The Hill News

A conservative legislator said if Republicans don't "get serious about government spending," an additional party could appear.

"I don't want this to happen. But if the Republican party doesn't really get serious about government spending, I think you will see a third party, a fourth party, a fifth party, who knows," Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) said, according to the Chicago Tribune. "Right now they are not a party, just a big group of people."

The Republican freshman's comments come as Congress returns from recess and the so-called supercommittee of Republican and Democratic legislators begins negotiations to cut at least $1.2 trillion in federal spending, as mandated by August legislation to raise the U.S. debt ceiling.

During the negotiations, the Tea Party wing of the Republican party applied pressure to GOP leaders to push for deeper spending cuts than they would otherwise have called for. Following the agreement, Standard & Poor's ! downgraded the U.S. credit rating based partly on the binksmanship of the negotiations. Some Democrats blamed Tea Party House members for the downgrade.

In the same interview, Walsh said that legislators needed to cut spending for government healthcare programs like Medicare.

"We have got to begin to pay for and be more responsible for our own health care costs," Walsh said.