Brain Trust - Ken Klukowski

Ken Klukowski, Director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the Family Research Council, was featured on The Matt Friedeman Show's Brain Trust segment addressing the debt-talks.

It seems that a lot of things are out the door. There seems to be some major disconnection here. The president wants a balanced approach, but neither Reid nor Boehner has the same approach.

Harry Reid came up with what it supposedly, at least, a bipartisan senate version.

What the president is calling for, evidently, yes, (Reid's) approach is not balanced.

The president said that anything that does not involve tax hikes is not a balanced approach.

This is about the jobs. It's not about one president's lonely concept of what makes for a lonely society.

Do we face disaster on August 2nd, if the debt ceiling isn't raised?

If nothing happened...between now and then. That would risk an immediate downgrading of US debt.

Trillions of which is held by US citizens in their retirement accounts and trillions of which is held overseas.

If nothing were done, and that debt were downgraded, that could have some very serious consequences.

We bring in over $2.4 trillion every year.

The reality is, even if all that big stuff wasn't signed by that time...we pay all our debt obligations first. Then we pay our social security and troops.

The only things that would be on the cutting block would be the EPA and President Obama's alphabet soup of agencies.

At the end of the day, it's President Obama's decision, isn't it?

That is not his call to determine where money can go.

It would be an act of imperial overreach for the president to say, "If there's not enough money here, I'm going to play a game of musical chair and decide whose chairs are going to disappear from the dance floor."

If the legislature writes that legislation, would they send a message to the world that we're taking care of our debt?

The bill is already written.

It's a scare tactic to say that if we don't raise the debt ceiling, there will be terribly consequences.

Right now we're borrowing 42 cents on every dollar.

If you were to give advice  to the conservatives right now, would you say you need to fight for Cut, Cap, or should they compromise?

Hold the line in such a way to make sure our debt does not default.

Make sure the debt is taken care of, then come back to the table in a calm way.

If we just raise the debt and nothing else changes, this country is going to have a downgrade anyway.