Republicans appear willing to take a tougher stand on entitlement spending, a move that could put them at odds with former President Donald Trump.
With entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare accounting for approximately 60% of government spending, key Republican lawmakers have called for reform, something Trump has kept as a moving target.
Economists say that without changes made to Social Security and Medicare, forced cuts will have to be made. Medicare is expected to reach insolvency in 2028, and Social Security is expected to do so in 2033.
The threat of insufficient funding of key mandatory government programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security has been a topic that lawmakers have circled back to, for Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), the chairman of the House Main Street Caucus, told Fox News Digital that task forces and commissions to discuss the national debt are assembled every 10 years. However, this time, he said the threat of insolvency is “closer than ever.”
“I do think we should be willing to have real conversations about this, but I wouldn’t say this is a new issue,” Johnson said.
The $1.2 trillion spending bill passed by Congress last week that averted a government shutdown only accounted for the government’s discretionary spending, making up just over a quarter of annual federal spending.
House Rules Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK), who is running for House Appropriations Committee chairman, has called for reform.
“You cannot solve the U.S. deficit problem exclusively in the Appropriations Committee, as discretionary spending only amounts to roughly 28% of U.S. expenditures,” Cole said. “If we are going to produce a balanced budget, which I strongly believe we should be striving to do, we should be having serious discussions on how to fund and reform our entitlement programs, which makes up approximately 60% of all spending.”
Trump announced earlier this month that he is open to entitlement reform.
“There is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting and in terms of, also, the theft and the bad management of entitlements,” Trump said on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
However, his campaign team walked back Trump’s statement after receiving attacks from President Joe Biden.
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“If you losers didn’t cut his answer short, you would know President Trump was talking about cutting waste,” Trump’s campaign team said on X.
Meanwhile, House Republicans aren’t backing down on their position of seeing reform. Recently, 175 House GOP members released a budget proposal that called for raising the “retirement age of future retirees to account for increases in life expectancy.” There were also calls to restructure Medicare so it can compete with private options.