Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Montana Senator Steve Daines has been getting a lot more press since he was elected to be the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

He appeared on Fox News Tuesday with former Congressman Trey Gowdy to discuss the debt ceiling debate currently raging between President Biden and House Republicans.

Steve Daines Appeared on Fox News with Trey Gowdy on Tuesday Night

“The important word in the debt ceiling debate is the word ‘debt’,” began Daines. “This is a symptom of the biggest problem and that's the crisis of the debt. We're $31 trillion plus in debt. I didn't think I'd live to see the day to have this kind of debt showing up on the books. Trey, right now, according to the Congressional Budget Office, if you look ahead, our debt is going to be pushing nearly $50 trillion just in the next 10 years, and 10 years is not that far away.”

Daines said the increasing debt load of the U.S. is the key destabilizing factor for the nation’s economic future.

“This creates huge additional inflationary pressures, and that's the destabilization that we know at some point, you can't keep running up this debt,” he said. “You can't keep running trillion dollar plus deficits every year, and expect the rest of the world to come in and keep buying our debt. That's going to create higher interest rates, and this is the biggest challenge I think we face as a nation and the existential threat with this crisis will hit when this debt becomes such that it is no longer sustainable.”

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Daines said to Stimulate the Economy Taxes Must be Lowered

Daines' reasoning that is falling on deaf ears in the White House, is that the only way to stimulate the economy is by lowering taxes.

“The way to increase revenue, Trey, and we've seen that happen under John F. Kennedy and under Ronald Reagan. It also happened under Trump, and that is when you lower tax rates to create more economic activity, you actually increase tax revenues,” he said. “The Democrats have one thing they want to do and that is to raise taxes. If you want to slow something down, you tax it. If you want to slow the U.S. economy down you tax it and that'd be exactly the wrong thing to do. And it doesn't solve the problem. It is truly a spending problem.”

Daines Maintains ' If They Don't Balance the Budget, They Don't Get Paid'

Daines hearkened back to the very first bill he ever proposed when he was in the House; the same bill he proposes at the start of every session.

“Probably the very first bill that I introduced in every Congress is pretty simple, and it says, ‘if Congress doesn't balance their budget, they don't get paid’,” he said. “Back home in Montana when I talk about that, not only do folks stand up and cheer, they jump on their chairs and start cheering. Put the paint on members of Congress, like business owners have that pain, family businesses, you're managing your family household. The pain goes on those who are trying to balance, so put the pain back on members of Congress.”

The debt ceiling debate continues with both sides standing their ground, at least for now.

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