VIDEO: Jim Jordan on Fox News Sunday

Highlights from Congressman Jim Jordan’s Interview:

“I don’t think this was a good deal for the American taxpayer. We didn’t do anything to address the underlying $20 trillion debt problem. But frankly what options did the president have in front of him? The first time the Republican conference talked about the debt ceiling was Wednesday morning. And the Freedom Caucus, we … said don’t leave town until you actually have a plan on the debt ceiling, an outline of the tax reform plan that we’re going to do and until we deal with healthcare. And instead we went home for the longest August recess in a non-election year, longest break in a non-election year for more than the last decade. … So that was the problem: we should have stayed here and put together a plan. We offered ideas in the Freedom Caucus: I said let’s cap spending as a percentage of GDP, and I’ll raise the debt ceiling. So the problem here is we didn’t address the underlying problem. The problem wasn’t a three-month, six-month timeframe. I learned a long time ago that when you fail to prepare you get a bad outcome, and that’s what happened here.

“When you just raise the debt ceiling and don’t do anything to address the underlying problem – I mean, this is like your kid at college whose got your credit card and he’s spending more than he takes in and he’s already piled up a lot of debt and he gets to say, ‘Oh, for the next three months I’ve got unlimited borrowing authority.’ I think if that was your son or my son we’d have a problem with that. That’s what this deal in essence did. That’s why it’s not good for the taxpayer.

“We get another bite at the apple. We’re going to put forward a plan that says let’s cap spending. This is where we, the Freedom Caucus, we took a position: Let’s cap spending as a percentage of GDP, let’s bring spending back down to its modern times historic norm below 20 percent of Gross Domestic Product, and then let’s get this economy growing. I do agree with the president we need to focus on tax cuts. We need that because that’s going to give us the kind of growth we need to deal with a $20 trillion debt burden. But I look at this as an optimist from the Republican side as well: We have a chance now to put together a plan, take that case to the American people early – not wait until the last minute like we did before – and sell that plan to the American people and pass that.

“I think the president is focused on doing what he told the American people he was going to do: cutting their taxes, building a border security wall, dealing with Obamacare, all those issues that folks in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin voted for.

“I think this is a unique situation, not what’s going to happen in the future. What’s going to happen in the future I think with this president, and certainly with us conservatives in the House, is we’re solely and totally focused on what the American people elected us to do.

“Our mission statement at the Freedom Caucus is: the countless number of people that feel that this town has forgotten them – our job is to remember them and fight for them. I think President Trump has that same vision and that same focus. In this situation he wasn’t presented with good options. He does want to get focused on tax reform. I get all that. so we’ve got to make sure we push forward the things the American people elected us to do. Give those options to the president and I’m confident when that happens he will pick those options that are conservative and are consistent with what the American people elected us to accomplish.

“Why don’t we cap spending and get it back down to the historic levels in modern times below 20 percent of GDP – I think that makes a lot of sense, it’s a phase down. … take that case to the American people, you do it early enough, you do the preparation early enough, you can actually win the match.”