Rand Paul: We Are Close To The Time When Social Security Will Be Running A Deficit

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) talks about funding the USPS, the ramifications of coronavirus relief spending, the trillions of dollars the U.S. has accumulated in debt, and how close Social Security is to running out of money and turn a deficit in an interview Wednesday with FOX News host Neil Cavuto.

CAVUTO:  Well, whether it’s $10 billion or one, I mean, the fact of the matter is, it’s part of an overall stimulus measure that Republicans seem to be saying, we don’t need to be nearly as expensive as Democrats want.  But Democrats seem to be hinting they will sign on to something that might be skinny or not quite as huge now to revisit later on. So this sounds unending to me.  PAUL:  Yes.  Well, there is no money, is the most important thing. There is no rainy day fund. There’s no savings account. You can’t go over the Federal Reserve and open a big safe door, find a bunch of money, and pass it out. The money will be borrowed, or the money will be printed.  And both of them have ramifications. We — if we do another trillion, we will be at about $5 trillion for one year. We have never, ever in the history of the United States borrowed so much so rapidly. And I fear the consequences.  I don’t know how quickly the consequences come, but I fear that the stock market is going to see that, and the stock market is also going to worry about having all three branches of government in Democrat hands.  I foresee a catastrophe for the market, if the Democrats win the election, and we keep borrowing money, and then there will be back in December saying, oh, we need $2 trillion more.  So, if you give people money, and you make it less painful to be in a recession, we can stay in a recession longer. The recession is created by the government. The government shut the economy.  So, all of these governors, Democrat and Republican, will not have an incentive to open the economy if you soften the amount of suffering that they have created.  What we need to be doing is, every day, broadcasting that your governors are causing the unemployment. In Kentucky, our governor has caused 700,000 people to be out of work. And he’s the single, sole person to be blamed for it, because no one else had any say in it. He’s doing it all himself.  And until that happens, and until there’s a political penalty for it, he will keep doing it. He’s still got the restaurant closed, even though Kentucky doesn’t even show up on the radar compared to these other states that have had a significant amount of cases.  CAVUTO:  Well, let me ask you about the president.  So, with his executive actions, he said, we could go to them if Congress can’t cobble together a deal acceptable. But there’s been no movement on it. The move to cut the payroll tax that a lot of companies say they’re leery to follow up on, A, because it’s just the president saying it, it doesn’t have the stamp of Congress, and, B, if it’s temporary and all, they’re going to have to get that money back. So, they’re not acting on that. Concerns as well about unemployment checks continuing for a while here. The devil is in the details and getting states to pay up for a quarter of that. That doesn’t look likely.  So, are these executive actions falling on deaf ears? PAUL:  Well, you know, Social Security is about $7 trillion short. It’s set to run out of money in the near future. There are people now estimating that we have pushed the time or we have brought the time closer to us when Social Security will be running at an annual deficit. So, I think not paying Social Security taxes is probably a mistake. As much as I hate taxes as much as any of the rest of those in Washington, I would rather have lower taxes, we have obligated to spend the money. Unless you’re going to reform Social Security in a way in which you move the age out or you do something to compensate for letting people keep more money, then you’re just making the deficit in Social Security bigger. And I think that would be a mistake. You’re right. If Congress doesn’t pass a law, and the president defers your Social Security payment, what happens in five months if we still can’t come to an agreement, and we send every worker a bill for 500 bucks? Do you think that’s going to get paid?  You know, I don’t see really a good way out of this. And, also, the Constitution was pretty clear that the power of the purse resides with Congress.  And no matter whether the president is a Republican and a friend, like this president is — and I consider him a friend, and I support him — I also don’t want any president, even from my party, to have so much power that they can control the power of the purse, without the checks and balances of Congress having to take action.  CAVUTO:  Well, it’s something you can take up at another time, because the president wants to make that payroll tax cut permanent, if he were reelected.  We will see how that all goes.