Why isn't more being done to curb soaring US debt?

close

Video

Why isn't more being done to curb soaring US debt?

Rep. Massie sounds off

This is a rush transcript from "Your World," January 5, 2015. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: You know, I know no one talks about it, but that number, that is still soaring. That is our debt. Is anyone worrying?

One hundred billion bucks added on one day alone last week thanks to Social Security payments.

So, Kentucky Republican Congressman Thomas Massie says, you know, we should be on top of this.

You know, you're one of the few who is worried about it, though, Congressman. That is what worries me.

REP. THOMAS MASSIE, R-KY.: Look, as soon as you walk into my office here in Capitol Hill, you see a four-foot debt clock.

And that clock, I put up the day I came to Congress to remind myself why I came to Congress and to remind my staff. Unfortunately, it was $16 trillion. Now it's at $18 trillion.

CAVUTO: What is going on here, though? In none of the detailed legislative agenda we have gotten out of your colleagues as they take the reins of power in both the House and the Senate is the debt a high priority, may be kind of slowing the increases in spending, maybe, but not much attention to it.

MASSIE: Unfortunately, at every opportunity we have had, Congress has kicked the can down the road.

We had the sequester. And I was actually for the sequester. But they were doing -- Republicans and Democrats moved heaven and earth to undo the sequester. And it if you go back and look at the cromnibus, some will tell you that it didn't increase spending, but it did, because there are things that are off the ledger, beyond the Murray-Ryan deal. And it's frankly very discouraging to me.

But I'm back here for another term. And we're going to do what we can. Occasionally, we get opportunities in the appropriations process to offer amendments to defund certain programs. And I think that now that we are going to follow through the appropriations process, that those amendments will survive and go to the president's desk.

And we can eat -- how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. So, we're going to be able to take some bites at that.

CAVUTO: All right, well, seeing as the elephant is the symbol of your party, you better hope that's not the case here.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: But, that being said, do you worry that if now, when the economy is supposedly picking up a little bit of steam, if there's ever a time to address this, certainly for the next generation slow it down, just slow it down, that this is the time and no one's doing it, they will never do it, it will just never happen?

It's sort of like waiting for a grenade to go off. The pin's out, but we just don't know when it's going to blow.

MASSIE: You know, I'm worried about all of the extraordinary measures and whatnot that the Federal Reserve has undertaken, the quantitative easing...

CAVUTO: Right.

MASSIE: Look, that has to be unwound at some point.

And although we have slowed that down, we're not really unwinding it. And I heard -- on your previous segment, I think you were talking about student debt. That is another concern.

We are, I'm afraid, headed for another bubble. One of the first bills that I will do tomorrow is a bill to audit the Fed, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act. And I think it's sad that Congress has abdicated all -- essentially all oversight of that quasi-governmental organization for setting the price of money, and the interest rates and all the monetary policy.

CAVUTO: Well, it is out of control, Congressman, to your point.

Hopefully, you will get some -- some there to follow your concern, because it's -- it's real.

Congressman Massie, thank you. Happy new year.

MASSIE: Thank you very much, Neil.

CAVUTO: All right.

Content and Programming Copyright 2015 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2015 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.