In 1965, mandatory spending - required federal spending that is outside the regular appropriations process - comprised 34 percent of the federal budget. Today, it consumes 69 percent. By 2040, mandatory spending will grow to account for more than 81 percent of the entire federal budget.
When I came to Congress, these were not numbers I could recite off the top of my head. I knew we had a serious debt problem and that we had to get serious about solving it, but, like many people, I didn’t appreciate the full extent of the fiscal challenge we face.
Once I got a look under the hood at the federal budget process and began diving deeper into numbers and future projections, it did not take long for me to understand that the most dire issue facing our nation is a $19.8 trillion debt and a looming debt crisis of trillions more. And the cause of this crisis? Unchecked mandatory spending.
When most people think about mandatory spending, they think of programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. These essential entitlement programs provide a safety net for our nation’s elderly and vulnerable populations. They represent decades of promises to Americans, but to keep these promises in the future, these programs must be reformed.
Without reforms, mandatory spending will soon consume all federal revenue, which compromises every other government promise, like national defense, veterans’ health care, education, transportation and research. Just as troubling, the combined Social Security trust funds are projected to reach insolvency in 2034. By law, Social Security and Medicare can only pay benefits up to the money in their respective trust funds. Once these reach insolvency, the government will not be able to pay full benefits. A broken promise which will disproportionately be felt by the most vulnerable among us.
We must approach the entire budget with fiscal discipline. Before we examine large-scale reforms, we must know that we have done all we can to address waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. However, it is important to recognize that these efforts will not be sufficient to resolve our looming debt and insolvency crisis.
Ignoring this leaves us with few options down the road. We can hope the economy experiences unprecedented prolonged growth. We can borrow more money and worsen our national debt. Or we can cut benefits. None of these is an attractive option.
Alternatively, we can start today doing the hard work of tackling this issue head on and working toward essential mandatory spending reforms. This may seem like a conversation about dollars and cents, but it is actually a conversation about people. Folks count on these programs as they plan for retirement. But if we do not act now, they will feel the impact of our inaction. I do want to emphasize that making forward-looking reforms does not mean taking benefits from those who have earned them today or are about to enter retirement. That simply would not be right.
I came to Congress to address the tough issues facing our nation, so I want to be clear. Even as I am committed to sharing the honest and stark reality of our nation’s fiscal situation, I believe wholeheartedly that we are up to the challenge of confronting and resolving it. This starts with putting politics aside and having an honest conversation about creating a sustainable path toward reform. There is no quick fix, and we must give Americans time to plan for changes to the system.
While we must continue to have serious conversations about prioritizing resources among discretionary spending programs, until we act to address mandatory spending, we are doing little more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. As we consider the Fiscal Year 2018 budget in committee, and, with every opportunity going forward, I will push for mandatory spending reforms to ensure that we can meet our obligations and protect the safety net for generations to come.
U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson, R-West Point.
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