Fox Business anchor Neil Cavuto interviewed freshman Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) on Tuesday about House GOP plans to cut federal spending across the board, including possibly defense spending.
“I appreciate your sticking to what you said you would do,” Cavuto told Luna after a discussion in which Luna stuck to her commitment to freeze federal spending year over year.
“I mean, so you recognize that defense like other programs, whether it’s for Ukraine, funding that you want to follow closely, is fair game as well in deciding ultimately who gets what a year from now?” Cavuto then asked.
“You know, what I’m always interested in seeing is where defense is putting that money. I’m not going to say that I want to cut defense spending, but I will say that I think it’s important that we are looking to make sure that we are getting the best deal, especially on some of the stuff that we’re spending money on,” Luna replied, adding:
So I think that we need to have those discussions. But more or less, what I’ve heard in some of these negotiations is we’re talking about programs that aren’t going to the necessities that we, the American people, need, i.e., protections.
“I’m talking about some of these woke ideologies, these funded programs, and for example, these salaries for these additional weaponized 87,000 IRS agents, which you saw, we tried to pass yet the Senate and even the Biden White House is pushing back on,” said Luna, an Air Force veteran, concluding:
Sir, I say taxation is theft and I don’t want any more IRS agents than you probably do.
The phrase “taxation is theft” has been a common slogan on the American right for decades, although more closely aligned with libertarianism or Ayn Rand’s objectivism than with classic conservatism. Mainstream conservatism more commonly uses a slogan closer to “starve the beast,” meaning to limit federal government tax revenue as opposed to declaring all revenue stolen goods.
Luna’s comments quickly went viral on social media, with many critics questioning whether or not this comment meant she would keep her taxpayer-funded salary.
The fight over whether or not to cut defense spending has already begun to divide the House GOP and will likely be a major sticking point in the next Congress.
Watch the clip above via Fox Business Network.
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