Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley blasted both political parties for routinely running up debt and vowed to deploy veto power as president to bring the country's fiscal house back in order.
Casting herself as a champion of fiscal responsibility, Haley lamented that no recent president has been able to stand up to the "big spenders in both parties" and decried the current battle over raising the debt limit as "depressing."
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"We must be honest: Both Democrats and Republicans are responsible for America’s spending crisis. They have both supported multitrillion-dollar deficits that have brought us to a $31.6 trillion national debt and counting," Haley wrote in an op-ed published Tuesday.
Haley, a former two-term governor of South Carolina and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, highlighted legislation from Congress over recent years, such as adding millions to Medicaid eligibility and expanding food stamps "with no strings attached."
She also bashed the "bipartisan and boneheaded decision" to revive earmarks in 2021 and the infrastructure bill that "was chock full of corporate welfare."
"The past few years prove that while Democrats and Republicans can’t agree on much, they do agree on spending America into bankruptcy," Haley declared. "Republicans deserve to be called out for getting the ball rolling on the pandemic spending binge. Democrats deserve blame for keeping it going, price tag be damned."
A consequence of the "spending binge" has been the red-hot inflation that has squeezed the wallets and pocketbooks of middle-class families, according to Haley. She predicted that when President Joe Biden unveils his budget Thursday, there will be another "push for even more spending that Americans don’t need and can’t afford."
To reverse that trend, Haley pledged that as president, she would fight to crack down on "out of control" spending.
"As president, I will veto spending bills that don’t put America on track to reach pre-pandemic spending levels. I will claw back the $500 billion in federal pandemic funding that hasn’t been spent while going after up to $100 billion or more lost to fraud," she vowed.
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Haley contended that waging a crusade to curtail spending will "inevitably pit me against Republicans as well as Democrats." Recounting her time as governor of South Carolina, she argued that she had a track record of winning the battle to crack down on wasteful spending.
"It’s time someone in Washington stood up for taxpayers and stopped America’s slide toward bankruptcy," she added.