David Schweikert: “What we are doing today is sort of a continuation of the theme that since the beginning of this Congress we have been…”

“What we are doing today is sort of a continuation of the theme that since the beginning of this Congress we have been walking through. So let's put this sort of in context. This is probably our fourth or fifth time to come to the floor and do part of this theme. The first time we did this we took almost an hour and we actually sort of walked through what is happening in our society, when you actually do the math of the massive unfunded liabilities in Medicare; the issues with the fact that in 9 years, 50 percent of the noninterest spending of this government in 9 years will be to those 65 and over. So it is important to understand what is happening to us demographically. Much of that difficulty that is coming toward us is about healthcare costs. One of my passions has been trying to get an understanding of this. There are a number of things we can do to actually deal with the fact that we are getting older as a society. We are seeing what is happening on our birth rates. The fact of the matter is, those of us who are baby boomers--there are 74 million of us--and in 9 years, all of the baby boomers will be functionally 65 and older. It is a demographic bubble moving through our society, and there are benefits that we as a society have been promised. So what do you do? How do you make sure you have a vibrant enough economy to keep our promises? How do you make sure we have a vibrant enough economy not to crush the young in their opportunities?…”