PHOENIX–Representative David Schweikert (R-AZ) spoke at the recent Forum for Fiscal Responsibility about government spending, saying he would "love" a Constitutional amendment for a balanced budget, "but the math is so difficult right now."
Additionally, he noted that "we are all being completely honest with each other" about reducing the deficit and the major driver of debt, which is demographics.
"This year, the federal government will spend $7.2 trillion, and we will take in five," Rep. Schweikert continued, further explaining how the government will spend $86 trillion over the next ten years, "and all we are trying to do is cut $2 trillion."
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Rep. Schweikert skewered Democrats' "bedwetting, grinding of teeth, and crying" about attempting to cut $2 trillion in spending, rhetorically asking, "What happens when [the deficit] is functionally almost 25% of all spending?"
As a result, the deficit can only be solved with tax hikes or spending cuts, "so if you are going to do a balanced budget amendment, you almost would have to design it in a way where it had enough time to do something demographically."
Schweikert meant by "demographically," as he explained to Cactus Politics last March, that as the population ages, they need more healthcare. The government must spend more and more money to pay for those healthcare and retirement programs, yet it is not receiving the necessary tax revenue.
"This is the math: we have 76 million of us who are Baby Boomers. The timing to work through so you have a more normalized population demographics," Schweikert continued.
However, raising taxes is not the way forward, as "when it comes to the wealthy, we have the most progressive tax system in the industrialized countries by far because we do not use the value-added tax" as Europe does.
After all, Schweikert concluded, "a third of American workers pay no federal income taxes at all, they pay payroll tax. It would be a dramatic tax hike, so there is your balance."
