Cole: Easing the national debt means addressing Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid

If want to bring down the national debt, Congress will have to address discretionary spending in the federal budget, U.S. Fourth District Congressman Tom Cole said.

The Oklahoma Republican was in Lawton to visit with constituents, ending his day Friday by attending the Lawton Rangers Rodeo.

Cole said for the sixth Congress in a row, he has introduced legislation that seeks to address the budget crisis by addressing and bringing stability to three major discretionary spending categories: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. It’s a theme Cole has addressed repeatedly in recent years. He said the solution is the same one Washington leaders used in 1983 to create a stability that continued for decades: creating a bi-partisan commission that will explore all options and propose solutions, including increasing the age for recipients and increasing taxes.

He said without a solution, “it’s a mathematical certainty” Medicare and Medicaid will reach critical mass in four to five years; Social Security, within 10 years. Cole said the last time the nation’s leaders finally addressed the problem, the programs were within two months of crisis. He doesn’t want to wait that long this time, preferring to address the problems sooner rather than later, but concedes “in a presidential year, it’s pretty hard.”

Cole also is critical of the White House for its flat refusal to consider a commission to address the issue, saying when President Biden was a U.S. senator, he voted for both creation of the commission and its recommendations.

Entitlement reform is crucial to balance the budget, Cole said, explaining those programs are 60 percent of the federal budget. With another 10 percent of the budget locked into the national debt, Cole said it isn’t feasible to balance the budget with only 30 percent of it on the table, when that 30 percent includes things that he knows won’t be cut: the military budget and veterans benefits, among other things.

Congress doesn’t have a choice in addressing the issue, Cole said.

“The pressure will be enormous on members,” he said, adding efforts to resolve the issues must be bi-partisan and he believes Congress will step up rather than let the systems collapse. “In my gut, I believe we won’t let it happen.”

Cole also predicted the U.S. Senate will soon pass its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (something the House already has done), meaning negotiations between the two bodies to reach a compromise on a bill that will provide military spending for the next year.

Cole said while it is too soon to comment on specifics within the bill, the NDAA contains spending for Fort Sill. Some will go to support Fort Sill itself, with other funds to be designated toward upgrading infrastructure, he said.