This is a rush transcript from "Your World," March 20, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Deny, deny, night. Pretend it isn't an issue and that it's a false one. Lindsay Lohan isn't an addict. She just likes having her mug shot taken. NASA isn't in trouble. Folks there think everything is just hunky-dory. Democrats aren't dumb. They just don't think we have a spending problem.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI, D - CA, HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: It is almost a false argument to say we have a spending problem.
SEN. MARY LANDRIEU, D - LA: I'm not going to keep cutting the discretionary budget, which, by the way, is not out of control, despite what you hear on Fox News.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: Every time I see that, I want to go kablooey.
Anyway, if you don't think we have a spending problem, then you don't have to address it, right? Carte blanche to keep the spending going.
Well, Mia Love says that's the problem. You can do all the hand gestures in the world.
But I have a feeling, Mia, the American people will have a certain single-finger digit response of their own. What do you make of that?
MAYOR MIA LOVE, SARATOGA SPRINGS, UTAH: You know, it's -- to me, this is all about priorities.
And, obviously, the priorities of the current administration is not to fix our fiscal crisis. Let's look at what has happened in the past few years, Neil, $1.6 trillion of tax increases to the American people, $1 trillion being ObamaCare, $600 billion being the fiscal cliff issue.
And they want to increase it even more. So, obviously, spending, they think that there's not a problem because there's an unlimited source of funding called the taxpayers. And you know what? The priority that I believe is really the president's priority is to make sure that there's more spending in Washington, government is bigger, and people are -- they control -- they control people through dependencies. And that undermines the very fabric of civil society.
CAVUTO: When you don't see the problem -- and I think they -- I don't think any of these folks are idiots. I do think they are maybe a tad too clever, that by denying the problem, or in the case of Senator Landrieu, blaming Fox for creating a problem, will get their attention off the real math, more money going out than coming in, a trillion dollars more money going out than coming year in, year out, $17 trillion in debt, easily on our way to $21 trillion in debt, leaving aside the trillions more in unfunded liabilities.
So, just say you're looking at the wrong thing. Things are actually all invented by kooks. What do you do?
LOVE: It's easy to look at the wrong thing when you say, oh, well, if we need to spend more, let's just go to the taxpayers and tax them a little bit more.
And what happens is, when we do that, government becomes bigger and we -- and we undermine what we -- what our society is good at doing, which is letting people make decisions on a local level.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: But, Mia, are they winning that P.R. argument? By that, I mean, you know, you lost your race.
And I was thinking you had a very compelling, cogent argument. We gotta to stop this. And I'm wondering if part of what is going on here is the other side's very, very effective at saying, what, no problem here.
LOVE: You know what they're effective at saying? They're effective at saying that we are going to make your lives easier in the short term, and we should be saying we're going to make your lives better for generations to come.
My parents came to this country not for an easier life, but for opportunities. They want their children -- they wanted their children to be able to be whoever they wanted to be in society, as long as you worked hard and you were -- and you just did everything that you needed to do, you can be whoever you wanted to be in this country.
You didn't have to conform to what society told you, you wanted you to do.
CAVUTO: Very true, Mia, but they just don't seem to get it. And, oh, my lord.
Mia, thank you. And you did that all without hand gestures.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: Holy cow. Look at this.
LOVE: I know.
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: My goodness.
LOVE: It's nice to see you, Neil.
CAVUTO: Same here. Thank you.
Content and Programming Copyright 2013 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2013 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox