Washington, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) today spoke on the Senate floor to urge Republicans and Democrats to work together to reduce the nation’s mounting debt and deficit. Flake delivered the speech prior to voting against a bill to sustain federal spending at current levels through December 2016. The Senate approved that spending bill by a vote of 72 to 26.

“No one party will take the political risk inherent in dealing with the debt problem. Not my party, nor the party on the other side of the aisle. Midterm elections are never more than two years away. No, it will take buy-in from both parties. Both parties have to be willing to hold hands and jump together,” said Flake.

Video of Flake’s remarks can be viewed here.
A transcript of the remarks can be viewed below.

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A few weeks ago I was asked to emcee the Arizona Distinguished Young Women Scholarship program. During the Self Expression portion of the evening, meant to showcase how quickly these young women can think on their feet, the participants were asked the following question: “If you could live a day without rules and consequences and do something truly outrageous, what would it be?” Remember, these are high school seniors.

As I stood on stage and called on each young woman to respond to the question, Alexis, from Tempe, confidently took the microphone and said the following: “I would fly to Washington, D.C. go to the United States Senate floor and ask each senator this question: ‘What do you plan to do about the national debt?’”

The audience roared its approval and I was put on the spot. This is a topic that has received scant attention in this political season, but it was put front and center at a scholarship program.

We shouldn’t be surprised at this. For every day we adults continue our obsession over emails and birth certificates, these high school seniors recognize that we’re spending $1.4 billion more than we are taking in, which will result in a near $500 billion deficit this year which will be added to our burgeoning $19 trillion debt. They know this and understand this, because this is a debt that they will be left with long after our political careers are over.

I have long believed of the myriad problems we face in this country, from terrorism to nuclear proliferation to infectious diseases to climate change to aging infrastructure to unaffordable health care, our looming debt and persistent deficit is our most urgent challenge. If we don’t put our fiscal house in order and put ourselves on a sustainable fiscal path forward, we won’t be able to address any of the problems and challenges I just listed.

If we continue in our current state of denial, one day in the not so distant future, we will wake up and discover that the financial markets have already decided that we are no longer a good bet. When this happens, the low interest rates that have made our debt manageable over the past couple of  years will begin an upward march. For every quarter point that interest rates go up, an additional $50 billion will be required annually just to service the debt.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that if we don’t address our fiscal imbalance and interest rates return to where they have traditionally been, within a decade nearly all of our discretionary budget will be swallowed up with just one item - paying interest on the debt. Think about that for a minute. How do we fight a war on terrorism without spending any money on national defense? That’s part of our discretionary budget. How do we replace aging infrastructure when there is no money left after paying the monthly installment on our credit cards. Infectious disease-bearing mosquitos won’t stop at our borders out of concern for our fiscal predicament.

Once national interest rates begin their inevitable rise, the control over our fiscal situation will pass from this body and from congress and from the executive branch to our creditors. We will then enter an austerity cycle that would negatively impact the global economy and it will worsen our own fiscal outlook.  

So, how do we avoid this gloomy picture? If we want to put ourselves on a sustainable fiscal path, we can’t just nibble around the edges. Discretionary spending has been largely held in check over the past several years, but the retirement of the baby boomer generation has led to huge increases in our so-called entitlement programs. Discretionary spending represents an ever shrinking percentage of our total spending.

Putting ourselves on a sustainable fiscal path has to involve a grand bargain of sorts, like the one contemplated by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, more commonly known as Simpson Bowles. Of course, this outline will need to be updated to take into account nearly $7 trillion in debt accumulated in the past six years, but it’s a good place to start.

It is tempting for both Democrats and Republicans to say, “Well, we will deal with the debt problem if the voters give us control of both chambers and the White House. Believe me when I tell you that this won’t happen. No one party, Republican or Democrat, will take the political risk inherent in dealing with the debt problem. Not my party, nor the party on the other side of the aisle. Midterm elections are never more than two years away. No, It will take buy-in from both parties.  Both parties have to be willing to hold hands and jump together.

With divided government over the past six years, we’ve had the conditions necessary for a long term budget agreement, but we’ve lacked the political courage to get it done. We can’t afford to squander that opportunity an longer.

If the results of the November elections produce divided government once again in January, here’s hoping that while we publicly grumble, we will privately see it as an opportunity to redeem ourselves as stewards of this institution and put the country back on a sustainable fiscal path.  

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