Lee: GOP ‘can only cry wolf so many times’

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said Wednesday that the GOP “can only cry wolf so many times” and that it must show it can fulfill its promises to change Washington’s spending habits.

“There is no question about the fact that we can only cry wolf so many times; we can only say so many times that we will govern differently if given a chance. We have to actually do it now,” Lee said on “Fox & Friends.”

Lee said if Republicans don’t do anything about government spending, it will send a negative signal.

{mosads}”We need to show that we’re going to prioritize spending differently than we did under a Democratic administration,” he said. 

Republicans for the first time since 2005 have control of the White House and both chambers of Congress.

Yet they have had few legislative victories this year and suffered a failure in their effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

In September, the party faces the challenges of both preventing a government shutdown and raising the debt ceiling.

Those issues risk fueling divisions within the GOP. Many Republicans want to restrict government spending as part of a measure lifting the government’s borrowing limit. The Trump administration, however, has called for a clean hike to the debt ceiling.

The government will shut down on Oct. 1 without a new funding bill, and the GOP is likely to get little help from Democrats in passing a measure if it restricts domestic spending or includes money for President Trump’s border wall.

Lee, a conservative who has repeatedly sought to cut spending, warned his party will also face a backlash if it doesn’t do what it has promised to do. 

“We have to govern differently and show that we as Republicans believe in stronger citizens, and that’s one of the reasons why we promote the cause for constitutionally limited government, because it makes for stronger citizens and more heroic communities,” he said. 

Lee said that not making any changes to spending under the Republican-led government would “send a loud signal.”