FACING OUR DEBTS & DEFICITS
Americans want a limited government that protects the most vulnerable while spending within its means. Unfortunately, our current government continues to spend more than it takes in, heaping trillions of dollars onto future generations and weakening America from the inside-out. In order to build the country Americans deserve and ensure we pass future generations a strong and secure nation, we must rein in our spending and tackle our debt.
Solving our debt and deficit means tackling the biggest driver of debt -- and this includes mandatory entitlement spending. Republican and Democrat leaders are failing our children and grandchildren by, every year, failing to address this mandatory spending. Top military commanders regularly tell Congress that the biggest threat to our national security is our long term debt. I support making the necessary changes to Social Security and Medicare that will maintain their solvency for decades to come. Under the current system, Social Security is projected tol be insolvent by 2034 and all Social Security recipients will face a 23% benefit cut unless Congress acts.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates spending on already expensive government healthcare programs will more than double over the next 75 years. Federal debt held by the public is already 73% of our country’ s economic output, a ratio higher than at any point in our history since World War II. In less than a generation, that debt will eclipse the total size of our economy.
I have voted to balance our federal budget, establish a Balanced Budget Amendment, and put runaway entitlement programs on a path to solvency. In addition, I have sponsored legislation in the House that garnered bipartisan support to rein in mandatory spending and inject some much needed fiscal accountability into these programs.
A slimmer, more efficient government that lives within its mean will encourage growth, create opportunity, and power the investments needed to move our country forward. I will continue to work for this reform and bring about the government that Americans want and deserve.