CBS NewsChannel 5's Rylee DeGood talks with Representative Cynthia Lummis on gun control, the fiscal cliff and what's next for Congress.
Rylee DeGood – "Gun control, gun safety, it's a hot topic across the nation. What's your stance on the issue?
Rep. Lummis – "I support our gun laws as they are, which require automatic weapons are banned and semi-automatic weapons, those are weapons that you pull the trigger every time a bullet is fired, are allowed. That's appropriate to Wyoming's way of life. We're more worried being encountered by a grizzly bear then we are with human problems with fire arms. So we have to adjust our laws to the 2nd Amendment as well as the conditions where we find them on the ground. In Wyoming, with hunting and the proliferation of grizzly bears and other species that sometimes can be extremely dangerous or deadly, we need to have the ability to protect and defend ourselves."
Rylee DeGood – "Another hot topic obviously, the fiscal cliff, we just barely made it or at least just barely went past the deadline. You voted no on that. Even though Senator Barrasso and Enzi voted "yes". I talked to Barrasso a week or so ago and he said, "It's good for 99% of Americans, their taxes won't go up." Why did you vote against it?"
Rep. Lummis - "I understood why they voted for it because it made a number of 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent. But that was not in my view reason enough to vote for a bill that didn't cut spending. I went to Washington to cut spending. Spending is our biggest problem in Washington. And every opportunity to make a big deal, or pass a big piece of legislation, should be accompanied by spending cuts. So to me the worst part about it was to kick the can down the road on the spending cuts. As you know the sequester that would cut 10% across the board on discretionary spending was delayed for two months. And just as we come up with another debt ceiling vote that will be back on the table. I'm very concerned about the fact that we overspend, both parties overspend in Washington, and we do nothing about it."
Rylee DeGood – "Is there going to be bipartisan support in Washington. I know the President wants that debt ceiling to go up and republicans want to cut spending. They want some sort of compromise. Is that going to happen?"
Rep. Lummis – "Well I feel very strongly that we must have spending cuts in order to raise the debt ceiling. I will not vote for a debt ceiling increase without spending cuts. Absolutely, will not."
Rylee DeGood – "What spending cuts? What exactly are we talking about? What are we cutting?"
Rep. Lummis – " Well it could be reforming entitlement for people under age 55 so it's there for them when they retire, while preserving it for people over 55. It could be some discretionary cuts, some military cuts. It certainly can be eliminating fraud, waste and abuse in government. Government accountability study found 900 billion per year in savings that we could enact if we would just make sure that some of the duplicative programs and waste in government is done away with."
