“You know, Republicans doubled the debt when we were in charge and then Democrats are tripling the debt,” he said on “This Week With Christiane Amanpour” on ABC.
To rein in annual deficits and cut that debt, he said he would reduce the federal work force and its wages by 10 percent and freeze hiring. He said an average federal worker earns $120,000 in wages and benefits a year, twice what an average worker in the private sector earns.
Congress, he said, should also consider raising the age of eligibility for retirement benefits under Social Security and apportioning those benefits on the basis of a means test. The military budget, he said, should not be spared and such cuts might require an earlier withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“The Tea Party is about the debt,” he said. “It is concerned and worried that we’re inheriting or passing along this debt to our kids and our grandkids.”
Asked whether the Tea Party was “co-optable,” by the culture of Washington, Mr. Paul replied, “actually the Tea Party is co-opting Washington.”
“We’re proud, we’re strong, we’re loud and we’re going to co-opt,” he said, “And in fact I think we’re already shaping the debate.”
In the wake of the Republicans’ decisive showing in the midterm elections, in which the party won control of the House by capturing 60 seats and gained six seats in the Senate, Republicans dominated most of the Sunday television news programs.
Despite post-election talk of working with President Obama, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, took a hard line on one of the most pressing issues facing the government — whether to extend tax cuts put into effect during the Bush administration for those earning more than $250,000.
Mr. McConnell said rejecting an extension would amount to tax increases in the middle of a recession and would raise taxes on “750,000 of our most productive small businesses,” whose payrolls support 25 percent of the American work force.
“Small business is the biggest job generator in America,” he said on “Face the Nation” on CBS.
Nevertheless, he said, Republican leaders are “happy to talk to the president about that and all the other issues that he has on his mind.” He did not rule out a temporary extension of the tax cuts for perhaps two years or so.
“We’re willing to start talking about getting an extension of some kind so that taxes don’t go up on anybody,” Mr. McConnell said.
Addressing the Obama health care plan, he said his preference was to repeal or replace it, but falling short of that he would consider ways of blocking financing for agencies like the Internal Revenue Service that are charged with enforcing the health care law. Mr. McConnell said the Republicans had “a commitment to the American people to keep this awful 2,700-page monstrosity that took over one-sixth of our economy from going into effect.”
In an interview broadcast Sunday night on “60 Minutes” on CBS, Mr. Obama blamed the tone and rhetoric he adopted with his opponents for disappointing Americans. The president signaled, however, that he was ready “to have a serious conversation” with Republicans on issues including the Bush-era tax cuts.
Mr. McConnell, in his “Face the Nation” appearance, said the major issues for many Americans were the level of federal spending, the debt and the health care law. The voters, he said, “wanted to have a midcourse correction.”
“I think he’s a good salesman,” Mr. McConnell said of the president. “I think his problem was not his sales job. It was the product.”
