WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Representative David Schweikert (AZ-01) delivered a speech on the House Floor last night to call out Democrats’ hypocrisy for refusing to seriously negotiate with House Republicans on the debt ceiling despite demanding billions in spending in exchange for lifting the borrowing cap in 2017 and 2019. Rep. Schweikert noted that Republicans have exercised fiscal constraint and urged Democrats to work across the aisle to save the country from the brink of default.
Excerpts from Rep. Schweikert’s floor speech can be found below:
Click here or on the image above to view Rep. Schweikert’s remarks.
On Democrats extracting billions in spending as the cost of their participation in previous debt ceiling negotiations:
[Beginning at 0:44 mark]
“When we talk about the debt ceiling, how many of you remember 2017? ‘How Democrats Rolled Trump on the Debt Ceiling.’ The Democrats and the press were giddy that when we were up against the debt ceiling in 2017, that Schumer and the gang basically required another $15 billion in spending, and that was the cost of their participation in the debt ceiling [discussions]. Oh, but that would be outrageous to try to do policy as part of the debt ceiling. But you did it. And then how about this? 2019 — does anyone remember someone called Speaker Pelosi? In that case, the extortion was additional spending of $324 billion. Now, the difference for Republicans is we’re trying to save the country from the debt crisis [whereas] the Left was trying to spend more money, But this is in the last couple years.”
On the real cost of the green energy tax credits in the Democrats’ Orwellian-named Inflation Reduction Act:
[Beginning at 5:44 mark]
“And this is from The Economist magazine talking about the green tax credits that we were all promised. Remember, the Left got up in front of these microphones and said the [green tax credits] will not be more than $391 billion over ten years. And then all of a sudden we come back and find out the actual scoring is turning into $1.2 trillion. And yes, CBO rescored it. They basically doubled it. But the outside world is calculating it, and [Goldman Sachs] and others are basically saying now it’s $1.2 trillion. Do you remember how proud the Left was when [they] said [they] were going to cut the deficit because [they] raised taxes, and then [they’re] going to do these green credits? Have you noticed they don’t talk about that anymore because the new scoring spends money? It doesn’t save a dime.”
On tax receipts not keeping pace with federal spending:
[Beginning at 6:32 mark]
“Do you understand what’s happened in the first seven months of this year? Entitlement spending is already up 11% in the first seven months of this year. That’s stunning amounts of money. But receipts were down 10%. Do you understand what I’m saying? Spending on entitlements is up 11%, but revenues are down 10%. Do you remember a few days ago [when] all of a sudden [Treasury Secretary Yellen the cut-off date when they’ve used up all the extraordinary measures is moving up a month or six weeks? That was because the tax revenues weren’t coming in nearly as high as we expected. And you start to understand some of what’s going on. Just this year, we will spend 40% more on interest. We’re going to spend over $100 billion so far I think in the first seven months, over $100 billion more just on interest because we were living in this artificial fantasyland for the last decade with suppressed interest rates.”