Scalise Joins WDSU For “Hot Seat” Segment
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Steve Scalise (R-La.) recently appeared on WDSU’s “Hot Seat” segment in New Orleans to discuss upcoming House action to strengthen national security, to fight the Administration’s bad deal with Iran, to hold the President accountable for his executive overreach on Second Amendment rights, and more.
Click here to watch highlights from the interview
Highlights from the interview:
On the importance of moving national security bills through the legislative process:“There is a lot of aggression in the world. The United States, frankly, has not been exerting strength. You see that by our enemies taking advantage of us on all these different fronts.”
On this bad deal with Iran: “The tenets of this deal—that the President agreed to—allows Iran to continue moving forward with some of the nuclear capabilities…the President has even acknowledged, if they comply with everything, and Iran has notoriously cheated on every agreement, but if they complied, they would be capable of making a nuclear bomb in 10 to 12 years…It’s a very bad deal. It surely has not slowed down Iran's aggression. They just captured two U.S. Navy vessels. You didn’t see the President give any kind of response to that. What message does that send to other enemies of ours around the world?…Congress passed very strong bipartisan sanctions, overwhelming Republican and Democratic vote, to cripple their economy. We literally had Iran on their knees. They actually came to the table to negotiate because the sanctions were working so well to cripple their economy. But the President, instead of using that to say to say dismantle your nuclear weapons program, instead gave them a pathway to a nuclear bomb. it was a very bad deal for many reasons, but look, the next president is going to have to be confronted with a nuclear Iran.”
On President Obama’s executive overreach on Second Amendment rights:[President Obama] would try to go through executive order, which he cannot do and we are not going to let him, try to change the Second Amendment to take away the gun rights of law-abiding citizens. It is not the route to go. The problem that we have is that the President has not rooted out terrorism…the problems with crime are real in this city. The problems with crime are real in many cities throughout the country. The solution is not taking away the rights of law-abiding citizens. Law-abiding citizens are not the people at the root of these criminal problems. In fact, citizens who have guns to defend themselves are in a much better position to stop crimes.”
On reconciliation, gutting ObamaCare, and defunding Planned Parenthood:“We were able to use what’s called budget reconciliation process. It's a once a year budget opportunity if you pass a budget between the House and Senate, which we did last year, to actually move a bill through the United States Senate with 51 votes instead of 60. That’s been the problem all of 2015. We moved a lot of good bills the House, but then they got stuck in the Senate because there is a 60 vote filibuster requirement. We had a one shot opportunity to put on the President's desk with 51 votes in the Senate, and we used that opportunity to put a bill on his desk with that guts ObamaCare and defunds Planned Parenthood…If you had a president that shared our values, you can get something big like that done.”