David Schweikert: “As I get set up, in past years, when I used to have to sit up there, it was because the Speaker was annoyed with me. I…”

“As I get set up, in past years, when I used to have to sit up there, it was because the Speaker was annoyed with me. I am sure that would never happen in your case. You don't have to say anything. Madam Speaker, I try to come to the floor every week and sort of talk about what we see actually happening in the economy, what is happening in jobs, and those things. But it is more of a global discussion. And part of that discussion is we see the stories, we know the facts; we are about to be buried in a debt tsunami. And it is not Republicans and Democrats. It is demographics. There are 74 million of us who are baby boomers; 74 million. We are halfway through turning 65, moving into our earned benefits. And it is such a difficult subject around here because, the fact of the matter is, as soon as you use the word Medicare or Social Security in any type of discussion, even when you are passionately trying to protect those programs, in our modern politics of rage, you just wrote an attack ad saying, well, he talked about Medicare; he must be meaning to do something. That is absurd. If we are not talking about it, we are not going to save them. Here is the thought experiment. Next 5 years, just the growth of Social Security, Medicare, healthcare entitlements, but mostly Medicare, just the growth, equals the entire Defense Department.…”