Rep. West: Boehner's Plan Works

Florida congressman on GOP's support of House Speaker's debt proposal

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST OF “YOUR WORLD”: Well, it’s a question that everyone wants to know: Does House Speaker Boehner have the votes?

This much we do know. He now has one Tea Party guy and with a bill being retooled and possibly meant to include more spending cuts, can he get more guys like him?

To Republican Congressman Allen West of Florida.

So, Congressman, if Speaker Boehner has retooled this to your liking - - and it seems he has -- he has got your vote?

REP. ALLEN WEST, R-FLA.: Yes, he does. And I have been very forthright for saying that.

And thanks for having me on, Neil.

Because I look at it this way, coming from my military background-- We can it is around and we can kvetch about coming up with the 100 percent plan, but we are wasting time. What I believe in, this is the plan that gets us the 70 percent to 75 percent solution. Does it have everything that I with like to see there? Absolutely not.

But I think that it gets to the core of us making sure that we don’t have any default on our debt. We do start to cut spending. We do cap spending. And we do get to a balanced budget amendment. As a matter of fact, we will have separate balanced budget amendment votes after the Boehner plan is passed in the House.

CAVUTO: Talk about wasting time, though, Congressman, this is dead on arrival in the Senate if it is even taken up in the Senate. So for whatever its merits and however it might advance the things that you hold near and dear, isn’t it just a waste of time?

WEST: It is not a waste of time. And I think the most important thing that the American people should start asking themselves, what is the credibility of Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats?

You are talking about an individual and his Senate Democrat cohorts in 818 days -- or 817 days -- they have not passed a budget. That is the one constitutionally mandated thing they are supposed to do. And they keep talking about how everything is dead on arrival.

Well, my question to Harry Reid is where is your plan? Where is your CBO-scored plan? Because if you don’t have a plan, then you need to pass what we will send over to you and not have a repeat of what you did last week when you tabled a Cut, Cap and Balance plan which would have given -- this whole thing would have been ended. You have gotten the debt limit raised and we would have the spending control measures that the American people think are necessary.

CAVUTO: All right. Well, I guess they have scored Speaker Boehner’s plan. That’s why it has been sort of adjusted now to reflect that, the GAO similarly pricing out what you make at least of Mr. Reid’s plan, but in both cases that they didn’t produce the cuts either gentlemen thought they would.

Regardless of who is right and who is wrong, I’m wondering if that is the case and we don’t have a backup plan, we are not going to meet this deadline, right?

WEST: Well, this is the backup. The backup plan which is for Harry Reid and the Senate to pass this. And when it gets to the president’s desk for him to sign it. There is no more time for press conferences.

CAVUTO: Well, Harry Reid says he won’t and then the president says he won’t, so I don’t know who is right and whether they’re playing theater here. But I guess do any of you have a fallback plan? Is there a fallback plan?

WEST: Well, I think, Neil, how many fallback plans? And why do people keep coming to the House GOP?

First of all, let’s think about exorbitant amount of debt increase that have come since Obama took over in the office. Let’s talk about the incredible deficits that he has run over these three years. We are not going to allow a clean debt ceiling to be raised. And this is the first time we have ever talked about raising the debt limit with also spending cuts.

So I think we have sent and -- had a vote on a clean debt limit. That didn’t go anywhere. And as a matter of fact, that was a bipartisan failure. Even his own fiscal year 2012 budget didn’t get one single vote in the Senate. We sent over Cut, Cap and Balance. Now we will send over the Boehner plan. So, I don’t think the onus is on the House GOP. I think the onus is on the Senate Democrats to get on board and do something.

CAVUTO: All right, Congressman, good seeing you again. Be well.

WEST: Pleasure. Thank you.

CAVUTO: All right.

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