House Republican Policy Chair Gary Palmer on party’s top priorities after election

Judy Woodruff:

And now, for a Republican's perspective, we're joined by Representative Gary Palmer of Alabama. He's also the chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee.

Congressman Palmer, welcome to the "NewsHour." Thank you for being here on this election night.

We have heard Republicans speak during this campaign about inflation, a lot of airtime, TV — paid TV ads about crime and lack of safety.

How is that translating, in your view, into an agenda for the Republicans If you do take the majority?

Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL):

If we do or don't take the majority?

Judy Woodruff:

If you do.

Rep. Gary Palmer:

Well, the first thing that we want to do is address the whole issue of cost of living.

And this all began right at the beginning of the Biden administration with his energy policy. Shutting down the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, suspending leases on federal lands had an immediate impact on energy futures. And what I have tried to tell people, in terms of inflation, that's driven by three things, the money supply, energy — energy is the most inflationary component in the entire economy — and regulations.

Regulatory cost is a hidden tax. And you had that combination all in the first three months of the Biden administration. And energy future costs immediately went up. Then we passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and just dumped $1.9 trillion in into the money supply, which really escalated the inflation problem.

And then his first year of office, Biden added over $200 billion in regulatory costs. That's three times the first year of the Obama administration. So, we have got to address those things. We have got to come back to a sensible energy policy to bring down those costs.

And it's also a national security issue, in that we now once again find ourselves reliant on foreign sources for energy.

Judy Woodruff:

So, the…

(CROSSTALK)

Rep. Gary Palmer:

… address the regulatory issues.

Judy Woodruff:

Sorry for interrupting.

So it's generally viewed that the Federal Reserve is the one element of government that can do something significant about inflation. You're saying you think a Republican Congress, a Republican majority can come in and make — and bring inflation down? How quickly?

Rep. Gary Palmer:

Well, it depends on whether or not the White House is willing to work with us.

We're going to pass legislation that we're convinced will help bring down the cost of living. And it'll be up to the Senate to get it out of the Senate and up to the White House to sign it into law. But these are things that will impact inflation. It impacted on the front end. It can impact it on the back end as well.

And you're going to see some real issues this winter, particularly with household energy costs, and particularly in the states that have very cold winters, where you're literally going to have people having to choose between heating and eating. We have seen it in Europe. There's thousands of people that are now classified as excess winter deaths, not because they froze to death, but simply because they couldn't afford to keep their homes adequately heated and still be able to afford their food and medicine.

Judy Woodruff:

I want to raise a question that I just raised with Speaker Pelosi, and that has to do with the debt ceiling.

We know that the Republican leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, your colleague, has — when asked about the debt ceiling, has said first costs have to come down, and he has not ruled out cuts in Medicare and Social Security benefits.

Is this something the Republicans could do?

Rep. Gary Palmer:

Well, I have chaired the Policy Committee, and I can assure you that there's been zero discussion about any cuts to Social Security or Medicare.

It's almost like my colleagues across the aisle, the Democrats and Speaker Pelosi, think that somehow we have got families who don't depend on those Social Security and Medicare. We do. Our goal is to strengthen Social Security and strengthen Medicare.

But it's a complete misrepresentation of Republican policy that we're going to cut Social Security and Medicare. It's a scare tactic.

Judy Woodruff:

I'm asking because, of course, these are so-called entitlements. They are big, big dollar items in the federal budget.

And the question is, if Republicans plan to bring spending down in a significant way, where do you get — where do you get the money?

I also want to ask you about something else that Republican candidates have been emphasizing on the campaign trail, and I mentioned this a moment ago, and that's crime, running, frankly, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ads criticizing Democrats, saying they are to blame for lack of safety.

Crime is generally seen as something that local governments address. What could the Congress, if the Republicans were in the majority, do about it?

Rep. Gary Palmer:

Well, one of the things that I think we have got to do is deal with these district attorneys that have this attitude of no bail and no jail for violent offenders.

And we're seeing it in Democrat-run cities all over the country. And you're seeing record numbers of murders in this places, particular in Philadelphia and other cities like that. A lot of local law enforcement get federal grants. And we can tie federal grants to changes at the local level, particularly with these district attorneys.

When people commit a violent offense, they knock somebody down on a sidewalk, put somebody in the path of a subway train, those people should be in jail immediately. And they shouldn't be allowed to commit these — these acts of violence and go free.

You have got cities like Portland and Los Angeles and San Francisco where people are allowed to go in and ransack a business as long as they don't — particularly in California, as long as they don't take more than $1,000. That's absolute chaos.

And I think that the federal government does have some responsibility there, working with federal law enforcement, to make sure that they're protecting those communities.

Judy Woodruff:

One other thing I want to ask you about, Congressman Palmer, has to do with what, again, a number of Republicans have been speaking about during this election year, and that is impeaching members of the Biden administration, for example, the secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas.

I think you yourself have said he would be a potential target for impeachment. Is that potentially on your agenda?

Rep. Gary Palmer:

I think that we have got to investigate what's happened at the border. And we will have to hold the people who are responsible for securing the border accountable for their actions.

And, clearly, Secretary Mayorkas has not secured the border. As a matter of fact, I think, intentionally, he's allowed people to cross the border. And it's not just people who are coming across the border because they want a better life for their family. There's — the exact number is actually classified of the number of people who've been picked up who are either known terrorist or affiliated with terrorists.

We have got unbelievable amounts of fentanyl and heroin and methamphetamines crossing the border. We saw a record number of drug overdose deaths last year, over 107,000. And that's probably underreported about 15 to 20 percent, because so many families don't want it on the death certificate that their loved one died from a drug overdose.

Judy Woodruff:

Well, and…

Rep. Gary Palmer:

Eighty percent of that's crossing the Southern border.

Judy Woodruff:

Again, forgive me for interrupting, but just in connection with that, one of your colleagues, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, has said a priority will be a move to impeach President Biden.

Is that something that is on the Republican agenda?

Rep. Gary Palmer:

I don't — I have not seen that as part of the agenda.

But individual members are going to do what they want to do. But I think that our focus coming right out of the gate is to address this issue of the cost of living. You have literally got people who are — who are making decisions on how much gas they can put in a car because they can't afford the gas and they can't afford the groceries and still be able to put food on the table for their families.

I know of one case where some folks went out to shoot some video of people filling up their cars, and this lady pulls up in her pickup truck, and they asked if it'd be OK to video that. And she said, sure, but she is only getting $20 worth. They offered to fill up her vehicle and pay for it, and she started crying. She said it's been over a year since she could afford a full tank of gas.

That's what's really happening in this country, all over the country.

Judy Woodruff:

Congressman Gary Palmer, thank you very much, chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee.

We appreciate your joining us.

Rep. Gary Palmer:

Thank you for having me on.