Watch: MSNBC host forced to explain what the debt ceiling is to GOP House hopeful
During an interview on MSNBC's "The Sunday Show," the Republican Party candidate for the House seat, now open due to the death of the late U.S. Rep. Don McEachin (D), ran into some difficulties when asked if he would agree to raise the debt ceiling if elected that, in turn, led host Jonathan Capehart to explain what it is.
Sitting down with the MSNBC host, Virginia's Leon Benjamin was given the opportunity to make the case for himself as opposed to his Democratic opponent State Sen. Jennifer McClellan (D).
Benjamin ran into early trouble when asked about the debt ceiling and he responded with a boilerplate conservative complaint about taxes.
"On Friday, Congress is on track to hit the debt limit with this upcoming week. If elected, would you vote to raise the debt ceiling?" Capehart asked.
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"Well, there comes some parameters with raising the debt ceiling," Benjamin began. "If we want to continue to do the spending we are doing, then all it does is move the goalpost and someone has to pay for that debt. And most of the time it is our children and grandchildren. So if we are going to raise any debt ceiling, there has to be some, uh, parameters around the spending and I would vote for that."
"But paying our debts isn't new spending, it's paying for stuff we've already bought," the MSNBC host patiently explained. "So the question again, will you vote to raise the debt ceiling if you are indeed elected to Congress?"
"Well that's the issue," the GOP hopeful attempted. "We had 33 trillion right now something, somebody has to pay for that and most of the time the goalpost gets pushed down into the future. So there has to be an understanding of spending money that you have, as opposed to spending money that you don't."
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