07.10.15

Enzi: U.S. Must Learn From Greek Crisis Before It Is Too Late

WASHINGTON, D.C. – With Greece sinking from the financial weight of its excessive government debt, Budget Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), wants to know what lessons can be learned so that America doesn’t find itself in a similar financial disaster.

Questioning Congressional Budget Office Director Keith Hall during a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Enzi said he knows from experience that solving problems early is usually less expensive than solving problems late.

“Currently Greece and other counties across Europe are experiencing economic crises that are due to their pension and entitlement promises they can’t afford,” Enzi said.

According to Hall, the main lesson to be learned is that it’s extremely difficult to make fiscal policy decisions under the pressure of a financial crisis.

“If you wait until the debt gets very very large in the United States and we get something close to a fiscal crisis, then it is difficult to find fiscal policy decisions that will solve your problem,” Hall said.

At the hearing, Enzi also expressed his continued concern that America’s finances will suffer when interest rates on the money we borrow rise back to the normal rate rather than the less than the 2 percent it is currently.

“This costs us $235 billion a year. If that more than doubles we’ll be spending more on that than we will be on national defense or all of the rest of the spending that we do,” Enzi said.


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