CBS "Face the Nation" interviews during 2018: on Budget & Economy

Mike Pence: Great Recession tax-&-spend policy led to weak recovery

(VIDEOTAPE) OBAMA: By the time I left office, household income was near its all-time high, and the uninsured rate had hit an all-time low, and wages were rising, and poverty rates were falling. I mention all this just so when you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let's just remember when this recovery started.

PENCE: This country was struggling. I mean, it was the weakest economic recovery since the Great Depression because having inherited a recession, President Obama's answer was to raise taxes, to double the national debt, to increase regulation, to pass Obamacare into law, to stifle American energy.

Q: But he says the economic upswing began on his watch.

PENCE: He said that but I don't think too many Americans noticed it.

Rand Paul: Trillion-dollar deficits are bad, whether by Dems or by GOP

PAUL: We should draw attention to the fact that we're spending so much money. I ran for office in 2010 with which was called the Tea Party tidal wave at that point, and we were very, very critical of President Obama's deficits, approaching a trillion dollars in a year. And I'm still against deficit spending. Just because Republicans are doing it doesn't make it any better.

Q: And now we have deficits projected to be a trillion dollars again, and yet in a growing non-recessionary economy. Are you troubled by that?

PAUL: Yes, I'm very worried. Republicans want more for military spending. And to get that, they have to give Democrats what they want, which is more for domestic spending. And the compromise, while some say, "oh, it's bipartisanship," well, if the bipartisanship is exploding the deficit, I'm not so sure that's the kind of bipartisanship we need.