Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX), talks the debt ceiling and the bipartisan debt limit bill, and how to achieve a bipartisan agreement on debt.

Video Transcript

EMILY MCCORMICK: Investors are keeping a close eye on the debt-limit debates in Washington and more updates on the economy and inflation. Here to talk about this and more is Texas Congressman Jodey Arrington. Congressman, good afternoon, and thank you so much for joining us.

JODEY ARRINGTON: Good afternoon, Emily, and it's great to be with you.

EMILY MCCORMICK: Great to have you on. And I know you're in the House of Representatives, but this afternoon, the Senate voted to advance a bill that would allow legislation raising the debt limit to pass with only Democratic support. How should Americans be thinking about this move?

JODEY ARRINGTON: Well, I think they first need to know that we have to pay our bills. That's an ethic most of us grew up with from our parents and grandparents. But we also grew up with the principle of living within your means and being responsible about your fiscal affairs. Most states and businesses and families cannot operate like the United States Congress. We can't borrow infinitum. We're now at a debt to GDP that is debt relative to the size of our economy at 100% and rising. So it's completely unsustainable.

I think we've got to pay the bills, but we also have to use these moments to reflect on this tremendous debt that we've amassed and what it's going to do to our future economy and our security and to our children's future, and then we need to put measures in place to start reining in our appetite to grow and spend and work together in a bipartisan way to make sure that we have those measures that force Congress to operate responsibly, not this dysfunctional brinkmanship that we see every year year in, year out.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Congressman, and it's important to point out this is a bipartisan effort, this legislation of which you're a part.

But it's got different options to tackle this issue. How about the simple option, do away with the debt ceiling and have the kind of-- you know, I don't want to say fight but the back and forth over the spending bills and just not have this debt ceiling there. The Treasury can borrow as it needs to borrow because it's Congress that controls spending. The debt ceiling has not controlled it ever. So why even have something that maintains it in some kind of form?

JODEY ARRINGTON: Well, I would agree with you. It hasn't been much of a measure to change the behavior of Congress for the last hundred years, although it has been a leverage point to put spending caps and other budget control measures, not that those have been enforced consistently. But at least it's something that makes us hit pause and consider or take inventory of our deficits and our growing debt.

And so in the case of this bipartisan legislation-- and very proud to work with Scott Peters, my Democrat colleague in the House. Instead of this debt ceiling that hasn't worked well, let's do a meaningful and productive exercise of having a debt-to-GDP target with a glide slope down and have a debate, real proposals, and a vote so that we can actually start taking that trend line and bending it down to a more reasonable and responsible level of debt. That is a much more productive way to do business, and I'm glad I've got Democrats like Scott Peters and others that are in lockstep with me in that mindset.

EMILY MCCORMICK: Congressman, how much support for this bipartisan bill have you seen so far, and on what timeline do you think this could potentially get passed?

JODEY ARRINGTON: Well, we at one time had 30 Democrats and 30 Republicans in a group we call 30 for 30. It's not a formal caucus, but we have sent a list of budget reforms because, see, the process is broken, so no matter how many good folk you send up here, the outcome is still going to be a bad outcome. So we have these budget process reforms like this debt-target reform to replace the debt ceiling.

And, in fact, we got the fiscal state of the nation-- that's one of the initiatives-- passed recently in the House unanimously. And this one's going to take some time because we have to get the Senate engaged. It may be that at the end of the year when we're talking about funding or into February when we're talking about appropriations, there are plenty of action-forcing moments around spending, around our fiscal affairs and budgeting that we can work to put this in place.

So we've got bipartisan support. We've got great momentum, and we're going to just build the coalition. We already have the starting point with 30 for 30, and we'll have to take it from there, especially in working with the leaders of both parties.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Very quickly-- I've only got 20 seconds with you, Representative-- why did you vote against the debt ceiling this time, raising it?

JODEY ARRINGTON: Well, because we've had every spending bill-- and we're talking trillions from ARPA, $2 trillion which we already had a trillion unspent. So we didn't have a single Republican support that. And then you had this BBB, which is trillions of dollars. We're going to actually exacerbate by trillions over 10 years the debt and deficit. So if that's going to be a unilateral partisan move, then I think it makes sense to have Democrats in a partisan way raise the debt limit.

However, if there was a negotiated agreement where we can get some of these budget reforms in place, I think that's why you had the debt ceiling, so we can come to the table and actually do something--

ADAM SHAPIRO: Compromise.

JODEY ARRINGTON: --that would change the outcome.

ADAM SHAPIRO: We appreciate the efforts, and we wish you the best of luck with this because it is a bipartisan effort. Representative Jodey Arrington from the great state of Texas, Republican from Texas, all the best.