Freshman Young Looks For Ways To Cut Spending

Among the many freshmen Republicans to be sworn in to Congress Wednesday will be Indiana's Todd Young, who defeated Baron Hill last year to win the 9th District seat. Young has spent the weeks since the election looking for ways to fulfill his campaign goals.Like many newly elected Republicans, Young wants to cut government spending and the deficit. One of the first such issues Young will have a chance to vote on is whether to raise the nation's debt-ceiling. A higher ceiling would allow the country to carry more debt. Spokesperson Trevor Foughty says Young hasn't yet decided how he will vote on the issue."He's very concerned about where spending is going and we understand that raising that debt ceiling might encourage. On the other hand, there are arguments to be made that it may not be best for the economy if we don't at this point," he says.Young will serve on the Budget and Armed Services committees. Foughty says he's not sure if Young will consider cutting the military budget."I know that nothing is off the table right now and we'll look at everything, but there is a lot in non-military discretionary spending to tackle and I think that's probably going to be the focus, early on at least, on a lot of that," says Foughty.Foughty also says Young may be open to restructuring entitlement programs such as Social Security."That's something else that we definitely want to look at. Depending on what you look at, some of this stuff isn't sustainable forever," says Foughty. It's important to make sure we follow through the promises we already made to people as far as the benefits we're paying out, but long-term it's something we need to look at reforming."