Former Dem Leader Harry Reid: ‘The deficit is going to bury us’ –
by Stuart MacPhail August, 2019
On April 23, 2019, C-Span conducted an interview with former US Senate Majority Leader (2007-2015) Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and former US House Speaker (2011-2015) John Boehner (R-Ohio), with moderator Chuck Todd.
In that interview Reid said “I believe…and this may sound unusual coming from a Democrat with the voting record that I had… I think we are right at a tipping point. And what is that tipping point? We have taken our eye off of one of the big problems facing this country. We are not talking about it at all.
“We are driving ourselves into bankruptcy. We have got to do something. It is coming more quickly than we think… this huge deficit. We could wind up having a trillion dollar deficit in one year. And remember, we are only paying the interest on the debt.”
Talking about Social Security, Mr. Todd pointed out: “They are tapping into the Trust Fund”. Reid responded: “There’s no question that all of the programs that we have that are fixtures in our budgets, we have to look at them and change them. But I am saying now… I repeat… the deficit is going to bury us. And we are going to feel this. It’s going to be something members of Congress and leaders in Congress cannot ignore. They’re going to be forced to do something about [these] issues. Otherwise we will never ever have money to take care of the deteriorating infrastructure we have.”
Boehner followed up by saying: “We’re all living 20 to 30 years longer than anyone ever thought, 20 to 30 years longer than these retirement programs were ever designed to take into account. These programs need to be restructured. [They are] the biggest drivers of our spending.”
Watch the interview, conducted at a University of Nevada’s MGM Resorts Public Policy Institute event, beginning at the 36-minute point, HERE.
