Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., a self-described "budget hawk," told Newsmax on Wednesday that he's "going to wrestle" with the Senate's version of President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" to wring as many spending cuts out of it as possible.
"That's what we're going to talk about this morning," Stutzman said on "Wake Up America." "They raised the debt ceiling some more and I don't like that. I'm also understanding that when you have a business that is defunct or is going bankrupt, you either have to raise capital or you have to borrow money. You have to do something to be able to keep the lights on and, sadly, this is not just members of Congress saying this. This is big voices in the financial sector — [JPMorgan Chase CEO] Jamie Dimon, [Bridgewater Associates hedge fund firm founder] Ray Dalio.
"That's where [tech billionaire] Elon Musk is such a big voice on this, is that we are really at that point where we're going to have a debt crisis. And so, that's what I'm going to wrestle through today and find out and talk to the White House. They've already assured me that they're going to have more spending cuts coming in the next bills, but when you have this bill right in front of you, you want to get everything that you can."
With House members returning to Capitol Hill to reconcile their bill with the upper chamber's — which passed on Monday with Vice President JD Vance's tie-breaking vote — Stutzman said he and his colleagues have been "reading the bill this morning and really trying to understand the changes that the Senate made."
"Knowing a little bit about business and also being in the meat business, I know how sausage is made, and that's what we're going through right now in Washington," he said.
Stutzman said he voted for the House version of the bill "enthusiastically," but will be looking for the Senate's version to save money for Americans while also growing the economy.
"For us to be able to tackle our debt and deficits, we've got to have a strong economy where there's revenue going to Washington to be able to pay down our debt and deficits," he said. "We haven't seen the 3% growth number in quite a while and that's the big key piece to this, is get that economy growing again. We've already passed some rescissions packages to start cutting spending, so we're starting, but some of us, we wish it'd be happening quicker."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.