A new video has been revealed in which a member of Congress admits the lawmakers in Washington will "keep stealing" unless someone is able to "tie our hands."
The comments come from U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., who was speaking to a Jefferson area tea party on Tuesday.
"If you don't tie our hands, we will keep stealing," he said.
Watch the video:
He was talking about congressional spending and how members of Congress have through the years simply spent what was supposed to be used for Social Security.
Perriello noted Social Security and Medicare are in the red, and cited "the question of whether these things can be managed successfully."
"Part of what happened with Social Security and Medicare," he said. "When they were set up the life expectancy was such that people were expected to be on it for 2-3 years, not 15 or 20 years.
"That's good news."
But he said politicians "have raided the cookie jar over and over again. That's a problem, but there's one thing I learned up here and I didn't really need to come up here to learn it. It's the only way to get Congress to balance a budget is to give them no choice. The only way to keep them out of the cookie jar is give them no choice, which is why whether it's balance budget acts, pay-as-you-go…
"If you don't tie our hand we will keep stealing," he said.