Karianne Lisonbee blames growing national debt on performative politicians

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Karianne Lisonbee criticizes politicians prioritizing reelection over addressing national debt issues.
• She challenges Rep. Blake Moore in the GOP primary for Utah's 2nd Congressional District seat.
• Lisonbee said she would lean toward voting to end the ongoing conflict in Iran.

SALT LAKE CITY — Congressional candidate Karianne Lisonbee said the staggering national debt has been driven by politicians who are more concerned about being reelected than addressing spending.

Lisonbee, a state representative from Syracuse, is challenging Rep. Blake Moore in the Republican primary for Utah's 2nd Congressional District seat, and told the KSL and Deseret News editorial boards Friday that the state of the federal budget is one of her main motivations to seek higher office.

"We are speeding toward that fiscal cliff and running out of room to slow down, and so if we don't do something soon, it's not going to end well," she said, referring to the U.S. national debt, which could top $40 trillion by the end of this year. "Almost every member of Congress has said we don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem, but then their behavior doesn't match their concern."

The problem, according to Lisonbee, is that too few lawmakers are focused on the debt.

"I think people are far too concerned about their reelections and too little concerned about the actual issues," she said. "We have a Congress filled with people who like sound bites. ... I don't want to be constantly playing to a camera, I want to get the work of the American people done."

Lisonbee said she helped reform the budgeting process when she first came to the Utah Legislature, but things may not be so simple in Congress. Republicans hold only a slim majority in the House, and minority parties often win more seats in midterm elections.

Unlike her time in the GOP-dominated Legislature, if elected, Lisonbee will likely only be part of a tiny majority or even a slight minority.

"There's a lot of eyes on this race, and so I will be effective day on at joining coalitions to achieve the goals that the good people of northern Utah have communicated to me," she said.

Should the Iran war continue?

The U.S. House narrowly voted on Wednesday to block President Donald Trump from continuing the war against Iran. Lisonbee said she is "grateful for a president who's decisive, who went in and I think had an exit strategy."

"Obviously, the exit has been a little bumpy, but I am fully confident that this will be wrapped up soon," she said.

Still, she said she would need more information before she could commit to voting one way or the other on approving further military action.

"I'm split on that," she said. "I would lean toward no. We're done, it's time to pull out. We've done our job. We've largely disabled the Iranian military. And I know there's still concerns about the Strait (of Hormuz) and making sure that Iran is not trying to prevent international use of international waters. Those are ongoing issues and I understand that negotiations are ongoing, but that's where I would lean right now."

Lisonbee also appeared skeptical of approving Trump's request for $1.5 trillion in defense spending, noting that state lawmakers never grant the governor's wishes about everything in his proposed budget.

"We want to work with the administration and make sure that we're prioritizing important things," she said, "but I think, too, we can be a lot more mindful and surgical about the way that we approach expenditures as we're scrutinizing, hopefully, every dollar."

What's next?

The winner of the GOP primary will go on to face Democrat Peter Crosby, Independent American Party candidate Carlton Bowen and Libertarian Daniel Cottam in November.

Mail-in ballots have already been sent out to most voters ahead of the primary election day on June 23. Ballots must be returned to county clerks by 8 p.m. on June 23 in order to count. Information about how to register to vote, ballot drop boxes and in-person voting locations can be found on county clerk websites or at vote.utah.gov.

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The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

Related topics

Utah electionsUtah LegislatureUtah congressional delegationUtahPolitics

Bridger Beal-Cvetko

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Bridger Beal-Cvetko is a reporter for KSL. He covers politics, Salt Lake County communities and breaking news. Bridger has worked for the Deseret News and graduated from Utah Valley University.