Station:      KFKA, 1310 AM

Show:        AM Colorado with Tom Lucero and Devon Lentz

Guests:      Gardner

Link:  http://www.1310kfka.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=42&Itemid=60

Date:         November 29, 2012

Topics:      Fiscal Cliff, Bush Tax Cuts, Mandatory Spending, Entitlement Programs, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Food Stamps, Obamaphones, Welfare, Chinese Prostitutes, Earmarks, Loopholes, Sequestration, Defense Spending,

Click Here for Audio

HOST DEVON LENTZ:  [referring to the $550 million Powerball jackpot, won last night]  I’m going to say that if my taxes go up, that’s going to feel like a lot of money to me, next year

UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE CORY GARDNER:  Absolutely right!  And if Congress doesn’t act to prevent the tax increases that are scheduled to occur on January 1^st, the average Colorado family will see several thousand dollars of  tax hikes and you know, again, that’s something that this economy can’t afford right now.  It’s something that working families can’t afford, and certainly something that we’ve got to avoid.

LENTZ:  Well, Cory, tell me what the Republican Party is going to do with the President’s comments that “We’ll deal with the taxes this year and the budget next year”?

GARDNER:  Well, I think the President, first of all, has failed to deal with the budget for four years he’s been in office.  But the fact of the matter is, with the massive tax increases looming in 2001 and 2003– going back to those tax rates, you know, the pre-2001,2003 tax rates—those taxes looming, we do need to deal with the taxes now.  And the President has said he wants more revenue.  Well, the problem with increasing tax rates is, even under his plan you still have 900 billion dollar deficits every year.  And so, clearly, increasing taxes:  not the solution.  The solution is to cut spending, grow the economy.  For every one percent of economic growth, this country receives or undertakes – every one percent increase in economic growth results in an additional 40 billion dollars of revenue to the federal government, simply because the economy is growing and more people are paying taxes.

HOST TOM LUCERO:   […]

GARDNER:  I think we need to understand what – we’ve got to have an agreement that enbtitlements really are –the mandatory spending side of the budget really are the brunt of what’s driving our debt and deficit—is the problem today.  And that’s why we needed a commitment from President Obama, from the Democrats , to say, “Look, we will address entitlements and mandatory spending in a meaningful way.”  You can eliminate the entire discretionary portion of our budget which is one-third of spending.  That’s the day-to-day spending Congress has control over, and we’d still have a deficit.  And so it’s simply not enough to say, “All right, we can cut spending out of this program or that program.”  We have got to address mandatory spending.

LUCERO:  […]

GARDNER:  Right now, that’s what we’re asking the President.  Because the President keeps talking about a balanced approach.  Well, what is that balance?  You know, we have said that we would reform the tax code, that we’d like entitlement reform, we’d like a commitment to do that.  We’ve said that we would lower the rate and broaden the base.  And we’d like to know what the President’s idea is for – in exchange for that for entitlement reform.  So, right now, it’s not looking promising.  I certainly hope that we can get to a promising point.  But I think everybody agrees it’s not the right direction for this country to increase taxes when what could be the largest tax increase in the history this country has ever seen.

LENTZ:  […] So many of these entitlement programs, and very specifically food stamps, we have more people on food stamps because they can’t find jobs.  They can’t find jobs in the private sector, who are actually going to keep this economy going forward.  So, now you’re going to tax these people that own small businesses.  We’re not getting anywhere!  We’re like the hamsters on their little round running wheels!  We’re getting nowhere!

GARDNER:  […]  If you talk to small businesses, that’s exactly the way they feel – getting nowhere in terms of the certainty they need from government, the certainty they need from a tax code that works for them.  And it is frustrating to have a president that simply believes that if you raise taxes,  it’s the answer.  Even under his plan, if he raises 82 billion dollars under his plan, like he said he was talking about, there is still, under his own budget, 978 billion  dollars of deficit a year, and that’s what is hurting small businesses, you’re right.

LUCERO:  […]  Under the fiscal cliff scenario, what is the total amount cut to the federal government?  It’s approximately 500 billion to defense, and then what about the remainder?  Is it almost a trillion dollars of government spending that will be cut if a deal is not reached?

GARDNER:  Now, [you’re] correct.  Now, remember, though, this is all Washington speak,which is impossible to understand, because it’s a 1.2 trillion dollar “cut” over ten years.  This is not a 1.2 trillion dollar cut for this spending  year.  It’s 1.2 trilllion dollars spread out over 10 years.  And if you look at what’s happening under our budget at the same time frame,  deficits increase by a trillion dollars every year, almost.  So, in the same time period where you’re increasing the debt by about 7-10 trillion dollars, this sequestration would reduce spending by 1.2 trillion.

LUCERO:  […] let’s just do nothing, because we’ll have real cuts in the federal budget to spending, you’re saying, “Really insignificant in the grand scheme of things.”

GARDNER:  Well, it’s insignificant, but we still have to make these cuts.  Now, should we do them in a better way?  Yes.  Should be do them in a way that doesn’t decimate our defense?  Absolutely.  But we still have to move forward with 1.2 trillion dollars in reductions.  […]  And that’s why, where these people say we need to just put an end to these spending cuts, and avoid them, and kick the it down the road, They’re wrong.  We just have to find a better way to do it.

[Tom Lucero talks about Rand Paul pointing out in an interview this morning that wasteful spending includes programs that educate Chinese prostitutes about the dangers of drinking and STDs, a billion dollars in smart phone give-aways (Obamaphones), wind energy tax credits, welfare– and Congress’ serious intention to cut spending while maintaining programs like these]