Nikki Haley to Newsmax: Blame Both Dems, GOP for Debt

Democrats and Republicans are both pointing the finger at each other over the national debt, but former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley told Newsmax on Saturday both parties have been spending irresponsibly.

"First, let's tell Americans the truth: We are almost $32 trillion in debt; we are having to borrow money just to make our interest payments," Haley told "Saturday Agenda" from the Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst's "Roast and Ride" event in Des Moines, Iowa. "It would be easy to blame Biden for that.

"But our Republicans did that to us, too. They passed that $2.2 trillion COVID stimulus bill that expanded welfare. We now have 90 million Americans on Medicaid, 42 million Americans on food stamps.

"Instead of Republicans making it right, they opened up earmarks for the first time in 10 years. I mean, $7.5 million on horse racing in Arizona, $30 million on an honors College in Vermont, $10 million on a courthouse in Colorado. They don't have any value or respect for a dollar.

"And so this is about calling out Republicans and Democrats: No more debt."

The debt-ceiling deal is only going to make things worse, too, Haley told host Kilmeny Duchardt.

"I think the deal was bad," Haley said. "We should not be doing anything that doesn't take us back to pre-COVID levels, and that's why I will stop the spending. I'll stop the borrowing. We'll cut up the credit cards. We'll end the earmarks, and I'll veto any spending bill that doesn't take us back to pre-COVID levels."

Even foreign aid should be curbed, if not halted, according to Haley.

"America should close the checkbook when it comes to foreign aid, giving money to countries that hate America: 50 billion went last year to countries like Pakistan; Zimbabwe, the most anti-American African country; Iraq; Belarus, who's holding hands with Russia; Communist Cuba, who we named the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism.

"We gave money to China. It doesn't get more embarrassing than that."

Support for Ukraine should continue, but not in the way it is being done now, Haley added.

"When it comes to Ukraine, that's a war on freedom that we have to win, but we don't have to do it by giving Ukraine money," she said. "We don't have to do it by putting troops on the ground. What we have to do is make sure that we get with our allies and we make sure they have the equipment and the ammunition to win. That's what we need to be doing."

Haley is kissing her own husband goodbye for deployment overseas as she is running for president, and she believes we can combat our enemies with economic power through energy independence and a strong military.

"When it comes to Department of Defense spending, there were two things in the United Nations that I knew our enemies never wanted us to have: They never wanted us to be energy independent, and they never wanted us to have a strong military," Haley said. "We'll do both things because a strong military doesn't start wars. A strong military prevents wars.

"And we'll make sure we're not going hat in hand to Saudi Arabia for oil. We'll make sure we're not getting dirty oil from Venezuela."

Still, the Defense Department can cut spending, too.

"The Department of Defense wastes a lot of money," she said. "They have a lot of programs that we don't need. They're very bureaucratic. They're very bloated. They need to cut back on the spending, and we need to make sure the spending that's going into defense is going into making sure that we have the strongest, most powerful military in the world so that no one ever challenges us, and that's what I'll make sure we do."

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