Walsh: 'Failure is an option' on debt deal

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) said Friday that there was "a consensus among conservatives in this house that failure is an option" for the debt supercommittee, and that he would rather see the group fail and automatic cuts be triggered than accept any tax increases.

"I wouldn't even support anything that ended up tax-neutral," Walsh said on Laura Ingraham's radio show.

Walsh went on to call the supercommittee a "flawed idea" and "ludicrous."

"Republicans will be dead politically if we support any type of tax increases, period," Walsh said.

The Tea Party freshman was pushed by Ingraham about whether his strong posturing would lead to conservative outcomes, considering Republicans still had to negotiate with a Democratic president and Senate.

"We have to be bold as well, we have to be willing to do whatever we can to save this country," Walsh responded.

He also said that he was not in favor of so-called "grand bargains" that would trade a tax code overhaul for more substantial cuts.

"I wouldn't do any grand bargain with this president, because he doesn't have this country's best interests at heart," Walsh said.

Walsh has been among the Republican party's most outspoken members. Last week, Walsh apologized for an incident at a meet and greet in which he said a constituent's concerns about income inequality were "crap" that "pisses me off."

Walsh said Friday that he was "through apologizing and through blaming it on coffee" for the interaction, and that his passion was rooted in the fact that there were only "20 Republicans up here who understand we're losing our country."

"Too many people up here just don't understand the state of emergency we're in," Walsh said.

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