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OGDEN — Utah Rep. Blake Moore has focused on fiscal responsibility since taking office in 2021, and the Republican hopes the federal deficit will take up more space in the debate leading up to the 2024 presidential election. said he wants to
Moore attended the Weber State University Olene S. Walker Institute for Political and Public Service on Tuesday as part of a series of dialogues between the Sutherland Institute and Utah legislative delegations to review the country’s recent credit ratings by Fitch Ratings. Talked about downgrading.
Ratings agencies have noted a “steady decline in governance standards” in recent decades, and Moore has experienced it first-hand as congressional leaders grapple with “brinkmanship” around the debt ceiling and budget negotiations. said there is.
“I remember having these conversations all spring about the debt ceiling. It’s frustrating when you know what’s going to happen, you’ve known it for months, but we’re still the same. It’s like repeating ‘,’ he said.
Moore said her brother asked, “Why do you guys always wait until the last minute?”
“This brinkmanship concept is one of the most frustrating things I have to deal with on any fiscal issue,” he said.
But much of the debate over spending that has led to government shutdowns in recent years has focused on the relatively small federal budget, he said.
“If there is a potential government shutdown, it’s going to be $40 billion to $50 billion of the $6 trillion budget that’s really being negotiated,” he said. “There are no adults in Washington who are serious about serious issues.”
One of those major problems, he said, is the growing amount of interest paid on national debt of more than $32 trillion, which totals more than $100 billion. . Record $213 billion in the final quarter of 2022.
Another big problem is that one of the major trust funds behind Social Security is Expected to be exhausted by 2033That means retirees would receive about 76% of their current benefits in the absence of Congressional action.
“In my opinion, it is unacceptable,” Moore said.
Moore has said he wants to balance the federal budget, but warned that it won’t happen overnight, saying lawmakers will have to “work on it piece by piece.” That’s exactly why he voted for raising the debt ceiling. It didn’t include all the budget cuts he wanted, but in May he called it “an inversion of the debt culture.”
And he is optimistic that Congress will eventually get there.
“There’s a desire to ensure that the next generation has a way forward. It doesn’t happen in a vacuum… It takes a certain amount of leadership to say ‘let’s not wait until the last minute’. would,” he said. He said. “That way of thinking gives us hope that we can solve some problems.”
