GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Now to Washington, where it is not just Republicans taking President Obama to the woodshed over the debt ceiling, today the White House press corps taking on the president, and President Obama getting, well, rather testy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Are you considering a plan B? And if not, why not?
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Chuck, what I'm saying to you is that there's no simpler solution, no ready, credible solution other than Congress either give me the authority to raise the debt ceiling or exercise the responsibility that they have kept for themselves and raise the debt ceiling.
QUESTION: What Chuck and I and I think many people are curious about is this new, adamant desire on your part not to negotiate, when that seems to conflict with the entire history in the modern era of American presidents and the debt ceiling and your own history on the debt ceiling.
OBAMA: I think if you look at the history, getting votes for the debt ceiling is always difficult. Look, I don't think anybody would consider my position unreasonable here.
QUESTION: So as you say now that you're not going to negotiate on the debt ceiling this year, why should House Republicans take that seriously and think that if we get to the one minute to midnight scenario that you're not going to back down?
OBAMA: Juliana, look, this is pretty straightforward. Either Congress pays its bills or it doesn't.
QUESTION: Are you prepared to allow the government to grind to a halt if you disagree with the spending cut proposals that they put forth? And who do you think the American people would blame if that came to pass?
OBAMA: And I don't -- I suspect that the American people would blame all of Washington for not being able to get its act together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAN SUSTEREN: Back in 2006, when President Obama was then a senator, he actually voted against raising the debt ceiling. So what has changed now?
Congressman Jason Chaffetz joins us. Nice to see you.
REP. JASON CHAFFETZ, R-UTAH: Thanks, Greta.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, it's all your fault!
(LAUGHTER)
CHAFFETZ: Well, if Congress just keeps spending money, the president keeps pushing for this -- we have to stop the spending. We have a spending problem. It's like the alcoholic who won't give up his drink anymore. You have to slow the spending.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, what President Obama said today was that -- is he's basically executing what you in Congress are telling him to do. You authorize the spending, and he's got to pay the bills. And so now you're saying he can't borrow the money.
CHAFFETZ: No, we've got to make sure we prioritize the payment of the $16.4 trillion that this government owes, but we have to solve the problem. We don't need just a deal. We actually have to solve the problem. And the way you solve that problem is to cut up the credit card and slow the spending to a point where you actually cut into the deficit and pay off the debt.
VAN SUSTEREN: You know what I didn't like today? I thought it was annoying. He said that he may have to slow down Social Security payments if we...
CHAFFETZ: No.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, I'll tell you why it's particularly annoying. There's never any suggestion that maybe he ought to -- maybe -- maybe Congress shouldn't be paid salaries, the Senate not be paid salaries, the president not be paid salaries, you cut down on Air Force One, your constituent payment to go home on commercial aircraft, all your districts, instead you all stay here. We'll save some money on your travel and maybe you guys will get the job done. But there's never any discussion about the politicians taking the hit, it's to scare the Social Security recipients!
CHAFFETZ: The president does an exceptional job of scaring America. He wants to use the military paycheck to try to scare people. We're going to, you know, hurt the elderly. You don't have to do that. There's revenue to the Treasury on a daily basis.
The problem is, we deficit spend about $3 billion to $4 billion a day. We collect -- we spend about $10 billion a day. That means we deficit -- we have to borrow $3 billion to $4 billion a day. We spend more than $700 million a day in interest on our national debt.
There are lots of things to do. The president has lots of discretion to curb back that spending to make sure that Social Security payments are paid, interest is paid, we don't default on our debts.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, he -- you know, in -- when he voted as a U.S. senator against raising the debt ceiling, he talked, in essence, about how irresponsible it was to raise the debt ceiling. You know, what in the world happened between then and now? Why is it suddenly responsible to do something, raising the debt ceiling, that wasn't before? What's the difference?
CHAFFETZ: I think the president was terribly irresponsible today. To say he's not even going to talk about it because he's above it, but blame all of Congress. Look, in part, Congress created -- helped create this problem, but we're going to solve this problem.
I got elected to uphold the Constitution and to leave this country better than how we found it. We can't keep spending our kids' inheritance -- I mean, we can't keep spending their money. We don't have it!
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, apparently, he has threatened -- at least, I think this -- he has stated this, that at least people who support him do - - that in the event Congress doesn't authorize to raise that debt ceiling that he will do it unilaterally himself, and he thinks he has the authority. Do you think he does?
CHAFFETZ: Absolutely not. Under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, you can only do this as authorized by law and law is only created through the United States Congress. So the president has absolutely no ground to stand on! Absolutely none!
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