House Republican: Debt deal contains ‘fantasy cuts’

The spending reductions in the debt-limit deal are just “fantasy cuts” because the U.S. continues to operate on a deficit, Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) said.

“All of this talk about the cuts, the supposed cuts that happened in this last bill that passed, those aren’t cuts,” Mack said Wednesday night in an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity. “Those are fantasy cuts, those are reductions in the rate of growth.”

“And everyone knows if you continue to spend $1.6 trillion more than you bring in, you have to borrow that money, [and] it adds to the debt. We can’t continue to do that.”

President Obama on Tuesday signed a deficit-reduction bill that cuts federal spending by nearly $1 trillion and creates a “supercommittee” of lawmakers to find an additional $1.5 trillion in savings.

Mack voted against the debt-ceiling-increase legislation.

Republicans in the House, led by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), fought to ensure that the increase in the debt ceiling was matched, dollar for dollar, with spending cuts. The law will lead to an increase in the debt ceiling between $2.1 trillion and $2.4 trillion that will be offset by an equal amount of deficit reduction.