Republican U.S. Rep. Josh Brecheen held a town hall meeting at the Bartlesville Community Center last week, where he delivered an in-depth presentation on the nation’s fiscal state and the urgency of addressing federal spending.
Brecheen, who represents Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District, focused on the rise in national debt and its implications for the country’s future.
Brecheen’s presentation highlighted the exponential growth of the national debt, which has surged from $1 trillion in 1980 to over $35 trillion today. He emphasized the burden this debt places on the country, noting that the U.S. is currently running an annual deficit of $2 trillion.
“$76,000 per second is what we are spending that is debt related,” Brecheen said. “When you add all spending, that it’s $190,000 per second — Y’all know that’s faster than the speed of light if you replace miles for dollars.”
The congressman criticized past and present lawmakers for their roles in escalating the nation’s debt, pointing to the last 20 to 40 years of fiscal policy as a significant contributor to the current crisis. Brecheen also underscored the widening gap between mandatory and discretionary spending, revealing that mandatory spending now consumes 74% of the federal budget, leaving little room for discretionary spending, including defense.
One of the most striking points in Brecheen’s presentation was the comparison between defense spending and interest payments on the national debt.
“Y’all, we spent $840 billion on defense and look at how much our interest payments were, $890 billion,” he said. “Last year, we flushed more down the toilet on interest payments over bad decision-making than we did on defense of this country.”
Brecheen also discussed the challenges facing Social Security and Medicare, highlighting the programs’ financial strains and the looming insolvency projected within the next decade. He explained that while payroll taxes covered Social Security’s expenses, Medicare faced a $600 billion shortfall last year, further exacerbating the nation’s fiscal woes.
The lawmaker called on all his colleagues in Congress to prioritize spending restraint and to reexamine the balance between tax cuts and responsible fiscal management. He cited the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which he said contributed to a significant increase in federal revenue but failed to curb spending, resulting in a growing deficit.
Brecheen concluded his presentation by addressing the importance of economic growth but cautioned against relying solely on growth to solve the nation’s fiscal problems.
“A lot of members of Congress say, oh, we just need growth, and we’ll get ourselves out of this,” He said. “You can’t. It’s not true, and they’ve been playing that game for too long because nobody wants to address the facts.”
He added the best growth the United States has seen was five to six percent right after World War II, and to raise revenue enough to match our current spending, the country would have to grow at eight to 10 percent for years, he said.
“You gotta have growth, but you gotta cut,” he said.
Brecheen urges other members of Congress to share his presentation in their districts, aiming to build public support and, in turn, hold officials accountable for spending cuts.
Andy Dossett