Speaker McCarthy, Members of Congress, Briefed by CBO on National Debt

Statement

The national debt is one of the greatest threats to America today, but the debt problem cannot be solved with one party, it takes everyone to work together.

Today, the Congressional Budget Office held a briefing for both Republicans and Democrats to ensure that every Member has the same, up-to-date numbers.

That briefing confirmed the worst: over the next 30 years, the debt held by the public would be 195 percent of GDP.

In other words, it's not a revenue problem, it's a spending problem.

After the briefing, Speaker Kevin McCarthy held a press conference where he urged his colleagues in the House and Senate to come together and find common ground on responsible solutions that find savings, cut waste, and rein in the debt.

"We just left a briefing with the Congressional Budget Office. As you all know, this is probably something really new. Normally, we'd never get together, Republicans and Democrats, for a joint briefing in the auditorium unless it's a classified briefing… I firmly believe one of the greatest threats to America is our debt… the Congressional Budget Office recently came out with their new projections.

"In the next 10 years, Americans will pay $10.5 trillion just on the interest on our debt. Now put that in perspective, from 1940 to today, America's only paid nine trillion dollars. So the next 10 years we'll pay more than we paid in the last 80 [years].

"The country wants us to work together. So when the President delays our opportunity to negotiate together to help solve this problem, it only harms our economy. We look at the projections of growth to be very small, we see inflation continue to rise with the runaway spending.

"What I wanted to accomplish with this is a series of discussions that we can sit down in a professional manner, the way America wants us to be. To be responsible, to be reasonable, and to stop the runaway spending and put us on a path to [a] budget that'll help slow inflation and also policymakers. If we can become energy independent, we can help curb inflation away. We can create more jobs and provide more revenue.

"I thank the Chair and Ranking Member of Budget, we can sit down for one of the first times and continue this discussion. Because what we have found [is that] the runaway outlays are spending not only harm and increase more inflation, it will put us in a weaker position in the future with China and it will harm our children and grandchildren. And the one thing this Commitment to America with a Republican majority who promised to change today is an example of exactly that."

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