Washington DC - Dr. Mehmet Oz made the bizarre suggestion that Americans should wait longer to retire, or even start working younger to help the US government pay off its multi-trillion dollar debt.

"If we could get the average American... to start work a year earlier, right out of high school, or work a year later and not retire, or work better during their lifetime because they're healthy, it would generate about three trillion dollars," Dr. Oz said during a recent panel.

His comments came at the same event where he stood alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and announced new mental health and addiction initiatives.

"Three trillion dollars to the US economy," Dr. Oz went on. "That would more than remove the debt; it would provide us unbelievable strength because the taxes of that three trillion dollars would allow us to keep Medicare Part A solvent, the medical trust fund."

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"It would allow us to make social security healthier – tremendous downstream benefits – but to do that, you actually have to invest in making sure that people want to work the extra year."

Dr. Oz went on to reference mental health issues as one of the main things keeping Americans out of work, and said that the HHS under RFK Jr. is going to address the problem.

The event Dr. Oz was participating in came less than a week after President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring addiction a national crisis and launching a "Great American Recovery Initiative."

"My Administration will drive a new national response to the disease of addiction that will create stronger coordination across government, the healthcare sector, faith communities, and the private sector," the executive order read.