Rep. Peters takes blame for boomers generating massive debt, wants action

By Michael Smolens

Rep. Scott Peters recently fessed up in a rather unique way.

“My generation stole your money,” the 67-year-old San Diego Democrat said in a short video targeted at younger generations.

“… The boomers have borrowed so much money that today the cost of interest on the borrowing is the second biggest expense in the whole federal budget, even more than the military, and growing the fastest.”

The burgeoning national debt has long caused concern, but mostly among “scolds and old people,” according to Peters. He and others insist a crisis is at hand and are encouraging young people to engage in the matter because their futures will be most affected.

Another eye-popping debt figure approaching $40 trillion was recently released — that’s more than the entire U.S. economy. That triggered a boomlet of attention and also put focus on federal legislation to address it. One is a measure co-authored by Peters and Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., that would create a bipartisan commission charged with recommending ways to stabilize the debt.

Such panels have come and gone over the years with little to no action. Getting the debt down to a manageable size will take sacrifice in the way of cuts and tax increases, which are difficult even in times of relative political comity. These days are anything but.

Peters is hopeful this time will be different, given the increased magnitude of the problem and the impact it will have. In an interview, he said concern is growing among lawmakers and economists across the political spectrum.

The interest payments by the federal government — $1.2 trillion in the recent fiscal year and projected to rise to $2.1 trillion by 2036 — will suck financial oxygen from other priorities. (Social Security is the top budget item, paying about $1.6 trillion in benefits in 2025.)

The numbers are so large as to almost seem abstract. Further, Americans seem comfortable with debt, though there’s plenty of evidence that we don’t manage it well. Total consumer debt in the U.S. hit a record $18.8 trillion at the end of 2025, according to CNBC reporting on data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The worst offender is the federal government, which, in theory at least, is an extension of the people.

“The U.S. government is insolvent,” Steve Hanke and David Walker wrote late last month in Fortune magazine. Hanke is a professor of applied economics at The Johns Hopkins University and Walker is the former comptroller general of the United States. Both are board members of the Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation.

“That’s not hyperbole — it’s the conclusion drawn directly from the Treasury Department’s own consolidated financial statements for fiscal year 2025, released last week to near-total media silence. The numbers: $6.06 trillion in total assets against $47.78 trillion in total liabilities as of September 30, 2025.”

They said that once off‑balance‑sheet obligations such as Social Security and Medicare are included, total federal commitments could exceed $136 trillion.

In his video plea for younger people to get involved, Peters kept the numbers to a minimum and focused on personal impacts.

“It means higher interest. It means it’s going to be even harder to buy a house. You’re going to be talking about delaying starting a family even more. It’s going to be harder to repay your student loans,” Peters said.

“Everything is going to come back to you. . . So, please, get engaged.”

How much or even whether the burden will be shared remains to be seen, should solutions actually emerge. In the interview, Peters stressed “(m)y priority is to protect benefits that people were promised.”

The proposed panel would include members of Congress from both parties along with experts. Congress would be required to take an up-or-down vote on the commission’s recommendations, though public input would be gathered by the commission.

This diverts from the usual legislative process of amendments, markups and the like, which Huizenga told Newsweek was problematic for debt proposals in the past.

In addition, House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, is seeking a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget and cap federal spending growth.

Some fiscal experts were skeptical of both measures.

Jonathan Portes, professor of economics at King’s College London, told Newsweek such institutional fixes could “be useful. But the underlying problem is political.”

Baby boomers have been getting plenty of blame for this predicament in recent years, but some defenders say it’s not entirely warranted. “My Generation: Blame the Rich, not the Boomers” headlined an analysis by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Peters is not alone in accepting blame for his generation. Boomer billionaire Howard Marks did much the same to Business Insider in 2021.

Author Jill Filipovic examines responsibility for the brewing economic crisis along with housing and climate change in her popular 2020 book, “OK Boomer, Let’s Talk.” Millennials, she told Business Insider, are a generation of optimistic, hardworking people who have been dealt a bad hand. “None of this was an accident,” she said.

“Unless millennials are at the table, we’re really not going to see the issues that are most important to us addressed,” Filipovic said. “You need people who are actually going to live in the future, who have a stake in the future, at the decision making table.”

Peters is optimistic that young people will get involved. He pointed out that much of the pro-housing push aimed at lowering prices in recent years was driven by young advocates aligned with “Yes In My Backyard” (YIMBY).

He also noted generational activists joined the fight to address climate change.

While hopeful for congressional action, he didn’t downplay the hurdles.

“We have to address taxation,” he said, noting that Republicans continue to push for more deficit-increasing tax cuts. “Clearly, we’re getting farther away from that.”

He also described Congress as an institution that often “likes to do nothing and yell at the other side.”

Short of significant movement, something will have to give. If Social Security reserves run out as currently projected around 2033, beneficiaries will face an automatic cut of 23 percent, with potentially more to come if inaction continues.

Peters suggests any claim that the problem can be solved simply through economic growth is wishful thinking at best.

“We will not have the money to buy our way out of this,” he said.