Congressman has plan to keep the U.S. from going bankrupt

Congressman Mo Brooks said the United States is headed toward national bankruptcy Saturday at the first Town Hall meeting held in Madison.

“We’ve got to avoid national bankruptcy,” Brooks said. “We can’t keep doing what we’re doing now.”

Brooks (R, AL 5th Dist.) spoke to about 60 people at the Town Hall meeting in the Madison Senior Center.

Brooks said the U.S. cannot afford entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. He said that these entitlements and interest on the debt are exceeding our annual revenue.

He also said Medicare is projected to go bankrupt in 2024. He said his solution would be a premium supplement that would take effect in 2022.

Brooks said his plan to fix Social Security would not affect current receivers. He said the plan would cover US citizens from age 60 and older.

“We have the opportunity to succeed but there’s no guarantee,” Brooks said.

Brooks said even if the U.S. doubled taxes, the U.S. would still be in a deficit. He continued to say that the Federal Government is borrowing more than 42 cents for every dollar it spends.

Brooks said the national deficit has risen drastically in the past four years. In 2007, the U.S. annual deficit was $459 million. The projected balance for 2011 is $1.6 million.

Brooks said getting back to basic principles and hard work will help lower the debt. He said his first priority for cutting costs and eliminating debt is getting the US out of overseas engagements. He continued to say that Americans need to buy more American-made products.

“The first thing we have to do is take care of our home front,” Brooks said.

Brooks also covered other topics such as illegal immigration. He said that the state does not have the money for illegal immigrants because of the high education costs, health care costs and health care programs that are in place for illegal immigrants.

“I’m willing to do anything to remove out illegal aliens from the state of Alabama short of shooting them,” Brooks said.

For more information or to contact Brooks, visit www.brooks.house.gov/.