House Appropriations Chair: We’ll Need Reforms to Entitlements, Don’t Know of Anyone Who Wants to Cut Defense

During an interview with C-SPAN on Friday, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) stated that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will need reform to achieve the fiscal discipline desired by President-Elect Donald Trump because the rest of the budget isn’t enough to balance it and “I don’t know anybody that wants to cut defense.” But reforming mandatory spending doesn’t mean cuts are needed.

Cole said, [relevant remarks begin around 3:00] “Look, we’ve got a spending problem, no question about that. Most of it’s on the mandatory side of the budget, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. And we need to make some reforms there. That doesn’t mean we need to cut things. There are people there that shouldn’t be collecting. I actually think DOGE will give us some pretty good suggestions. But, long-term, you can’t balance the budget on the appropriated part of the budget, it’s just not large enough. It’s only $1.7 trillion — it’s strange to say only — but we spend roughly $6 trillion a year, most of that is on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. It’s not in the appropriated budget. And the appropriated budget, about half of it’s defense. I don’t know anybody that wants to cut defense. Another big chunk is on the southern border, I don’t know anybody that wants to cut that. Another big chunk is for veterans, and most people think we ought to keep our commitment to veterans.”

Later, Cole stated [relevant remarks begin around 11:20] that Trump “wants some fiscal discipline. In the end, that’s going to take, not just dealing with appropriations, but dealing with the larger issue of mandatory spending. And I think the people that are looking at that on DOGE and in Congress know it’s going to take some tough decisions there. Those will come later. They’ll probably have to be bipartisan.”

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