{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://schweikert.house.gov/2023/11/14/schweikert-congress-can-no-longer-continue-to-ignore-our-fiscal-reality/", "Schweikert: Congress Can No Longer Continue to Ignore Our Fiscal Reality", "2023-11-14", "2023", "2023-11", "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 react to projections that gross interest on the national debt in Fiscal Year 2024 will climb past $1 trillion, making interest the second largest expense in all of government. Rep. Schweikert also discussed Moody\u2019s lowering its outlook on the U.S. credit rating to negative. Additionally, he urged his colleagues to put politics aside and come together to stabilize U.S. debt by achieving a healthier society.\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 gross interest projected to eclipse $1 trillion in Fiscal Year 2024:\n\n[Beginning at 4:48 mark]\n\n\u201cIf I had come to this Floor a year or two ago and said gross interest in the 2024 fiscal year was going to cross over $1 trillion, you would\u2019ve laughed your hearts out. Guess what? A couple of hours ago, OMB confirmed gross interest is going to be over $1 trillion this year, making it the second biggest expense of this government. Does anyone understand? A couple years ago, we were looking at numbers at $300-$400 billion. We have more than doubled [that]. Does anyone care? We can just continue to ignore it?\n\n\u201cA couple of months ago, I came here and showed some charts that in this fiscal year, we\u2019re going to bring $9.6 trillion to market. About $2 trillion we estimated to be new issuance that\u2019s from the borrowing from this year. The rest is what we call refinancing. It\u2019s the short bonds, even some longer bonds that many of these bonds were really low, I mean, just slightly above zero, and they\u2019re coming back for refinancing. And all of the sudden you have trillions and trillions of dollars that are down here with almost no interest expense to this government, to our taxpayers. And now they\u2019re coming in and we\u2019re starting to see mean interests moving over 3%, and it keeps going up. This should be what we talk about on the Floor. If this continues, it consumes everything in its path. Is interest Republican or Democrat? It\u2019s just something we have to pay. But trust me, we\u2019ll find a way to turn it partisan.\u201d\n\nOn Moody\u2019s lowering the U.S. credit outlook to negative:\n\n[Beginning at 11:17 mark]\n\n\u201cYou already know that two of the big credit rating agencies have done an actual downgrade. Last Friday, Moody\u2019s basically put us on downgrade watch. They still let us have our AAA [rating], but they said [they] believe the bias is now negative. You do realize there\u2019s five or six countries now out there that have better credit ratings than the United States? Good jobs, guys. We should all be very, very proud of ourselves.\u201d\n\nOn taking on diabetes to stabilize U.S. debt:\n\n[Beginning at 38:30 mark]\n\n\u201cThere is a path [forward], and it turns out the [Republican portion] of the Joint Economic Committee [Report] about four months ago, Chapter 3, we went where we\u2019re not supposed to go, but it was real math. We talked about our brothers and sisters\u2019 longevity \u2014 the fact that the last four years, life expectancy in the United States has fallen. [\u2026] Let\u2019s actually have an honest conversation because it also turns out it is not only a moral battle to save our brothers and sisters from dying young, it\u2019s also the most powerful thing you can do to start to stabilize U.S. debt is to help Americans be healthier. Isn\u2019t that something neat? Is that Republican or Democrat? It\u2019s neither. It\u2019s just the right thing to do. And we were coming up with a few trillion dollars over ten years by taking on obesity because of diabetes, heart disease, kidney failure, all these other things.\u201d\n\nBack to News", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:01:09Z"]], "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/2023/11/14/schweikert-congress-can-no-longer-continue-to-ignore-our-fiscal-reality/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.7423929423093796, "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"}