Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) is interviewed on Capitol Hill on March 22, 2017. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON – Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) said any member of Congress who refuses to figure out ways to reduce federal spending and move closer to a balanced budget is “betraying their country and betraying the future of our kids and grandkids.”
The U.S. national debt recently surpassed $20 trillion.
“Everyone who refuses to examine this issue and come up with constructive ways to cut federal government spending so we can balance our budget and minimize our risk of insolvency and bankruptcy, everyone who refuses to do that is betraying their country and betraying the future of our kids and grandkids because they're going to suffer enormously from the burden that we're placing on those who have no right to vote because they're not old enough or aren’t even alive yet,” Brooks said during an interview with PJM on Capitol Hill. “We're talking about America's future here.”
Brooks urged Congress to begin the process of entitlement reform for future beneficiaries.
“We have to look at everything, every bit of spending that we engage in, in order to do our utmost to minimize our risk of America going through a debilitating insolvency and bankruptcy, which, if you follow the cascading effects of insolvency and bankruptcy, would likely cost millions of American lives,” he said.
“Nothing can be off the table, although some things have to be last resorts like Social Security and Medicare. But then again, they're expected to be in the red, revenue streams being insufficient to pay benefits with Medicare in the 2020s and Social Security in the 2030s,” he added.
Brooks suggested raising the retirement age as well or increasing the “number of quarters” taxpayers have to work before collecting Social Security and Medicare benefits.
“So we also have to look at them and try to figure out a way where we can preserve the current benefit package, ideally by raising the age in which people are entitled to receive those benefits,” he said. “Or else, increasing the number of quarters that people have to work to receive those benefits from the current 10 years and 40 quarters to something longer so that people are contributing more into the system they’re going to rely on when they reach their retirement years.”
Brooks estimated that the U.S. would go into a “debilitating insolvency” within the next 20 years if it continues on the current fiscal path.
The public debt per person, he noted, is “about $60,000 for every man woman and child in the United States of America.”
“For an average family of four it comes to about $240,000, and as much as, roughly speaking, only half of Americans pay the income taxes that ultimately will be directed towards the debt,” he said. “That means that if you're an average family of four with an income large enough to owe income taxes, then your share of the federal debt now approaches half a million dollars.”
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