Congressional Record—House H972
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H972 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE February 7, 2020 or McCabe or Strzok. These are people ments is the entire discretionary budg- where our brothers and sisters—what who ought to be required to answer for et. Everything else is on autopilot. we refer to as marginally detached— their wrongdoing. Yet how many of our brothers and are coming back into the labor force. Yes, I still have significant problems sisters who are elected, and who have This is a good thing. It makes remark- with Inspector General Horowitz. He this incredible opportunity and respon- able differences. did a lot of investigation, but it is very sibility to come tell the truth, are You are going to start to see: Do we clear that Strzok and Page had tre- comfortable coming behind this micro- add incentives in the earned and even mendous bias. phone and saying: Hey, it turns out unearned benefits? Remember, in our His original report, in effect, said that we are getting old very fast as a society, the vast majority of our spend- there is no indication that it affected society. We have stunning numbers of ing, 70-plus percent, is on autopilot. It the outcomes. How about the fact that promises that we have an obligation to is what we call entitlements. every outcome was consistent with keep. And we are unwilling to have the You earned your Social Security. their bias? Not one single outcome was honesty of the discussion of what we You earned your Medicare. You earned inconsistent with their bias for Hillary are about to do to our kids in crushing your VA. You earned these things. Clinton and their hatred for Donald them. There are other benefits you get be- Trump. When it is 100 percent con- I have a 4-year-old daughter. Doesn’t cause you fell below a certain income. sistent, then it means it is time to do she deserve to have the same opportu- You are part of a certain Tribal popu- something. Christopher Wray needs to nities we all have had? lation—those things. These are treaty go, too. It turns out there is a path, but we obligations. They are societal obliga- Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance need to stop delusional thinking. For- tions we have made decisions on. of my time. give me when my brothers and sisters Are there things we can do to add a f on the Republican side say, ‘‘Well, if we spiff? Saying: Yes, you may be 70 years just got rid of waste and fraud,’’ it is a old, you have your earned entitlement, MODERNIZING ENTITLEMENTS rounding error. It is important, and we but could we give you a little spiff? Are The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under need to do it. you healthy? Do you want to continue the Speaker’s announced policy of Jan- ‘‘We just have to tax rich people to work? Do you want to stay in the uary 3, 2019, the Chair recognizes the more.’’ It is delusional. It is fractions labor force? gentleman from Arizona (Mr. of a percent, and you could take all Because it turns out to be really good SCHWEIKERT) for 30 minutes. their wealth, Mr. Speaker. for society. It turns out to be really Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, my We don’t seem to have our heads important. family accuses me of being incapable of around the scale of this math and the We still have a problem with millen- speaking without moving my hands or number of zeros that go with it. nial men, which is a different speech, without displays, so we are going to see Let’s sort of walk through this. In and one day, we will figure out why if we can do a little bit of both that we the last couple of years, we have been they are underparticipating. are good at. trying to pitch a concept. You can’t Population stability, a really uncom- Mr. Speaker, about every week, I try just do one thing, Mr. Speaker. You fortable part of the conversation to to take a block of time and come here can’t just change entitlements and have, but the math is the math. Our to walk through both what I see hap- think you are going to accomplish any- birthrates have collapsed. We are look- pening math-wise and what I see hap- thing. You can’t just tax people more ing at data right now that says half of pening demographic-wise. I know as and think you are going to get any- millennials, more than 50 percent of soon as I use those words, most anyone where. You have to do everything. millennials, will never marry. It who is watching this is now falling It is sort of the wholistic—I prefer doesn’t mean they won’t be in long- asleep. But the math is important. the term ‘‘unified’’—theory that we term committed relationships, but are I put this board up because I am a be- have to get the economics working. We there incentives we can produce as a liever that there is a way to save the have to maximize economic growth, government, as a society, that those country from being buried in debt. and we have to maximize labor force stable relationships bring another gen- There is a way that the next 30, 40 participation. We need to adopt revolu- eration? Because it is an honest math years can be incredibly prosperous, but tionary and disruptive technology to problem. We are collapsing population- we need to invest in this magic device, crash the price of healthcare because, wise. which is called a calculator, because as I was just sharing with you, Mr. Immigration, how do you design an much of what we do here is rhetorical. Speaker, healthcare is what drives the immigration system that is open, wel- We do policy by feelings, and we en- deficit. coming, but is talent-based? Because gage in just absolute absurdity in our I was here last week, and I was show- the reality of it is, we are about to hit unwillingness to talk about the reality ing slides that 90 percent of the future such a demographic headwind if we do of what is going on. debt is substantially Social Security not have brothers and sisters becoming So, first, a bit of premise, and then but mostly Medicare, yet the only calls Americans who have certain skill sets. we will do a little bit of what happened I get when I show that slide is I get In many ways, it is a more elegant in today’s job report to demonstrate people angry: Stop telling us that. system. I don’t care about your race, there is a path, but that path doesn’t That doesn’t fit the folklore I bathe in. your religion, who you cuddle with, all exist until we start to be honest with But the fact of the matter is, there of these things. I do care that you add each other. are technology disruptions coming velocity to our society, to our econ- So just a top-line understanding, the right now that could crash the price of omy. next 5 years, just the growth in Social healthcare and be amazing in changing Then, there are other things: tax Security and Medicare—it is mostly our debt curve. The problem is a bunch policies, regulatory policy, smart tech- Medicare—and healthcare entitle- of that technology is actually illegal nology, things we can do to maximize ments, just the growth equals the en- because it uses algorithms, sensors, economic growth. tire Defense Department. and things that our current legal Look, our pitch is: If we can make Mr. Speaker, you have to understand framework and reimbursement frame- these things work—and you can’t do what is happening. It is not Republican work isn’t ready for. We need to mod- one or two of them; you have to do all or Democrat. It is demographics. There ernize. of them—we have a model that says, at are 74 million of us who are baby the peak of the baby boom, so about 15 boomers, and we are moving into our b 1400 years from now, or less than that, we retirement years. We have earned bene- Employment, we are going to talk kiss up to 95 percent of debt-to-GDP, fits, and there is no money in the bank. about some of the remarkable things but we can hold it. Then, it fades back It is all going to be borrowed. that came out in today’s unemploy- to something normal. So think of that: Over the next 10 ment numbers that should be incred- If we don’t do this, there are charts years, just the growth of Social Secu- ibly hopeful to both those on the left out there that show a couple hundred rity, Medicare, and healthcare entitle- and the right of what is happening, percent of debt-to-GDP. We blow up the VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:03 Feb 08, 2020 Jkt 099060 PO 00000 Frm 00034 Fmt 4636 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\K07FE7.060 H07FEPT1 dlhill on DSKBBY8HB2PROD with HOUSE February 7, 2020 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H973 society. We basically become anemic, ponents that make wages go up, the ing you off. Today, you have double, slow-growth. We raise taxes like crazy two things we focus on? Well, one is more than double, the wage growth of on young people to make them pay our productivity, and the other is inflation.