Another driver of debt is the eroding value of Pell grants, which are targeted to low-income families.
"Speaker Boehner has always said that the United States will not default on its debt, but if we're going to raise the debt limit, we need to deal with the drivers of our debt and deficits," a spokesman said.
"We want to get spending and debt under control, and we want to get the economy growing, and we want to address the big drivers of our debt, and that is the entitlement programs," Mr. Ryan, chairman of the Budget Committee, said in an interview.
"It does nothing to address the real drivers of our debt," said Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, explaining his decision to vote against the bill.
"In order to garner Republican support for new revenues, the president must be willing to reduce spending and shore up the entitlement programs that are the primary drivers of our debt," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the day after the November election.
"Years of ignoring the real drivers of our debt have left us with a profound structural problem.
Look, the president not only didn't deal with these programs which are the drivers of our debt.
"In order to garner Republican support for new revenues, the president must be willing to reduce spending and shore up the entitlement programs that are the primary drivers of our debt," Boehner said Wednesday.
Ryan continues to take up the line that we need to address the "drivers of our debt" -- which is true -- and that if we don't, Medicare won't exist in any form, anyway.
"The driver of our debt is our military-complex machine!" someone shouted from the gallery.
