Sen. Lummis Discusses National Debt, Sustainable Budgeting
Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis called the ''Wake Up Wyoming' program with Glenn Woods on Tuesday to talk about a plan to curb the mounting national debt.
Lummis told Woods that what is needed is something along the lines of the Simpson-Bowles plan of 2010. That proposal would have capped spending at 21 percent of the National Gross Domestic Product, closed tax loopholes, reduced health care spending, and taken several other steps to balance the budget.
The plan would have also reduced Social Security Benefits to higher-income people and eventually have raised the age to collect Social Security to 69.
The plan encountered widespread opposition and was never enacted. The plan was named for former Wyoming Senator Al Simpson and Erskine Bowles, a Democrat from North Carolina, who chaired the commission that devised the plan.
Lummis told Woods that 25 percent of the entire National Debt incurred since 1776 has been created over the past 12 months, an amount she calls "staggering." ''We're just numb to the word 'trillion,' nobody knows what it means anymore," Lummis told Woods.
Lummis, who is a Republican, is serving her first term representing Wyoming in the U.S. Senate. She is the first woman ever to represent Wyoming in the senate. She previously served in the U.S. House and the Wyoming Legislature, and also served for eight years as Wyoming State Treasurer.
You can hear the entire Lummis interview with Glenn Woods below.