On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) responded to arguments from the Trump administration that we can grow our way out of debt by saying that relying on growth isn’t feasible and “You would have to grow 7.7% every year, just to cover the growth in debt and borrowing.”
Schweikert said, “[O]ne of the great difficulties is when the majority of spending — and so, in less than two years, over 50% of federal spending will go to those 65 and up, and so the earned benefits of Social Security, Medicare, and then interest, are close to consuming half of all federal spending and they would consume the majority of tax receipts. And it’s really hard to get up in front of an audience and say, in many ways, your government is an insurance company with an army.”
Guest host Cheryl Casone then asked, “Vice President Vance says that Treasury Secretary Bessent has got a quote discrete plan to address debt. Secretary Bessent is claiming that the U.S. can quote grow its way out of 40 trillion dollars in debt. President Trump has made similar comments. Congressman, is that a reliable plan? Or do you think that the government should start to be more proactive about this?”
Schweikert answered, “Oh no, we have to be dramatically more proactive. Look, the math is the math, and my calculator doesn’t lie. You would have to grow 7.7% every year, just to cover the growth in debt and borrowing. And it’s demographics, so, if you and I balanced the budget today, tomorrow, we’ll have another 10, 13,000 of our brothers and sisters who turn 65 and move into their earned benefits. It’s — look, defense now is number five on the spending stack. It’s Social Security, it’s interest, it’s Medicare, and then Medicaid and Obamacare subsidies, and then defense. And so, voters will tell us, we want a more fiscally sensible government, just don’t cut anything, and there becomes the great battle and the difficulty. And I wish more people running for office, particularly those of us on the conservative side, would get up in front of our audiences and say, we don’t have enough young people, we’re almost at zero population growth this year as a country, and yet, unless we’re willing to have a revolution and take on healthcare costs, we’re going to continue to run massive deficits.”
He added that there have only been cuts to a “fraction of a fraction of a fraction” of what was identified by DOGE.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
