Republicans not willing to raise taxes to reverse cuts

>> all. congresswoman marcia blackburn joins me now. congresswoman, i want to start with sequester. are you comfortable this morning? it's three days since the order was officially signed. are you comfortable with sequester taking affect throughout the rest of the fiscal year? is.

>> i think that not only am i comfortable, i think that my constituents are relieved that it actually went on the books, and, you know, chuck, what we're hearing from our constituents is, look, we want you to get in there and protect the military, but all of this discretionary spending , you neat to be cutting it. you got to get busy reforming entitlements. you have to stabilize social security and medicare, and people are ready to see some solutions brought forward, and they're expecting us to do that.

>> congresswoman, do you think that now -- i've heard speaker boehner's faift line that the president got his tax hikes. democrats are now going to be able to say the republicans got their spending cuts. does this clear -- does this sort of clear the brush and in september we actually do have the grand bargain that might include a little more revenue and entitlement reform that everything that sort of the third rails inside the democratic primary , missed the republican primary , does that come back, or do you think that just taxes just can'ts be touched?

>> well, i think that what people are saying in this economy, in this team period, and certainly i feel like i agree with this. you cannot go around raising taxes . when is enough enough? even now with sequester going in, we're spending 6.2% more than we were spending in 2008 , and, chuck, people are just saying, wait a minute, you got to deal with the debt. here's a great example of that. he said, look, you're cutting 2%. he said when you are borrowing, 35 cents to 40 cents on the dollar, you have a 35% cut that you need to be addressing, and i think a lot of individuals across this country share that sentiment. if this is just scratching the surface --

>> let's remember, it's not a 2% cut. you exempted so much from sequester that it's -- the impact and what is cut is more than 2%.

>> right, but, see, what his point is that you have a big delta that you are yet to hit in order to start to bring this budget into balance, and that is why our budget committee will bring out a budget this month that will balance in ten years, and people are saying now is the time to start to have these conversations about how you clean up the tax code , how you address long-term spending and long-term obligations, and the way that we are dealing with entitlements, they want efficient, effective government. they want government to be accountable to the taxpayer. what they don't want is any more of this kicking the can. i say give me that can. the can is accountable, it's spending cuts. it is bringing things into balance, and that's what we need to do.

>> i want to ask you about a vote that happened last week. the house passed the violence against women act . you were an original supporter of it. you put out a statement in may.

>> absolutely.

>> in support of it. you said you must continue to make every effort to insure that you help these vemz of violence. then you vote against it. why?

>> the senate version. i voted for all of the house -- the two house versions that we had.

>> what was wrong with the senate version? is.

>> the senate version, you know, what do you is begin to dilute the money that needs to go in to these sexual assault centers, centers, our child advocacy centers. all of those i have helped to start here in my area in tennessee , and when you start to make this about other things and it becomes an against violence act and not a targeted focused act that is there to address the issue of violence against women that, chuck, for far too long. that is something that you couldn't talk about. with the add advent of these shelters we were able to bring this --

>> what part of the senate bell do you like?

>> i didn't like the conscience the way the conscience protections were there on the trafficking. i didn't like the way it was expanded to include other different groups. what you need is something that is focused specifically to help the shelters and to help out law enforcement who is trying to work with the crimes that have been committed against women and helping them to stand up. we've had some great shelters and great success without our shelters. our child advocacy centers, able to receive funds and work with our drug task forces , and some of these judicial task forces that have been so involved in these crimes, and that focus needs to continue. i remain -- it remains a big advocate for carrying forward that good work and supporting those individuals.

>> i have to leave it there. congresswoman from tennessee . tennessee republican.

>> absolutely.

>> thank you for sharing your views this afternoon.