On the recordOctober 25, 2011
I thank the gentleman, and I appreciate the slides and the discussion. Our country is facing a demographics problem. Right now our birth rate is getting close to replacement levels, and the circumstance that my colleague just showed with Medicare and Social Security spending outstripping our ability to pay is in part because of this: we have a declining population and will have. I have a grandson who is 8 years old today; and when he reaches age 65, nearly 47 percent of the U.S. population will be age 65 or older. And so this problem if we don't address it soon will simply get worse. And so the sooner we get at it, the better. We need to take a look at all areas of spending, and we also need to take a look at revenue. My colleague just mentioned the need for tax reform, and I couldn't agree more. Our tax system is notoriously complex, forcing families and employers to spend over 6 billion hours and over $160 billion a year trying to negotiate our Tax Code. Comparatively, the U.S. spends $50 billion to $60 billion per year on pharmaceutical R&D which has the potential to save lives. I'd like to show the American people this is what our Tax Code looks like. It is over 9,000 pages long of fine print, and no one can really understand it. I want to compare it to something else because I think this is salient. This is the United States Constitution. When our Founders founded our country, they were able to print this on about 30 pages right here.…
