On the recordNovember 29, 2023
As I am getting myself organized here, I am going to try something tonight as a variance of something I have done now for years. I am going to try to walk through some of the math, but please understand to anyone who is insane enough to watch this, particularly to staff here on Capitol Hill, I am trying to treat people like adults. I am not spinning you. I am not going to give you the latest poll talking point. I am not going to give you magic math. This is a moment where we desperately need to understand the scale of the problems. Mr. Speaker, let's also please understand that the people you see come behind the microphones here on the floor--and there are a lot of issues. There are a lot of problems--but I will argue, though, the systemic threat to this republic is the math. First off, for anyone who actually doesn't have a life, I strongly encourage you to go to our office's website--I think it is Rep David-- and sign up for text messages. We call it the daily debt update. Every single day, 5 days a week, you will get a text message from me that says what we borrowed today per minute and the interest costs. I break it out per year. Then I also say what we borrowed so far this fiscal year. We give you 364-day clock, so we get rid of timing effects. Then I am going to show you what we have taken in, or what we call receipts. Some people call them tax revenues. That is wrong, technically. Government doesn't have revenues; we have tax receipts.…
