Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) on Wednesday called for an “adult conversation” about cuts to programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security to reduce the growing national debt. Moments earlier, he had endorsed the idea of borrowing money to pay for a major infrastructure bill as a stimulus to economic recovery during the coronavirus pandemic.
From a CNBC interview:
CO-HOST ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: Senator, I wanted to ask you about the word that you just mentioned, which is “debt.” We’re in the midst of a crisis, so stimulus is something clearly that is needed to get us back to work and get the system and economic machine working again. But at some point we’re gonna have a conversation about debt — and I’m not arguing for austerity either — but the question I’d ask you is, from a policy perspective, longer term, how you think that’s going to play out in the form of either higher taxes, in the form of less services. How do you think about it, senator?
SEN. KEVIN CRAMER: Well, there are a couple of things. First of all, we have got to deal with the mandatory side of the ledger or we’re never going to get to balance. We know that two-thirds of our debt, at least, is driven by the mandatory side of our ledger, the entitlement programs and other things. We simply have more money going out than can come in to those programs.