To rule out reforms to the two most costly programs in the federal budget means that all we’ll be hearing about the debt problem is empty talk.
Just weeks into the job, House speaker Kevin McCarthy is already proving to be weak and unserious when it comes to tackling our federal debt.
Even as he talks a big game about using the debt ceiling as a way to force fiscally responsibly changes, he assured Donald Trump Jr. in a podcast, “We won’t touch Medicare or Social Security.”
McCarthy was responding to comments that Donald Trump made in a video message to Republicans, in which the former president said, “Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security.”
It’s one thing to take the view that Republicans need to be realistic about what they can get when Democrats still control the Senate and the White House, while laying out a long-term strategy to get the nation’s fiscal policy in order. But McCarthy is already teeing up for a dramatic stand on the debt ceiling and attempting to portray the stance in moral terms, talking about the nation’s crushing debt.
To rule out reforms to the two most expensive programs in the federal budget — which will cost $31.5 trillion over the next decade, absorbing well over half of tax revenue — means that all the rhetoric we’ll hear in the coming months about the debt problem is just empty talk. In his discussion with Don Jr., McCarthy didn’t even talk about the need, in theory, to reform the programs.
Instead he nodded in agreement and said “yeah” when Don Jr. perpetuated the left-wing myth that Medicare and Social Security beneficiaries are merely getting out what they put into the system: “Democrats are really good at crushing our people to give free stuff to their people — we’re crushing our own people who actually funded these things for their entire lives,” Don Jr. said.
In reality, the way the system works is that current workers are funding current retirees. And while those who worked throughout their lives did pay payroll taxes for that period’s retirees, for the most part, the benefits they receive exceed the taxes they paid. Just as an example, according to the Urban Institute, a married couple with average earnings who retire in 2025 at age 65 would be expected to receive $1.3 million in lifetime benefits despite having only paid $867,000 in taxes throughout their lives.
Entitlement reform is not about “crushing our own people” — as Don Jr. put it — it’s about addressing the moral disgrace of government programs that will crush younger Americans for decades to come.