Congressman-elect Massie says he wants to see federal spending cuts take effect

Republican Thomas Massie will be sworn in as the next congressman from Northern Kentucky on Nov. 13 and will walk into the middle of the debate over extending tax cuts and whether to allow deep spending cuts to take effect.

Massie, in an interview with Pure Politics on Thursday, said he believes its time to see cuts at the levels that will take effect in January unless Congress changes course. The spending reductions were part of a compromise proposal Congress approved in 2011 when it last raised the debt limit.

“I think we need to go through with those cuts, I don’t like how they are distributed but they are agreed to in a bipartisan fashion and we need these cuts if we are going to bring it in to the unsustainable spending we’ve got,” Massie said (at 3:30).

Massie said he wasn’t aware of Republican House Speaker John Boehner’s comments Wednesday that he would be open to tax code changes, including potentially changes that would raise revenue.

Massie said he strongly backs Kentucky Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul’s proposal to cut off foreign aid to certain countries.

“It’s one very specific way to cut spending and 90% of the public agrees with it. It’s common sense, its plain common sense, quit giving money to our enemies,” he said (at 8:10).

And he signaled that he was prepared to be an independent voice, along the lines of Paul, who isn’t afraid to cross his party’s leadership when he disagrees.

“Clearly we have to work with leadership, but just because we are Republicans doesn’t mean we are right all the time and we have to keep that in mind” (at 9:30).