Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, last month I came to the floor to talk about the need to confront our country's surging deficits and debt.

At the time, we had just considered a supplemental disaster appropriations bill that would spend billions of dollars beyond the statutory budget caps without any pretense of offsetting that spending, and I called for Congress to better budget for disasters.

Now, prompted by reports issued last week by Social Security and Medicare trustees that show these programs remain on an unsustainable path, I again come to the floor to sound the alarm over our country's long-term fiscal health. With trillion-dollar annual deficits expected to return soon and our national debt now topping $22 trillion, we cannot afford to keep ignoring the warning signs that we are on a dangerous fiscal course.

The trustees estimate that Social Security's combined trust funds will be insolvent by 2035. Sounds like way down the road? I don't think so. Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will become insolvent even sooner, by 2026.

Over the next 75 years, Medicare's and Social Security's combined scheduled expenditures are projected to exceed their dedicated revenues by more than $59 trillion, or 35 percent, on a present-value basis. Within 10 years, Social Security and Medicare alone will account for more than half of all Federal noninterest spending.

We are facing a strong demographic headwind. Let me say that again. We are facing a strong demographic headwind. An aging population and rising healthcare costs continue to increase the gulf between mandatory program spending and dedicated revenues.

For decades, experts have warned of the budget pressures we would face as members of the baby boom generation aged and became eligible for Medicare and Social Security. Congress hasn't paid much attention to that crisis. Every day, roughly 10,000 Americans turn 65, and they are living longer than they were when these programs were conceived. I guess that is a good thing, but it places additional strain on the program finances and the Federal budget.

Without changes to current law, all Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries will see automatic across-the-board reductions in benefits when the respective funds run out of money. Of course, the political pressure would be enormous to avoid the automatic cuts, but with our country already facing $22 trillion in debt, further raiding of the U.S. Treasury's general fund is not an option. It could cause a borrowing crisis.

First, let me focus on Social Security. At the end of last year, Social Security provided payments to 63 million beneficiaries, including 47 million retired workers and their dependents, 6 million survivors of deceased workers, and 10 million disabled workers and their dependents.

As I mentioned, Social Security's combined trust funds are slated to become depleted in 2035. That means that in 16 years' time, when today's 46-year-olds first become eligible for retirement benefits, the program will only be able to pay about 80 percent of the scheduled benefits, according to the trustees.

Think about that. Absent action from Congress, we are just 16 years away from not being able to pay full benefits, and that is full benefits to those who are retired right now, as well as those who are upcoming. It is no longer a far-off concern.

Let me turn now to the Medicare Program, which is an even more pressing problem.

The trustees estimate that in 2026, Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund--which covers inpatient hospital services, hospice care, skilled nursing facilities, and home health services--will be depleted.

Once the fund becomes insolvent, absent a change in the law, Medicare can only pay hospital benefits up to an amount of revenue that comes into the trust fund in that given year. It is the same thing for Social Security. Anticipating that money will be worth as much and that inflation will not have driven it up even more, the trustees estimate that in 2026, revenues will cover only 89 percent of program costs and by 2046, that figure will decline to 77 percent--pretty hefty cuts.

Medicare's other trust fund, which primarily pays for physician services and prescription drugs, operates differently. While it isn't in danger of insolvency because it gets money from the Treasury's general fund and the premiums it collects from beneficiaries are adjusted annually, its growing costs will put greater pressure on premium-paying beneficiaries and on Federal taxpayers. That is where the excess comes from.

Last year, general revenue transfers into the trust fund equaled 16.2 percent of all personal and corporate Federal income taxes collected by the Federal Government. By the end of the 75-year window, the trustees expect this figure to increase to more than 28 percent. That would be more than 28 percent of all personal and corporate Federal income taxes collected by the Federal Government.

For years, the trustees of Social Security and Medicare have warned that these programs are unsustainable. Let me repeat that again. For years, the trustees of Social Security and Medicare have warned that these programs are on an unsustainable path, but successive Congresses and administrations have continued a bipartisan tradition of ignoring this uncomfortable fact.

Of course, ignoring the problem will not make it go away. In this case, the opposite is true. The longer we wait to make financial repairs to Social Security and Medicare, the more severe the changes needed to ensure their insolvency will have to be.

We must work together, on a bipartisan basis, to find long-term solutions that secure the future of these programs. The earlier we do it, the less painful it is. When considering a $59 trillion problem like this, there are no quick fixes or easy choices, but the sooner we act, the easier it will be to preserve Social Security and Medicare for the millions of Americans who depend on them and who will be depending on them, while safeguarding the programs for even more future generations.

To be clear, I want to make sure Social Security and Medicare are able to continue providing benefits to current beneficiaries, as well as those who may need these programs in the future. If we don't make changes to the way these programs currently operate, in the future, a lot of people will just be out of luck. In order to prevent that from happening, we have to work together, and we have to consider a wide variety of options to ensure their solvency in the long term.

While we may disagree on what the ideal solution might look like, I hope we can all agree on the need to put our mandatory spending programs and the broader Federal budget on a long-term, sustainable fiscal course. That means having the revenues match up with the costs. They don't now. There are deficits already, and the funds are being depleted.

I ask for everyone's help to solve this. It can only be done if both sides of the aisle agree to do something.

I thank you for your attention.

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