On Thursday, Republican Senator Pat Toomey repeatedly embarrassed leftist CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil by dismantling the anchor’s Democratic Party talking points about raising the nation’s debt limit. The GOP lawmaker called out Dokoupil for pushing “a partisan political point of view that’s designed to provide cover for the Democrats’ spending.”
“Let’s talk about that debt ceiling....For years it was increased with bipartisan votes and it goes to cover existing spending, things that have already been approved,” Dokoupil falsely claimed. He then pressed Toomey: “Why this game of brinksmanship now when we’re talking about the past?”
The Pennsylvania Senator immediately fact-checked Dokoupil’s disinformation:
Well, a couple of corrections really. It’s very frequently that it has been passed on a party-line vote, and not always bipartisan. But more importantly and fundamentally, it is not about past spending, it is about future spending. Consider, for instance, this $3.5 – which is really $5.5 trillion spending bill. Last time I checked, that hasn’t passed yet. And if it passes it will certainly increase the amount of debt that’s required.
Reiterating his DNC spin, Dokoupil insisted: “But Senator, according to the U.S. Treasury, the debt limit does not authorize new spending commitments....you would still have to raise the debt limit.” Toomey hit back: “You would not have to raise it as soon, and you would not have to raise it as much. That Treasury statement is dissembling – ” Dokoupil interrupted: “But you would still have to raise it.” Toomey repeated: “But you heard what I said, you wouldn’t have to raise it as soon and you wouldn’t have to raise it as much.”
The Senator provided viewers with information that Democratic Party allies like Dokoupil refuse to acknowledge: “Here’s the central truth that our Democratic colleagues don’t want the American people to focus on, and that is if you go on a huge spending binge, you will have to borrow more money than you otherwise would. This spending binge that they’re on is going to do huge damage.”
Moments later, Toomey issued a dire warning about such reckless spending: “We’ve got $28 trillion in debt. And we’ve got these artificially low interest rates that make it easy, but that day will end. And when interest rates normalize, the cost of servicing that debt’s gonna be huge for the American people.”
In response, Dokoupil channeled the far left: “We have a $28 trillion debt, we have a $20 trillion economy. A lot of economists think it’s okay to carry that much debt. I know it’s a matter of debate.” Toomey quipped: “Yeah, and a lot don’t, right.”
The CBS anchor made another attempt to scold Republicans: “Your party could relieve us of this conversation, this anxiety, this potential catastrophe, as Janet Yellen puts it, of America defaulting on its debt. Someone’s got to be the adult in the room here, why not the Republicans?” Toomey rejected the laughable effort to blame the GOP for a crisis of the Democrats’ own making: “So you know, you point to my party. I’ve got to chuckle. Which party has the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives? I’m pretty sure it’s the Democrats.”
Having been outmatched throughout the entire interview, Dokoupil tried to have the last word – but he failed at that too:
DOKOUPIL: Alright, Senator. Our viewers hear what you’re saying, I hear what you’re saying. I do want to clarify that according to the U.S. Treasury, the debt limit has nothing to do with future spending, rather it’s past spending. We can end it on that note.
TOOMEY: But let’s – and that’s the Democrat Treasury, works for this administration.
DOKOUPIL: So you’re saying they changed the website and it’s a new policy, that’s a new approach?
TOOMEY: I’m saying that is a partisan political point of view that’s designed to provide cover for the Democrats’ spending.
If so-called “journalists” like Dokoupil are just going to parrot spin from Democrats they better at least do a minimal amount of research to find out if there’s any validity to what they’re being told to say.
Dokoupil’s failure to win the battle of wits was brought to viewers by Colgate and Cadillac. You can fight back by letting these advertisers know what you think of them sponsoring such content.
Here is a full transcript of the September 30 segment:
7:05 AM ET
TONY DOKOUPIL: With that we are joined now by Republican Senator Pat Toomey of the great state of Pennsylvania. Senator Toomey, good to see you again, good morning.
SEN. PAT TOOMEY [R-PA]: Good morning, thanks for having me, guys.
DOKOUPIL: Let’s talk about that debt ceiling. There’s a lot of anxiety around it. For years it was increased with bipartisan votes and it goes to cover existing spending, things that have already been approved. Why this game of brinksmanship now when we’re talking about the past?
TOOMEY: Well, a couple of corrections really. It’s very frequently that it has been passed on a party-line vote, and not always bipartisan. But more importantly and fundamentally, it is not about past spending, it is about future spending. Consider, for instance, this $3.5 – which is really $5.5 trillion spending bill. Last time I checked, that hasn’t passed yet. And if it passes...
DOKOUPIL: Senator –
TOOMEY: ...it will certainly increase the amount of debt that’s required. So the amount of spending you do...
DOKOUPIL: Senator –
TOOMEY: ...in the future does determine the amount of debt that you’re going to need. Our Democrats want an unprecedented spending blowout, they’re gonna have to raise the debt to facilitate it.
DOKOUPIL: But Senator, according to the U.S. Treasury, the debt limit does not authorize new spending commitments. And even if the Democrats are unable to pass infrastructure, unable to pass social infrastructure, if both those bills die, correct me if I’m wrong here, you would still have to raise the debt limit.
TOOMEY: You would not have to raise it as soon, and you would not have to raise it as much. That Treasury statement is dissembling –
DOKOUPIL: But you would still have to raise it.
TOOMEY: But you heard what I said, you wouldn’t have to raise it as soon and you wouldn’t have to raise it as much. Here’s the central truth that our Democratic colleagues don’t want the American people to focus on, and that is if you go on a huge spending binge, you will have to borrow more money than you otherwise would. This spending binge that they’re on is going to do huge damage. They’ve got huge tax increases that are going to be very damaging. They won’t pay for all of it. And you know, if there’s a party that has complete control of the government, they want to do this all on their own. They’ve developed the procedures, they’re executing the procedures so they can spend all this money all by themselves, if they can reach an agreement among themselves. But then they want Republicans to facilitate it all by enabling the borrowing that will be necessary to fund all that spending. They can do that themselves.
DOKOUPIL: But Senator – but Senator, under the Trump administration, the deficit increased by trillions of dollars. You and Democrats voted twice to increase the debt limit.
TOOMEY: Yeah.
DOKOUPIL: Don’t the Democrats deserve the same courtesy that Republicans got when they had legislative priorities?
TOOMEY: Well, first of all, it’s not a matter of a courtesy. The Democrats charge a price for that. When they are available to vote for a debt ceiling increase, when they offer the willingness to do it, it’s always if we agree to even more spending to make the problem worse. And by the way, I’ve been consistent on this. My position on the debt ceiling is we should raise the debt ceiling when we make some progress towards resolving the underlying fiscal problems that cause us to have to borrow so much. We’ve got $28 trillion in debt. And we’ve got these artificially low interest rates that make it easy, but that day will end. And when interest rates normalize, the cost of servicing that debt’s gonna be huge for the American people.
DOKOUPIL: We have a $28 trillion debt, we have a $20 trillion economy. A lot of economists think it’s okay to carry that much debt. I know it’s a matter of debate.
TOOMEY: Yeah, and a lot don’t, right.
DOKOUPIL: Your party could relieve us of this conversation, this anxiety, this potential catastrophe, as Janet Yellen puts it, of America defaulting on its debt. Someone’s got to be the adult in the room here, why not the Republicans?
TOOMEY: So you know, you point to my party. I’ve got to chuckle. Which party has the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives? I’m pretty sure it’s the Democrats. And we have told them from the beginning that if you want to go on this unprecedented spending spree, you will have to raise the debt ceiling that’s going to contribute to paying for it. They’ve known this for months. Chuck Schumer could have done this months ago, he could have done it last week, he could do it today, and if they did this, there’s not a Republican in the Senate – there’s nothing Republicans could do, we can’t stop them. They have the tools to raise the debt ceiling, and so they will raise the debt ceiling. But they’re hoping that they’ll get some Republicans to share the blame for all of this debt and all of this spending that’s causing it, and that’s just not gonna happen.
DOKOUPIL: Alright, Senator. Our viewers hear what you’re saying, I hear what you’re saying. I do want to clarify that according to the U.S. Treasury, the debt limit has nothing to do with future spending, rather it’s past spending. We can end it on that note.
TOOMEY: But let’s – and that’s the Democrat Treasury, works for this administration.
DOKOUPIL: So you’re saying they changed the website and it’s a new policy, that’s a new approach?
TOOMEY: I’m saying that is a partisan political point of view that’s designed to provide cover for the Democrats’ spending.
DOKOUPIL: Alright, we’ve got to leave it there. Senator Pat Toomey, always a pleasure. Thank you very much.
TOOMEY: Thanks for having me.
