David Schweikert: “This is one of those moments where-- and forgive me, but I sometimes feel like I live and work in a math- free zone…”

“This is one of those moments where-- and forgive me, but I sometimes feel like I live and work in a math- free zone, because you can't intellectually have it both ways, where you are talking about the great difficulties coming, and then when you bring in the actual data and you actually start to look at the charts that we all see, it isn't in the future, it is right on the cusp of us, and that is the debt and entitlement crisis. If we do not start to get some economic growth, we are in so much trouble. If you really care about Medicare, Medicaid, the children, this education program, this health research, where is the money coming from? It is on the cusp. This is less than a decade away. In just a few years, we cross 100 percent of GDP, and that is publicly held, and then the ability to sell the bonds if we do not get economic growth. But if you look at the last 30 years in the charts and the data--and I am sorry, I know this is small and I know it is math, so it is uncomfortable for a lot of people in this body. If you actually look across here and you see, this is entitlements to GDP, when we have been in times of economic expansion, all of a sudden our ability to finance, to maintain the promises we have made as a society, if the math works. And this is a commonality we both understand, economic growth is our only path. Because if it is not, are you on your side ready to do fairly draconian cuts?…”