asked, “A brand new CNN poll released today shows that 60% of Americans say Congress should only raise the national debt ceiling if it cuts spending at the same time. Democrats say the two shouldn’t be linked, as you know. Is your party currently disconnected from the Americans on this very sensitive issue? »

Himes replied, “Wolf, here’s the thing: I’ve been doing this for a little while and probably had hundreds of public meetings. In the abstract, Americans want to cut spending. We want to cut spending, yes, cut spending. Alright, do you want to cut defense spending? Absolutely not. By the way, that’s the position of the Republicans. Do you want to reduce Social Security expenses? Absolutely not. Do you want to reduce Medicare expenses? Absolutely not. The three things I just named for you represent 3/4 of the federal budget. So in the abstract, people want to cut spending, when you actually talk about what those cuts are, whether it’s farm subsidies or medicare or social security, oh, no, no , no, at this point, no one wants to cut spending. So saying you want to cut your expenses is kind of like saying, do you want to eat ice cream? Yes, I want to eat ice cream, but guess what, I’m doing this for a long time, there will be implications. So anything polling, unless you can tell me what expenses you want to cut that make sense and you’re willing to say, I want to cut Medicare, I want to cut Social Security, I want to cut defense spending, you I’m just talking about ice cream.