{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://schweikert.house.gov/2024/08/01/schweikert-how-much-discussion-about-our-debt-crisis-have-you-actually-heard-around-congress/", "Schweikert: How Much Discussion About Our Debt Crisis\u00a0Have You Actually Heard Around Congress?", "2024-08-01", "2024", "2024-08", "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 his final speech of July on the House Floor last week. Rep. Schweikert highlighted the reality that his 8-year-old daughter\u2019s generation will face as the first generation predicted to live poorer than their parents. The truth is 100 percent of our debt from today through the next 30 years is strictly driven by demographics. He mentioned that we\u2019ve neglected to allocate adequate resources for getting old while fertility rates in our country simultaneously decline. Now more than ever, not only is it crucial that Congress talks about the math, but it\u2019s critical to create policies that foster economic growth and restore our nation\u2019s fiscal stability.\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 reaching debt levels that surpass previous calculations tenfold:\n\n[Beginning at 00:28]\n\n\u201cYou see the number? $35 trillion. Guess when we hit it?! We should be very, very excited and proud of ourselves! We did something that so many economists said we would never get to this quickly. My math says this coming Friday, 3 p.m., the United States gross debt will cross over $35 trillion. Understand that\u2019s not the way Europeans calculate our debt. They calculate it higher because of our obligated, unfunded liabilities. You are going to watch the Treasury [on] Friday about 3 p.m. post up a number: $35 trillion. We did it. Congratulations. And how many people have you heard come find the microphone today or this week, understanding [and] wanting to talk about that? What we\u2019ve gotten is people coming behind the microphone and not telling the truth. We ALL want to protect Social Security. The way you protect Social Security is [knowing] the math and how it actually works. We\u2019re on track in a decade to double senior poverty. But God forbid any of us tell the truth about math because the truth gets you un-elected with a bunch of angry ads at home. This place runs around and avoids telling the truth. Let\u2019s run through another little factoid. My math basically says, this year, 45.68% of all the income tax collections [and] receipts your government takes in just covers interest. I\u2019ve been coming behind the microphone saying the interest in 2024, this fiscal year, would be somewhere around a little less than $1.2 trillion. I apparently have that wrong and will come in $1.1 trillion, I\u2019m off a fraction. 45.68% of every dime we\u2019re collecting in your income tax now just pays interest. I\u2019ve tried to say over and over \u2014 at home and other places \u2014 you get people who just stare at you and go, \u201chuh?\u201d Who really runs this government?\u201d\n\nOn the importance of getting economics right and how it\u2019s moral:\n\n[Beginning at 16:08]\n\n\u201cHere\u2019s where we\u2019re at to date. We\u2019ve taken in $3,755,000,000. Do you see the red here? The red is the individual income tax. Your country is an income tax-based economic system, while other countries may rely more on a value-added tax \u2014 which is a really regressive tax that crushes the middle class. The blue over here, when you start to look at that, this is functionally social insurance and retirement program. It\u2019s in Social Security. Well, that\u2019s actually going out the door immediately, and we have to borrow some to cover it. The blue over here\u2026 well, that\u2019s actually corporate income taxes. Remember, the United States, back in the late 1980\u2019s, early 1990\u2019s, changed much of our tax structure when we started having pass-throughs. Do you remember LLC\u2019s, sub-chapter Ss, partnerships, [and] those types of things? Much of what is corporate activity in the United States flows through to that individual tax line. When you get the brain trust here that says, \u201cWe\u2019re going to raise corporate taxes!\u201d Okay, great. That\u2019s going to solve something? Remember, and we\u2019re trying to vet the paper I got the math from, but we have a paper from about a year [to a] year-and-a-half ago that said in the 2017 tax reform we did, 67% of the corporate tax rate reduction went to wages. When you have someone from the Left who runs around saying, \u201cWe\u2019re going to raise corporate taxes, ta-da!\u201d, what they\u2019re doing is basically screwing over the working men and women of the country. That\u2019s how it works. When your wages go up, the old saying used to be, \u2018it\u2019s inflation.\u2019 That doesn\u2019t get you anything\u2026 or it\u2019s productivity because you built a tax code that said we can afford to buy the next better piece of equipment. We can build better processes. We build better supply chains, and you as a worker gets part of that. Part of productivity is a tax system that maximizes economic vitality. Economic growth is moral.\u201d\n\nOn not allowing disruption to take place in America:\n\n[Beginning at 20:28]\n\n\u201cOur tax revenues are up. We\u2019re taking in more receipts. Technically, they\u2019re not revenues. Revenues are what you earn, receipts are what you confiscate. A bit of tax lingo there, but it\u2019s our spending. Tax receipts are up but our spending is way up. When you see the white line over here \u2014 deficits \u2014 it\u2019s just basically the derivative of tax receipts [being] up, but we\u2019re spending faster than those receipts are going up. Therefore, you get a deficit. If you get someone who says, \u201cWell those 2017 tax cuts\u2026\u201d No! Tax receipts are up! I have another chart I\u2019m going to show you. Corporate tax rates, or corporate tax collection \u2014 don\u2019t think about the rate,but [rather] what you take in. Corporate tax collections are actually above the mean. How much of this spending is the Orwellian-named Inflation Reduction Act? The Democrats lost their mind when we did 2017 tax reform. Remember, it was actually a few trillion dollars \u2014 $5.5 trillion. Functionally $4 trillion of it was also covered with direct taxes. We just moved things around to maximize productivity. It was about getting companies to move back to the United States, to move their organizations, their intellectual property, and the things they were making money on. We had to become competitive in the world again.\u201c\n\n###\n\nCongressman David Schweikert serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and is the current Chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee. He is also the Vice Chairman on the bicameral Joint Economic Committee, chairs the Congressional Valley Fever Task Force, and is the Republican Co-Chair of the Blockchain Caucus, Telehealth Caucus, Singapore Caucus, and the Caucus on Access to Capital and Credit.\n\nBack to News", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:36:13Z"]], "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/2024/08/01/schweikert-how-much-discussion-about-our-debt-crisis-have-you-actually-heard-around-congress/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.695791095495224, "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"}