VIDEO RELEASE Chairman Rick Scott Leads Aging Committee Hearing on Making Washington Work for Seniors
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Rick Scott, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, alongside Ranking Member Kirsten Gillibrand convened a hearing titled, “Making Washington Work for Seniors: Fighting to End Inflation and Achieve Fiscal Sanity.”
During the hearing, Chairman Scott’s witnesses included Floridian, Tarren Bragdon, Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for Government Accountability, Jeff Ferry, Chief Economist Emeritus of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, and EJ Antoni, Research Fellow at the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget.
Watch Chairman Scott’s full remarks HERE. Read Chairman Scott’s remarks as prepared for delivery below:
I want to thank you all for being here today.
I’d like to recognize our new committee members who are participating in their first hearing today. I am thrilled to have my friend and fellow Floridian, Ashley Moody and Jon Husted from the great state of Ohio join the committee.
Inflation, which is caused by massive government spending, has been a serious issue plaguing American families and our seniors over the past four years.
In today’s hearing, you will hear me talk about the causes and impacts of inflation, but also why I am very optimistic about the future and the opportunity to bring fiscal sanity back to Washington and solve the problems facing seniors.
First, let’s be clear about how we got here…
Over the last four years, while the U.S. population has grown just 2%, federal spending has increased by 53% and all that spending has added more than $8 trillion to America’s national debt, which today is more than $36 trillion.
This kind of spending just isn’t sustainable. If nothing changes, our federal government is on track to add a trillion dollars to the federal debt about every 100 days.
The cost of this debt is another massive problem. Right now, more than one trillion dollars of the money that hardworking Americans pay in taxes each year goes to paying the interest on the federal debt.
Having a trillion dollars in annual interest expense is not sustainable either. Every dollar we are spending on interest is a dollar that isn’t funding an important program seniors rely on or going toward the federal government keeping its promises to provide a return on the investment of American taxpayers.
Those numbers are massive and difficult to even wrap your mind around, but here’s what every American and especially every senior, understands very well: the inflation caused by all this government spending is out of control and must be stopped.
Since January of 2021, overall inflation is up 20%, but when you look at specific things that nearly every American spends their money on, prices are up way more than 20%...
Here are just a few examples:
- Eggs are up 160%
- Coffee is up 41%
- Oranges are up 33%
- Energy costs are up 32%
- New car prices are up 29%
- And household debt is up more than 21% because families can’t keep up.
According to research done by the Joint Economic Committee, the average American household needs over $13,000 more per year now than they did four years ago just to maintain their same standard of living.
For seniors, many of whom are on fixed incomes, skyrocketing prices are not simply an inconvenience, but a threat to their ability to retire, make ends meet, and for too many, keep food on the table. That is unacceptable. It should never happen in our country.
I grew up in a family that did not have a lot of money, I watched my parents struggle to find work and provide for our family. This is why I am so passionate about these issues.
And here’s why I am optimistic about the future: I know that with President Trump’s strong leadership, we can all work together, Republicans, Democrats and Independents, to turn this country around and get our fiscal house in order.
This isn’t a partisan issue. I know that every one of us here in the Senate has heard countless stories from folks in our states about the pain caused by inflation.
I’m optimistic about getting this done because I know it can happen.
I know we can do it because I led a turnaround when I was Governor of Florida. In January 2011, when I took office, Florida was losing jobs, growing its debt and shrinking in population.
When I left office in 2018, we had cut taxes 100 times, slashed more than 5,000 burdensome regulations to make government more efficient, paid down $10 billion of our state debt and businesses had created more than 1.7 million new private sector jobs.
When government is efficient, the economy grows and tax revenues increase so we can keep our promises to seniors and all Americans who work hard, pay their taxes and deserve a government that is accountable to them.
We did it in Florida and we can make this turnaround happen in Washington too!
My hope in highlighting these issues is to begin a productive dialogue with everyone in this room so that we can fix problems and promote good ideas that stop inflation and Make Washington Work for our seniors.
This is why I am excited to be part of the DOGE Caucus here in the Senate and work with President Trump and Elon Musk to make sure that we get back on track.
I look forward to working with Ranking Member Gillibrand and all our colleagues in this Committee to discuss ways to Make Washington Work for America’s seniors. That starts with getting our fiscal house in order so the federal government keeps its promises to elderly Americans and ensures they can enjoy their golden years with the peace of mind of having fiscal stability.
I’d now like to recognize Ranking Member Gillibrand for her opening remarks.
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