Chairman Arrington Joins Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street to Discuss the Looming Social Security, Medicare Insolvency and the Cost of the Border Crisis
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) joined Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street on Fox Business to discuss the looming insolvency of Social Security and Medicare and the Committee’s “Cost of the Border Crisis” hearing held on Wednesday.
On Monday, the Social Security and Medicare Trustees annual reports were submitted to Congress. The reports highlight the alarming financial predicament for the future of the Social Security and Medicare programs that millions of seniors depend on.
In response to the reports, House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) released the following statement:
“The Medicare Trustee report showing five more years have been added to the solvency timeline for Medicare is misleading. There has been a cost-shift from the Medicare Trust Fund to taxpayers and seniors by way of outpatient care and Medicare Advantage plans. Payroll taxes are up because of federal stimulus and inflation, not a healthy economy or real wage growth.
Neither party has offered a plan to address the solvency of these important safety nets for seniors, but under Republican leadership, we passed a bipartisan Debt Commission out of the House Budget Committee. This commission would bring lawmakers from both parties together to find consensus solutions for the immediate solvency and fiscal sustainability of Social Security and Medicare along with reducing the US Debt-to-GDP, which is at an all-time high. This is similar to the Ronald Reagan playbook the last time social security was in trouble.
To do nothing about Social Security and Medicare is to ensure an automatic cut in benefits to seniors, trillions of dollars more in deficit spending, and a debt related economic crisis. The time for leadership is now.”
Watch Chairman Arrington’s full interview on Fox Business HERE. Find highlights of key moments below:
On Social Security and Medicare:
"Under my chairmanship, our Budget Committee passed a bipartisan commission like the Greenspan Commission that preceded Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill, doing the right thing putting their country first and addressing the insolvency and sustainability of these programs. But when you hear President Biden talk about ‘we're not going to touch it, we're only going to help Medicare recipients and our seniors’, in the Inflation Reduction Act, they took a savings of $300 billion out of Medicare, to basically subsidize their tax giveaways to green energy corporations to expand the bureaucracy at the IRS. So don't believe any of that. Real leadership will require getting both parties at the table to deal with this and put their country first.”
On the Border Crisis:
“Everybody, I think by now, knows the most imminent threat to the safety of the American people is our wide-open border, brought to you by President Biden. This is a self-inflicted crisis. It has a multitude of adverse effects on our society. But one of the things we don't talk enough about is the hit to taxpayers at the state, local, and federal level. Combined, it's that $150 billion you talked about, but $100 billion of that is borne out by the state and local governments. And they're not like this federal government of ours where they can print and borrow to pay for it, they have to balance their budgets, which means they're either going to take more money out of the pockets of their citizens or cut very important services to their citizens.”
“The $150 billion equates to about $9,000 per illegal immigrant in this country. That's more than we spend on our most vulnerable American in the way of Medicaid benefits. And that's more than we spend on our veterans for their military retirement. So, this is not just unsustainable in terms of the financial cost, but it is unconscionable that we're doing this when we can't even afford the safety net that currently exists of social services to our own citizens.”
More from the House Budget Committee:
Read more about Social Security and Medicare’s path to insolvency HERE.
Read more about Biden’s Border Blunder HERE.
Read more about Biden’s Border Crisis HERE.
