GOP Congressman Raises Eyebrows After Pivot to Cutting Entitlements When Pushed on Possible Defense Cuts By Fox Business Host

Fox Business host Stuart Varney asked Florida Congressman Michael Waltz on Monday if Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was right on Sunday when he suggested the GOP-led House should look at cutting defense spending. Waltz, who won a bronze star in Afghanistan, pivoted in his response and brought up the need to look at reforming entitlement spending – a comment which quickly raised eyebrows as Waltz grabbed onto the third rail of American politics.

“Congressman, should military spending cuts be on the table and put on the table by a Republican?” Varney asked Waltz after showing a clip of Jordan on Fox News Sunday.

“Well, look, I agree with Jim Jordan that we are going to carve out work policies out of the military. We are going to look at the out of whack ratio of generals. I, I invited them to come on the Armed Services Committee and and work with us on that,” Waltz replied, adding:

But Stu. And by the way, I’m all for a balanced budget. We’ve got to get spending under control, but we are not going to do it on the backs of our troops and our military when at the same time we’re talking about China is the greatest threat. We’re going to have a select committee on China. They’re tripling their nuclear arsenal. Iran is racing towards a new North Korea is about to launch an ICBM. Russia is on the on the march.

And oh, by the way, we still have a global terrorist state now in Afghanistan. Thanks to Joe Biden. So this is I mean, we can work on prioritizing defense spending, but that’s really nibbling around the margins. If we really want to talk about the debt and spending, it’s the entitlements program that’s 70% of our entire budget, that 1.7 trillion. And defense within that is only 30%. So if we want to talk about big reforms, I look forward to hearing that from those folks who are pushing towards a balanced budget.

Waltz’s comments were clipped and spread online by independent journalist Aaron Rupar and they were quickly commented on by various prominent leaders and pundits – including White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain.

“They are going to try to cut Social Security and Medicare. It could not be clearer,” Klain commented on the clip, perhaps previewing a bit of Biden’s reelection messaging.

California Democratic Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) replied, “Republicans are openly signaling that they want to cut your Social Security and Medicare.”

“@HouseDemocrats will oppose their efforts and always work to protect and expand these earned benefits,” Garamendi added.

On the right, New York Post writer Jon Levine commented, “Money for missiles and foreign wars but not for Americans … not a winner.”

https://twitter.com/LevineJonathan/status/1612514480562536448

Radio host Buzz Jackson added, “They call it “entitlements” because it’s OUR MONEY. We’re entitled to Medicare and Social Security because we have funded it with our paychecks thru the decades.”

Esquire’s Jack Holmes wrote in response, “to use the same metric we use for all other spending, we dish out upwards of $8.5 trillion per decade on the military. the Pentagon is notoriously bad at keeping track of where all the money goes. might be worth looking at if you’re concerned about the national debt!”