{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://schweikert.house.gov/2023/09/14/schweikert-congress-has-a-moral-obligation-to-prevent-the-doubling-of-senior-poverty/", "Schweikert: Congress Has a Moral Obligation to Prevent the Doubling of Senior Poverty", "2023-09-14", "2023", "2023-09", "Republican", "House", "AZ", "David Schweikert", "S001183", "schweikert.house.gov", "schweikert", "https://schweikert.house.gov/category/congress_press_release/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Representative David Schweikert (AZ-01) delivered a speech on the House Floor last night to discuss how the United States federal government has borrowed $72,932 every second over the past year and pointed out that every dime that Congress votes on is now on borrowed money. Rep. Schweikert also explained the consequences facing America\u2019s middle class if Congress fails to get the nation\u2019s fiscal house in order.\n\nExcerpts from Rep. Schweikert\u2019s floor speech can be found below:\n\nClick here or on the image above to view Rep. Schweikert\u2019s remarks.\n\nOn borrowing costs over the past year reaching $72,932 every second:\n\n[Beginning at 0:18 mark]\n\n\u201cThis is what we\u2019re borrowing per second over the last 12 months. Every single second we\u2019re borrowing $72,932. And $20,000 of it is just interest, and it gets dramatically worse between now and the rest of the decade. So there\u2019s a punch line here I need you to understand. How many times have you listened to members walk behind these microphones and do this, \u2018Well, I don\u2019t get to vote on mandatory spending. I only vote on discretionary.\u2019 Seriously? You\u2019ve been here how long, Mr. Speaker Pro Tem? It\u2019s our mantra. \u2018Well, I vote on defense and non-defense discretionary, and that is like 30% of the budget.\u2019 Well, guess what? Every dime we as members of Congress now vote on is borrowed. It\u2019s all borrowed money.\u201d\n\nOn the Left\u2019s Orwellian-named \u201cInflation Reduction Act\u201d:\n\n[Beginning at 2:48 mark]\n\n\u201cIn February and March, I came behind this very microphone and I predicted that we\u2019re actually headed towards borrowing $1.8 trillion, and I got mocked. I have to apologize. I was wrong. It wasn\u2019t $1.8 trillion. We\u2019re heading towards $2.2 trillion. It\u2019s much worse. And you just heard the Left talking about how wonderful everything is. Explain to me how in May 2022, we thought the budget deficit for this year would be about $870 billion, and now we\u2019re heading to $2.2 trillion. What happened? Medicare costs went up dramatically. Tax receipts have fallen. So you heard about how wonderful this economy is. Isn\u2019t it neat? We\u2019re doing all these subsidized projects. Government is handing out money to anyone who wants to build a factory. A socialized, nationalized economy. We functionally soft-nationalized the chip industry. Isn\u2019t it wonderful? Think about what\u2019s going on, and yet tax revenues have fallen actually fairly dramatically. Brilliant economics once again from what the Left did last year [with the Inflation Reduction Act]. And then the third thing no one seems to want to fixate on \u2014 that Inflation Reduction Act that they passed \u2014 you know that they were celebrating here. If you even read the left-wing economists in their journals, about half of inflation was supply chain stress, and yes, half of it was the excessive spending. So the people in my community, unless you\u2019ve had a 20% pay hike, if you live in the Phoenix-Scottsdale area, you are poorer today than you were 24 months ago. Will the Left take responsibility for that? Will they take responsibility for the 50% of it? This is the insanity and the wheels are coming off and no one else seems willing to come behind these microphones and tell the truth about what\u2019s happening.\u201d\n\nOn Democrats\u2019 math problem when they promise to tax Americans who make over $400,000 per year:\n\n[Beginning at 13:19 mark]\n\n\u201cNine years from now, the Social Security trust fund is empty. So that first year, 2033, $616 billion is the shortfall that if you\u2019re an average couple in America, that\u2019s a $17,200 cut to your Social Security check. We will double senior poverty. How many people have you seen come to this microphone to say, \u2018I give a damn about seniors! I don\u2019t want to double senior poverty.\u2019 Have you seen the stories of how many baby boomers are starting to live on the streets in America? And the projections \u2026 and then we\u2019re going to tell these people we\u2019re taking 25% of their Social Security check from them? That\u2019s nine years from now. But the problem is that first year, let\u2019s do one-year math, 2033, that\u2019s $616 billion. Let\u2019s do the Democrats\u2019 suggestion. We\u2019re going to tax people over $400,000. Take everyone over $400,000. You pay your Social Security, your FICA taxes up to $160,200. Then you don\u2019t pay any more. But when you hit $400,000, everything up, you\u2019ll pay the 12.4% Social Security tax. Great! It\u2019s $80 billion. The shortfall is $616 billion. But the Democrats\u2019 solution is $80 billion. Does anyone see a math problem?\u201d\n\nOn the middle class being dramatically poorer today than when President Biden first took office:\n\n[Beginning at 21:48 mark]\n\n\u201cAnd we\u2019re hitting numbers \u2014 the $2.2 trillion we will borrow this year \u2014 we were not supposed to hit for a decade. We are borrowing now at rates that we were not supposed to see for years. This is the Democrats\u2019 economy. This is what sort of nationalizing much of the industry, you know, the chips industry, the green energy industry handing out the cash. Something happened. We\u2019re building all these factories, but we\u2019re getting no tax receipts from it. Something\u2019s gone horribly, horribly wrong out there. Instead of our brothers and sisters on the Left and those of us on the Right coming together and saying we have a moral obligation not to have baby boomers on the street as part of their retirement, not to double senior poverty. To my young kids, yes, I\u2019m an old dad. I have a 14 month old and an eight year old. Do they deserve to have a future? Because CBO math basically says in 20 years, if we want to maintain baseline services as they are today, we have to double taxes. That means my kids live in a world where they\u2019re dramatically poorer than how all the rest of us have lived. And you want to know why the middle class is so cranky? Once again, back to something I said in the beginning. The middle class in this country is poorer today than there were 24 months ago. If you live in my community, if you haven\u2019t had over a 20% pay hike in the last 24 months, you are poorer today than you were before.\u201d\n\nBack to News", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T00:37:48Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://schweikert.house.gov/2023/09/14/schweikert-congress-has-a-moral-obligation-to-prevent-the-doubling-of-senior-poverty/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.797569053247571, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}