Navarro: Growing Out of Debt Best Case, But ‘Difficult to Unwind’ Biden Spending

On Thursday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” White House Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing Peter Navarro discussed dealing with the debt and said that “the way you do this is you grow your way out of this.” But “that’s going to be the best-case scenario. But, at some point, all of these expenditure programs that Biden built into our economy, it’s very, very difficult to unwind.” And they’re “working on” spending cuts but Congress doesn’t want to cut spending.

Navarro said that “the way you do this is you grow your way out of this. The bigger the — if the GDP can grow faster than the debt, in real terms, you can get it down. That’s our goal.”

Host Rob Schmitt then asked, “We’re spending seven trillion and we’re bringing in five. It’s — we’re — around the edges, we’re doing better. I can see that. But, how on earth are we going to fill that gap? Growth filling that gap seems unlikely.”

Navarro answered, “Well, you know how Congress is, we want to cut spending, and they don’t want to do it. And you get the debt limit always going up. All I can tell you, Rob, is that we’re painfully aware of the situation. Nobody understands better that, if you’re paying interest on the debt with taxpayer money, rather than paying for Social Security and services in this, that’s not a good thing. But what we are focusing on, the four horsemen of prosperity. It’s the deregulation, it’s the tax cuts, strategic energy dominance, and, of course, the tariffs that come with the fair trade. We’re focusing on growth, investment, productivity, getting our manufacturing base going. And if we can grow our way out, that’s going to be the best-case scenario. But, at some point, all of these expenditure programs that Biden built into our economy, it’s very, very difficult to unwind. And that’s what we’ve got.”

Schmitt then cut in to say, “You would have to cut the living hell out of government. You’d have to cut it in a way that I don’t think anybody in Congress is going to allow.”

Navarro replied, “Well, the good thing is, when you put the government in the hands of the Trump folks, you’re in good hands. Russ Vought, who is the director of the Office of Management and Budget — I have the greatest respect for Russ Vought — he knows where every line item is in the entire budget. He knows how to get it down. And we’re working on that.”