GOP lawmaker: 'Short-term pain' caused by Trump will be worth it

A Republican lawmaker conceded that Donald Trump's tariffs and Elon Musk's spending cuts could driving the nation into an economic recession, but he said that might be necessary.

Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) appeared Tuesday morning on Maria Bartiromo's Fox Business program, where the host asked about the stock market plunged after the president's tariffs took effect at midnight, and the Florida Republican agreed with Trump's assessment that some "short-term pain" might be necessary.

"Are you worried about spending cuts potentially leading to a recession?" Bartiromo said."New growth worries, markets were down sharply yesterday on the tariffs and the idea that all the cuts happening could cause a recession, now we expect a contraction in the first quarter."

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Steube argued that the tariffs and spending cuts were separate issues, but he said both were necessary to reduce the deficit.

"In your last segment, you hit on the tariffs and that was a large reason the market reacted to that, but we have to cut spending, we are $36 trillion in debt," Steube said. "I've only been in Congress six years, and when I first got elected we were $20 trillion in debt. We put $16 trillion on the debt just in the last six years. We are running a $2.5 trillion to $3.5 trillion deficit every year. Our country, our economy can't handle that, the treasury can't handle that and the American people can't handle that. We've got to get our fiscal house in order in Washington."

"If that means short-term pain for the country," the lawmaker added, "then we have to walk through that together to ensure we put ourselves on a fiscal path the next 10 years."

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