[By: Penne Usher] The National Debt and our state’s water issues were two hot topics discussed by U.S. Rep Tom McClintock.
“The National Debt is the greatest threat to our national security,” he said at a recent gathering of El Dorado Hills Chamber members.
McClintock, R-Elk Grove, who represents District 4, had a lot to say about the country’s overspending and our lack of water.
“Spending is out of control,” he said.
The National Debt is at $20 trillion and growing, he said. In 10 years there won’t be funding for Medicare and Social Security will be bankrupt in 17 years if “we stay on the same trajectory,” McClintock said.
He said without funding the country will no longer be able to provide for defense.
“This contentious place in our history,” he said.
The National Debt is growing at such a rate that in six years all the US will be able to pay is the interest.
McClintock said that “entitlement programs” cost $1 trillion a year. Examples of entitlement programs are Medicaid, welfare, food stamps and unemployment compensation.
“It’s eating us,” he said of the spending.
Water, and not necessarily the lack of, is a clear hot-bed issue in California.
McClintock expressed his deep concern that no dam has been built since the 1970s that would help in storing the necessary water for a state that has doubled in population since that time.
He said droughts are Mother Nature; not having enough water is simply a lack of common sense and planning.
He used the Sugar Pine Reservoir, in Foresthill, as an example of not only a lack of planning.
When the reservoir was originally built the community didn’t need to store the water and therefore did not add a gate to hold water back. Now, with growth, a gate is needed....
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