Senator highlights op-ed on tackling the national debt and fixing the federal budgeting process
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator John Curtis (R-UT) yesterday appeared on The Lead with Jake Tapper on CNN to discuss his recent opinion piece in the Deseret News calling for urgent action to address the nation’s growing debt and overhaul the federal budgeting process. During the interview, Curtis underscored the dangers of the federal government’s $36 trillion debt, warning that without decisive action, the country will face severe economic consequences. The Senator notably called for a national conversation on mandatory spending programs like Social Security and Medicare, emphasizing the need for responsible reforms that safeguard benefits for current recipients while ensuring the programs’ long-term sustainability for future generations.
The full transcript of the interview can be found below, and video can be found here.
Jake Tapper: With me now to discuss is Republican Senator John Curtis of Utah. Senator, thanks so much for being here. You’re out with an op-ed this weekend in which you write about the DOGE cuts and staffing cuts, quote, “What President Trump is doing now is something any responsible executive would do.” But then you go on to say, quote, “I agree with those concerned that DOGE’s approach has appeared reckless and rash, and that we should show more compassion and dignity to those affected by its mission.” Where are the issues of not showing compassion and dignity that you’re concerned about?
Senator Curtis: Well, look, if you lose your job, it could be the worst day of your life or certainly a very bad day. Imagine going home and telling a spouse, and you don’t want to tell that spouse that you found out via email. You don’t want to read about it in the paper.
And I think how we communicate these things is just as important as what we do. And I think it’s a false choice to say we can’t make these cuts and be compassionate and do them the right way as well.
Tapper: I also wonder if you have any concerns about the way that these cuts are being made. A lot of members of Congress are getting an earful at town halls. Last week, Republican Congressman Mitch McCormick of Georgia faced an angry room of constituents in his district. Today, he said, quote, “I think we’re just moving a little too fast.” That’s quoted in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
What are you hearing from your constituents? Let’s just pause that, like, there’s always fat that can be taken from the budget. I’m sure that there are staffers out there who are low performance, but that doesn’t mean that all of them are, right?
Curtis: Of course. Any organization has good and some degree of bad that needs to be cut. I think what I’m hearing back represents a lot of people, and that is we have tried so many times to do this, and we don’t. And the debt that we’re accumulating, $36 trillion and growing by over $2 trillion a year, scares people.
And maybe we need some dramatic changes and things that we’ve not done before. It’s a shock to the system, but the system, I think, needs a shock.
Tapper: You know, I mean, I don’t disagree, but it doesn’t seem as though there’s a lot of care going into who is being fired. We have already seen fired and then rehired people dealing with veterans crisis lines, people dealing with the FAA, and people dealing with nuclear weapons, people dealing with tracking down infectious diseases. It doesn’t seem like it’s being done in a particularly responsible way.
Curtis: So, listen, I’m not going to argue with any of that, but there’s a reason we haven’t done this before, and that’s because it’s hard. And government doesn’t do the hard thing very well.
What I’m a little bit more worried about is that this is actually distracting us from what I think is a more important question on the budget, things that we do need to be talking about. For instance, even if Elon Musk is wildly successful, there aren’t enough dollars there to do what he’s doing. So, why aren’t we having a broader conversation?
Tapper: About Medicare, about Social Security, right?
Curtis: Yeah.
Tapper: That’s where the money is.
Curtis: Yeah. And my op-ed, I actually bring this up on I think this is a huge misunderstanding that we have that somehow if we talk about these things, we’re going to take benefits away from those who really need them. Can we not have a conversation about the 23 year old who decided not to work during COVID and is receiving benefits?
I have six children, most of them in their 30s. They want me to have a conversation about Social Security. And we’re not being fair…
Tapper: To save it!
Curtis: Yes, and we’re not being fair and we’re not being honest when we say we’re not going to touch this.
And then I’ll add another very, very important thing is, like, we say it’s cruel, or whatever we say, to do this. But I actually think not doing it exasperates the cruelness. These decisions can be made by choice now, or they will be thrust upon us down the line and be much crueler than they are now.
And I also think that, another thing, like my head is on so many things I want to share with you. The other thing is, like, we’re a couple of weeks away from a shutdown or CR and nobody is talking about that. And, like, you can tell your listeners to bookmark this right now. I can tell you what’s going to happen in two weeks. It’s very predictable.
Since 1974, we’ve done our constitutional responsibility with the budget four times. And when we don’t, you have a CR, you have a shutdown…,
Tapper: Continuing resolution.
Curtis: or an omnibus. Yeah, that’s what’s going to happen. And every continuing resolution and shutdown ends with an omnibus. We’re fooling ourselves if we’re not having this conversation.
Tapper: Just for the record, we did talk about this yesterday on State of the Union. We had on Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries. We did talk about it.
Senator Curtis, thanks so much for being here. Good to have you.
Curtis: Let’s do it again.