Republican Rep. David Schweikert criticized adoption agencies for predatory practices during a hearing this week featuring celebrity Paris Hilton, founder and CEO of 11:11 Media.
Schweikert came to the conclusion through his experience adopting his two-year-old son, the brother of the little girl they’d adopted before him. According to Schweikert’s remarks during Wednesday’s Ways and Means Committee hearing, adoption agencies impose prohibitively expensive adoption fees — even if the mother had just given birth and they had no role in the pregnancy or birth up to that moment, as was in his case.
“Two years ago this week, all of a sudden I’m getting text messages from my office, saying there’s a social worker who needs me to call her. Okay. I immediately assume I have a family member who needs bail money. I call the social worker and the first words out of her mouth were, ‘Are you going to come pick it up?’ Pick up what? Apparently the birth mother of the little girl we had adopted six years earlier had walked into the hospital, no prenatal care, substance abuse, and had a little boy. The little boy was very small, and going through withdrawals. […] One of the greatest things that’s ever happened in our lives. But before we were able to walk out of that hospital with him, turns out an adoption agency worker had gotten the birth mother to sign a piece of paper. Now remember, the birth mother had said, ‘Hey, the Schweikerts had adopted my little girl. This is the brother, wouldn’t that be nice if they could be together?’ We were told we had to sign a piece of paper for $40,000 before we were allowed to walk out the door with the baby because the baby belonged to adoption services. How does a middle class family adopt with these types of costs?”
Schweikert reflected on his experience to compare with Hilton’s testimony, which detailed her allegations of inhumane treatment at a congregate-care facility. The congressman concluded that the child welfare system suffers from financial greed.
“Mrs. Hilton actually said something that was brilliant. It’s about the money,” said Schweikert.
Yesterday, @ParisHilton bravely shared her traumatizing experience at a congregate-care facility with the Ways & Means Committee.
Having such a prominent voice express the flaws within the child welfare system is invaluable. pic.twitter.com/6RQkqlRteE
Hilton recounted how she was taken to a youth residential treatment facility at 16 years old. She testified that, under “troubled teen” programs promising “healing, growth, and support,” she had actually faced two years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.
Hilton testified she was force-fed medications, sexually abused by staff, violently restrained, dragged down hallways, stripped naked, forced in solitary confinement frequently, and deprived of views of the outside world.
“My parents were completely deceived, lied to, and manipulated by this for-profit industry about the inhumane treatment I was experiencing,” said Hilton. “Can you only imagine the experience for youth who are placed by the state and don’t have people regularly checking in on them?”
As reason for her testimony, Hilton advocated for the reauthorization of Title IV-B, a Social Security Act provision that created two child welfare programs with federal funding under two parts. Part 1 enacted Child Welfare Services while Part 2 enacted Promoting Safe and Stable Families.
Hilton also advocated for the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act and again declared support for the Senate Finance Committee’s “Warehouses of Neglect” report.
This latest hearing of the Ways and Means Committee was the latest in a long string of hearings on the subject, more than any in the last eight congressional systems combined per the committee. The committee has been conducting a thorough review of Title IV-B over the past year.
Committee Chairman Jason Smith, a Missouri Republican, outlined a number of pervasive issues with the child welfare system: inadequate kinship care support, high social worker turnover, excessive bureaucratic red tape, slow hearings and lack of lawyer access for families, remaining barriers for Native American tribal families, high rates of mental health issues in older foster youth, and discrimination rather than support for impoverished families.
Watch Wednesday’s full hearing below:
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Congress’s Joint Economic Committee (JEC) warned that the Biden administration’s economic policies have caused an unsustainable debt crisis and historic inflation.
This assessment was announced formally earlier this week by JEC Vice Chairman and Congressman for Arizona’s first district, David Schweikert, through the 160-page Republican Response to the Council of Economic Advisers’ 2024 Economic Report of the President.
Schweikert stated in a press release that 2024 serves as a “critical juncture” for the nation’s fiscal health, one that transcends political parties.
“The challenge before us is neither Republican nor Democrat — it is our moral obligation to ensure American families aren’t left behind. Congress holds the keys to determine which path we choose,” said Schweikert. “We can either behave like adults and choose the path of fiscal responsibility or continue our partisan gamesmanship that will put the American dream further out of reach for future generations.”
Schweikert said that the problems and proposed solutions put forth by the JEC report were inherently bipartisan, focusing on common-ground economy boosters like a healthier population and secure social safety net programs.
“Those of us on the Republican side, we built a report that offered actual moral, great economic solutions instead of the election year rhetoric.”
— Joint Economic Committee Republicans (@JECRepublicans) June 21, 2024
The JEC assessed that the Biden administration’s demand-side policies financed by increased borrowing have placed unsustainable pressure on constrained supply. As a result, JEC predicted that debt-to-GDP would grow from 99 percent to 116 percent by 2034, with interest costs rising. JEC noted that the labor force participation rates haven’t recovered to prepandemic levels; historic mortgage payments for new homebuyers, the highest in 30 years; constraints on budding American industries due to new restrictions on trade; and the cost of clean energy subsidies amounting to $1.2 trillion over 10 years, despite emissions from electricity production declining.
Further exacerbation of the economy comes from an aging population, declining fertility rates, and decreased prime-age labor force participation among men, per the JEC. The aging population is anticipated to drive Social Security spending to 6 percent of GDP by 2035, an increase from the present 5.2 percent and the 1970s at 3.1 percent, though no major expansions have occurred in over 20 years. The JEC reported that one in nine prime-age men remain out of the labor force; if just 25 percent of those entered, the economy would grow by $215 billion.
JEC disputed the Biden administration’s belief that increased taxes of wealthier individuals would amount to their desired revenue, a dwarfed amount of around 1.1 to 2 percent of GDP compared to future deficits. JEC stressed that only reduction in spending would improve fiscal consolidation.
Another demographic with an outsized impact on the economy, according to the JEC, is the rapid increase in obesity. Excess medical expenditures are anticipated to amount to over $9 trillion, as well as federal government spending of over $4 trillion within the next decade. Labor productivity and supply reductions impacted by obesity are projected to cost nearly $3 trillion and $12 trillion, respectively.
As for a positive solution to the nation’s current and looming fiscal woes, JEC indicated that artificial intelligence could grow the economy and improve government efficiency.
JEC also issued a lengthy assessment of the Congressional Budget Office’s revised budget and economic projections for the next decade. This included a $400 billion increase in projected FY2024 deficit, with about 80 percent of the increase coming from President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation failing to recover payments from 2023 bank failures quickly, new legislation, and higher than expected Medicaid outlays.
CBO recently released its updated budget and economic projections for 2024-2034 from the original forecast in February 2024. Below are some key takeaways from the revised estimates 🧵
— Joint Economic Committee Republicans (@JECRepublicans) June 19, 2024
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Arizona Republican Rep. David Schweikert urged Americans to take “our fiscal responsibility” seriously in light of the Social Security Administration’s 2024 Trustees Report.
“I implore my brothers and sisters to take our fiscal responsibility seriously before it’s too late,” Schweikert said.
Schweikert, who serves as Joint Economic Committee vice chairman, issued a statement on the report, which projected that the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund will become insolvent by 2033.
“The Social Security Trustees Report confirms that it’s no longer just future generations who should be concerned about receiving their full earned benefits but rather current retirees too,” Schweikert said
The congressman criticized Congress for failing to protect the entitlement programs millions of Americans depend on.
“As our nation’s fiscal health continues to deteriorate, Congress refuses to live up to its moral obligation to protect and modernize Social Security and Medicare,” he said. “It’s past time for the political class to put aside their talking points and start working on bipartisan solutions to save these programs for our seniors.”
According to the report, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund is projected to become exhausted by 2033. Once the OASI Trust Fund goes insolvent, all beneficiaries will face an across-the-board 21% cut to retirement benefits.
The Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund will be able to keep paying full benefits through at least 2098. But the combined OASI and DI Trust Funds will become depleted by 2035.
Once the combined OASDI trust funds go insolvent, all beneficiaries will face an across-the-board 17% cut to retirement benefits.
The Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund will become insolvent by 2036. At that point, the HI Trust Fund will only be able to cover 89% of total benefits.
The combined Social Security programs will run a cash-flow deficit of $169 billion this year and $2.7 trillion over the next decade.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ-01) gave a brief rundown on the state of his constituents’ financial well-being under Biden before Congress on Tuesday.
Schweikert said that his district consists of some of the more well-off, educated, and entrepreneurial constituents in Arizona and the country. Yet, Schweikert says his more “prosperous” district has become poorer even when accounting for factors like wage growth.
“In my district, we’ve had the highest inflation in the continental United States. If you do not make 23.6 percent more money today than you did the day President Biden took office, you are poorer,” said Schweikert.
Want to understand why the public isn’t so bubbly about the economy?
If you live in the Phoenix-Scottsdale area and haven’t received a 23.6% pay increase since President Biden took office, you are poorer today.
Schweikert’s district spans a northeast section of Phoenix that encompasses Scottsdale, Paradise Valley Fountain Hills, Cave Creek, the Salt River and Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation reservations, and part of the Tonto National Forest.
The congressman went on to say that his fellow congressmen, dubbed “the clown show,” needed to have “an honest conversation” with constituents to acknowledge that they’ve grown poorer in recent years.
Arizona experienced the highest inflation rates since February 2021, only returning to a lower rate of 2.7 percent earlier this year, last seen March 2021.
Both Arizona State University business professor and Carey School director Mark Stapp and University of Arizona economics center director George Hammond toldCronkite News last year that the reason for Arizona having the highest inflation — mainly Phoenix — has to do with shelter costs.
Arizona’s high growth rate, coupled with the lack of supply, prompted a rapid rise in housing and rent prices.
In 2022, the state boasted the highest inflation rate in the nation. At the time, the Phoenix area had a 13 percent inflation, much higher than the nationwide inflation rate at the time of 8 percent.
Schweikert has repeatedly urged his colleagues to curb inflation, last month pointing out the effects of the record levels of spending under the Biden administration. Schweikert projected that the total deficit spending for the 2024 fiscal year will be higher than both the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have projected.
Over the past three years, Arizona’s food banks have reported an unprecedented increase in the number of clientele they’re serving. The Arizona Food Bank Network reported earlier this year that it and its member food banks have served 14 percent more individuals in 2023 than in 2022 (a total of nearly 570,000 people a month), and 20 percent more than before the pandemic.
Conversely, the census reported that 12.5 percent of Arizonans were living in poverty in 2023 — the lowest rate in the past decade.
Schweikert hasn’t been the only one of Arizona’s congressmen to criticize federal leaders’ approach to handling inflation. Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) remarked during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union last month that the overall inflation rate had hit nearly 20 percent since 2021, costing Arizonans nearly $13,000 in 2023 according to the Joint Economic Committee.
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Inflation persists due to record levels of spending over the past three years, according to Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., in a speech on the House floor Thursday night.
Schweikert said the total deficit spending for FY24 will be dramatically higher than both the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) initially projected if the national debt continues to increase at the current pace of over $99,000 per second.
Last May, Congressional fights over the next speaker overshadowed the greater concern, the national debt, Schweikert said.
“And think of this — in that time, we were fighting over like $16 billion,” he said. “We’re borrowing about $9 billion a day. So we’ve gone how many months, and we’ve never gotten around to actually working on the real problems because of the theatrics around here.”
As a result, the Scottsdale-Phoenix area resident said the Congressional Budget Office missed its FY24 deficit spending projection by $1 trillion.
Interest spending alone is projected to top $1 trillion this fiscal year, he said.
“When I came here a couple of months ago and said we could be heading for $1 trillion [in interest spending], I got mocked. I even saw my colleagues go, ‘Schweikert, you’ve got to stop making things up!’ Well, turns out I’m right,” he said.
“We will spend all day fighting over a few million here, which is important, and I am willing to cut these things, but we’re picking up pennies off the ground as the avalanche is crushing us,” he continued. “Because that same day we fought over those millions, we borrowed $9 billion a day when we are fighting over millions. Understand, $1 trillion has 12 zeros. Start to work your zeros and understand the scale.”
Addressing inflation, Schweikert said America is paying the price for spending money in ways that did not actually spike productivity. He said subsidizing things does not yield the most efficient and cheap way to produce them.
Schweikert advocated for a level of competition so the best, fastest product is rewarded.
“The last two months, [inflation] hasn’t been going down the way it’s supposed to,” he said. “So expect these interest rates I just showed you to continue. And if you live in my neighborhood, if you live in the Scottsdale-Phoenix area — wonderful area, absolutely incredibly beautiful this time of year. From January 2021 to two months ago, if you’re not making 23.6% more, you are poorer today than you were in January 2021.”
Making Americans less sick with new healthcare technology is one of the most powerful things we could do to lower the national debt, he said. Six weeks ago, the FDA approved the first cure to sickle cell anemia.
“Artificial intelligence is about to have a revolution in bringing cures to market dramatically faster,” Schweikert stated. “We’ve actually now had the first couple of AI drugs designed to make it through the FDA.”
Schweikert said policies can make it possible to bring new drugs to the market without costing $100 million.
“Do we think about things we could do in farm policy and nutrition policy in helping our brothers and sisters live better, healthier, more prosperous, [improve their] ability to join the labor force, maybe family formation, crushing income inequality,” he asked his fellow congress members.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
