Sen. Mitt Romney discussed some of the biggest issues in our Nation’s Capital with Heidi Hatch on Wednesday, Jan. 25. 

They discussed classified documents now found in former President Trump’s home, President Biden, and former Vice President Mike Pence. They addressed the debt ceiling, how to roll back spending and the Senator’s top priorities.

DEBT CEILING NEGOTIATIONS

“Well, there is an expression that has been used around Washington for a long time, and that is never take a hostage, you are not prepared to shoot. And the reality is we should not take the debt ceiling as a hostage because we are certainly not willing to shoot it," Romney said.

Sen. Mitt Romney, a Republican Utah Senator, said the debt ceiling must be raised but said it should not be done without conditions.

“It would be unacceptable for us to say, we are going to stop all payments, not just interest on the debt, but social security payments, Medicare, Medicaid payments, veterans’ benefits, we are going to stop all of that. That is simply unacceptable. Nevertheless, raising the debt ceiling has, in the past, been used as an opportunity for us to find ways to reduce spending, and that is something we badly need to do.”

President Joe Biden has said he will not negotiate, but Romney believes House Republicans have an opportunity to negotiate and find ways to cut spending.

“The White House needs to negotiate to say, okay, we need to work together to restrain spending and see if we can't get closer to a balanced budget.”

Romney wants to get back to the old way of doing business where there is a process to approving spending that does not come at the last minute when there is no time to negotiate.

He said, “It's been more than 10 years since we've actually had a normal appropriations process that allows us to have those kinds of votes.”

“As we look at the coming year budget, we need to have a process which allows us to look at each aspect of federal spending, one by one, have amendment votes for either reducing or expanding spending at a particular area.”

I asked Senator Romney if he has any specific ideas on how to reign in spending.

He pointed to the Trust Act- Bipartisan, bicameral legislation he hopes will rescue endangered federal trust funds that could run out some time in the next 11 years.

TRUST ACT

Senator Romney said most people focus on the budget passed each year. The most recent passed in December. The $1.7 trillion dollar omnibus.

The Trust Act would focus on the other two thirds of the budget that does not get a vote.

“That's the non-discretionary, the mandatory, the entitlement. And that is an area where the deficit has been large and has been adding to our debt.”

His Trust Act “is designed to create rescue committees to save Social security, Medicare and Medicaid, and the Highway Trust Fund from becoming bankrupt, which they're scheduled to do over the next few years.”

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS TRUMP, BIDEN, PENCE

Some of the classified Documents connected to President Biden are connected to his time as a Senator. When asked if there could be other Senators with Classified documents in their homes- Romney said, “it is very unlikely that you will find any senators current or past that have classified documents in their possession. Uh, in part because we do not have access to them. It is the executive branch where this problem is.”

He went on to say that he does not believe the documents found so far were kept in for sinister reasons.

“I do not think any one of the people that you're talking about … took them with ill intent or with a design to hurt national security. But I do believe that sloppiness looks bad.” That sloppiness he added, “whether it is on the current president, past president, or past vice president. It is just wrong. And it puts our nation, uh, in an embarrassing light.”

PRIORITIES

#1 Save Social security, Medicare, Medicaid, save our military, and get to a balanced budget.

#2 Immigration “It really affects our state in a major way.”

#3 Military “With Hill Air Force Base, with the Dugway Proving Grounds, it's important for us to have, the support needed to keep our military the strongest in the world such that no one would think of threatening us.”

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