Former Trump economic adviser calls on GOP to dig in on debt ceiling, budget battles

Freedom Works Senior Economic Contributor Steve Moore on Friday urged Republicans in Congress to hold firm in their fight to force the government to address runaway spending, outlining several budget items they could axe to put the nation on stronger financial footing.

Speaking on the "Just the News, No Noise" television show on Friday, Moore endorsed the Republican tactic of using the debt ceiling debate to force a broader discussion on spending.

"[House Speaker] Kevin McCarthy and the Republicans have to hold firm," he said. "I'm fully in favor of what Kevin McCarthy is talking about. I think it is incredibly grossly incompetent for the president united states to simply say, 'just give me more, give me an extension on the credit card and I'm not going to do anything about the debt.'"

Moore went on to outlet specific proposals by which the Republicans might tackle runaway spending.

"I'll give you three ways you could cut half a trillion dollars right away," he told guest host former Georgia Republican Rep. Doug Collins and cohost Amanda Head. "And these should be in my opinion that the top of the Republican list."

"Number one, it's outrageous that Joe Biden wants to hire 87,000 IRS agents? Absolutely not. That's a deal breaker," he said, noting that such an effort would cost $50 billion. "Number two... there's a $300 billion green energy slush fund in the budget now... $300 billion. That's going to go to left wing environmental groups... we got to get rid of that," he said.

"And thirdly, we know that over $100-150 billion was stolen from the Unemployment Insurance program from the PPP [Paycheck Protection Program] program from food stamps. There needs to be a crusade to get that money back and to put these criminals in jail who stole this money," he contended.

"I'd love to see Medicare and Medicaid reform. But there's some, you know, easy picking right now to get rid of this," Moore concluded.