Pat Toomey: ‘We Will Make Some Improvements To Ensure the Long-Term Viability’ of Entitlements

RUSH EXCERPT: 
TAPPER: "House Speaker Paul Ryan said the Republicans are going to try to tackle the debt sit next year by making cuts to the social safety net programs, entitlement programs such at social Security, Medicare, reforming them, cutting them, however you want to describe it. We talked about how the hedge fund managers are going to be able to keep their tax rate for provisions over three years —
TOOMEY: "Which they don’t hold.
TAPPER: "Moving on from that issue, are you concerned at all Democrats are going to use this issue, the idea of entitlement cuts, entitlement reform coming down the pike as, see, this is what the Republicans do. They cut taxes for people, especially the wealthy, and come after the social safety net programs because all of a sudden they’re concerned about the deficit. What’s your response to going to be?"
TOOMEY: "My response, Jake Jake, I’ve been hearing that since I entered public life. That is what the Democrats always say. I’m quite sure they’ll say it again. That’s what they do. What we should do and in the process of doing, reforming the tax code to maximize economic growth. By the way, that also tends to maximize federal revenue and recognize we’ve got entitlement spending that is not sustainable. These big spending programs that are growing faster than the economy, you can’t tax your way out of that problem. You’ve got to make some curbs. The responsible way to do that, you don’t make changes for people currently enrolled or eligible to these programs. You make changes that go into effect, 10, 15 and 20 years from now to slightly curb the rate of growth so these programs are sustainable. Nothing changes for people in their 50s or 60s, but someone who is 40 years old, you know, we explain now, look, there are going to be changes 25 years from now when you retire. That way the program is viable and sustainable. So, look, I think we will make some improvements to ensure the long-term viability of these programs."
TAPPER: "To play devil’s advocate, you’re going to say that to people about Medicare and welfare and Medicaid and the like just after you gave me and Anderson cooper a huge tax break.
TOOMEY: "Yeah, I’m going to defend the proposition that tax reform should be about maximizing economic growth, and if we do that then we also, by the way, maximize revenue. And separately, no matter what you do, whether you do it right or wrong on the revenue side, you still have to have a government spending that is growing no faster than the economy. You have to get that right. We’re dealing with the first. Think we got that done to a very large degree with today’s completion of this tax reform. And over time we still need to address these fundamental imbalances in our big entitlement programs."