Facing a national debt that has exploded past $40 trillion, Missouri Rep. Eric Burlison isn't holding back on his own colleagues—accusing Washington lawmakers on both sides of the aisle of being "drunk on spending" while working-class families pay the price.
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families → face → price
Burlison recently sat down for an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital to discuss fiscal prudence, healthcare, inflation, and how Republicans can lift their fortunes ahead of midterm elections just six weeks away.
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Republicans → sit → elections
"Most of my colleagues like to spend money…they like to spend other people's money.
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they → like → money
They're drunk on spending other people's money, even Republicans, unfortunately, and there's few people up here like myself who were willing to make significant spending reductions.
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who → spend → reductions
"And so we had to fight tooth and nail to get any spending reductions in the Big, Beautiful Bill.
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we → have → Bill
And we were demonized by the left, obviously, but we had to fight members even on our own side of the aisle to make those spending reductions.
"
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we → demonize → reductions
But, look, at some point the party is going to be over and we are all gonna wake up in a drunken stupor with a hangover and it's going to be painful and we're going to have to figure out how to get our way out of that.
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we → look → that
"All of these sins of overspending are haunting us.
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All → haunt → us
And now we're seeing…inflation that we can't control.
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we → see → that
We're seeing the interest rates go through the roof.
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rates → see → roof
At some point, you can't keep borrowing money…
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you → keep → money
Sadly, my colleagues that weren't willing to cut spending are going to be forced to cut spending."
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that → cut → spending
Despite seeking to portray themselves as the party of affordability, the GOP seems to have a major messaging problem as it heads into the tumultuous midterm elections.
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it → seek → elections
Burlison points to healthcare as the main problem:
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Burlison → point → problem
"I mean, again, it's really sad.
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it → mean → ?
This office has been broadcasting to the leadership every chance that we can that the American people are feeling the crunch, they're feeling the affordability crunch.
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they → broadcast → crunch
We put together a solution that we call the Great American healthcare plan.
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we → put → that
We also have another bill that addresses the housing affordability issue.
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that → have → issue
This office has been doing everything we can to try to fix the affordability issue and have been putting these ideas and solutions in the faces of leadership for at least two years.
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we → do → years
It's just unfortunate that we can't get people to do the difficult things.
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people → get → things
And sadly that's because Washington DC doesn't like to do difficult things and fixing healthcare is the number one thing that we should be looking to do.
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we → like → that
"Healthcare cost is eating away everyone's discretionary dollars…
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cost → eat → dollars
In the year 2000, the average American family was paying $6,000 a year for insurance premiums for a family of four.
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family → pay → four
If that had followed normal inflation, that would only be $11,000 per year.
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that → follow → year
"So if you ask the average family of four, would you like to be paying health insurance premiums at $11,000 a year, they would say, heck, yeah, that sounds like a great deal.
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that → ask → deal
That is not what they're paying today.
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they → pay → what
They're paying $27,000.
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They → pay → 27,000
So if you think about that, just that alone, that is crowding out everything else that the average American family has to pay.
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family → think → that
You have to come up with another $16,000 that you didn't have to come up with before, in order to pay for a healthcare system that has exceeded inflation by three-fold.
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that → have → fold
It's not sustainable and it's crowded out everything else and it is the reason why young people cannot afford to buy a home.
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people → crowd → home
It's the reason why people have a hard time going out to eat.
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people → have → time
It's a reason why people aren't going on vacation as much.
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people → go → vacation
People are having to make very difficult choices and it's not the same choices that people had to make 20 years ago."
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people → have → that
As Elon Musk and DOGE-fervor swept across the nation's capital at the beginning of 2025, Burlison's initial enthusiasm soon turned to disappointment as he saw colleagues avoid much-needed spending cuts:
"DOGE was the most exciting thing I've ever seen in politics.
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I → sweep → politics
I watched Elon come give speeches to my colleagues.
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Elon → watch → colleagues
And what was ironic is that some of the most swampy members of Congress were rushing to the microphones to embrace Elon to talk to him to tell him where he should go to look for spending reductions.
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he → rush → reductions
"And yet those very people were the ones that were voting against every spending reduction that you would ever bring to the floor.
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you → vote → floor
We've had hundreds and hundreds of opportunities to cut spending…
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We → have → spending
We submitted hundreds of amendments to the appropriations committees to cut spending and yet each and every time, anytime there's ever a vote to cut spending, they fail.
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they → submit → spending
All we have to do as Republicans is look in the mirror and say where's the problem?
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problem → have → mirror
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia
