Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Republicans in Congress gearing up to negotiate an extension of
Speaker 2: Donald Trump's twenty seventeen tax cuts. A group of House
Speaker 2: Republicans we're invited to meet with Trump this weekend at
Speaker 2: Mari Laco and are expected to push to include an
Speaker 2: expansion of salt tax deductions in Congress's upcoming package. A
Speaker 2: place to say that joining us now is one of
Speaker 2: those House Republicans. Congressman Michael Awner of New York Congressman Fantastical,
Speaker 2: catch up with you once again, sir. I just want
Speaker 2: to know, from your perspective, how many friends you have
Speaker 2: outside of New York in the House that would be
Speaker 2: on board with this effort.
Speaker 1: A lot more than people realize.
Speaker 3: Obviously New York, New Jersey, and California three of the
Speaker 3: high tax states where this has most acutely impacted. Certainly
Speaker 3: we have a coalition, and given our small majority in
Speaker 3: the House, it's certainly a powerful coalition. But there's other
Speaker 3: states and members across the country in which, you know,
Speaker 3: over the last seven years they've seen their own taxes
Speaker 3: rise up against that ten thousand dollars cap. So quietly
Speaker 3: there's a few more members than.
Speaker 1: People would realize, but would realize.
Speaker 3: Look, the cap on salt was a pay for for
Speaker 3: the twenty seventeen tax Cuts in Jobs Act.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 3: It was used as a pay for to pay for
Speaker 3: other provisions within the tax bill. The ten thousand dollars
Speaker 3: cap is woefully insufficient. It's had a negative impact on
Speaker 3: states like New York. Now we can get into how
Speaker 3: New York excessively spends. They've increased their state budget by
Speaker 3: sixty one billion dollars in the last four years, for instance.
Speaker 1: That needs to change.
Speaker 3: But taxpayers should not be penalized by living in a
Speaker 3: high tax state.
Speaker 1: This is double taxation.
Speaker 3: And for those of my colleagues that say this is
Speaker 3: somehow a subsidy, the fact is New York contributes more
Speaker 3: to the federal government than it receives, and more than
Speaker 3: some of these states in which you know my colleagues
Speaker 3: will claim that they don't want their taxpayers subsidizing New York,
Speaker 3: but the reality is it's the other way around.
Speaker 4: Congressman, you certainly don't have a friend though, And someone
Speaker 4: like Lindsey Graham, the center of South Carolina, who said,
Speaker 4: why should I from South Carolina pay for what's going
Speaker 4: on in some of these blue states. And he's pushing
Speaker 4: for this one big sorry for the two bill approach
Speaker 4: because he doesn't want to talk about taxes, he thinks
Speaker 4: it's going to take too long, and he doesn't frankly
Speaker 4: want to sign up for salt. How are you going
Speaker 4: to convince the President this weekend that you should do
Speaker 4: one bill together and make sure salts included.
Speaker 3: Well, Respectfully, South Carolina is one of those states that
Speaker 3: gets more back, certainly percentage wise than New York does.
Speaker 3: So you know, if we want to talk about subsidies,
Speaker 3: we can go after and burst through everybody's subsidies that
Speaker 3: they get. Look with respect to one versus too. The
Speaker 3: President has already made clear he is moving forward on
Speaker 3: one big bill. We need to deal with taxes, the border,
Speaker 3: energy debt, among other issues. And the fact is, given
Speaker 3: our small margin in the House, we're going to need
Speaker 3: everybody's vote and everybody on board.
Speaker 1: Two track bills are going to make that harder.
Speaker 3: So while it may take a little bit more time
Speaker 3: to get one bill negotiated, it is necessary if we're
Speaker 3: going to get all of these issues addressed. And I
Speaker 3: think the President understands SID. I think that's why the
Speaker 3: President made clear last week one bill, and that's how
Speaker 3: we are proceeding forward.
Speaker 1: In the House.
Speaker 3: And look, ultimately, our Senate and House Republican majorities are
Speaker 3: going to have to work together. Nobody's going to get
Speaker 3: everything they want out of this. There's going to have
Speaker 3: to be a good faith negotiation if we have any
Speaker 3: chance of passing a reconciliation bill.
Speaker 4: I was one of those individuals who watched your festivus
Speaker 4: airing of grievances during the Christmas week and you did
Speaker 4: a little bit of a wink at your potential future
Speaker 4: maybe becoming the governor of New York to make sure
Speaker 4: you could potentially go down that path, do you need
Speaker 4: to secure a higher salt tax break.
Speaker 3: Look, regardless of whether or not I run for governor,
Speaker 3: this was a promise of mine and it's a top
Speaker 3: priority for my district. I represent one of the highest
Speaker 3: tax districts in the country, inclusive of Westchester and Rockland
Speaker 3: Counties number one and number two highest property tax counties
Speaker 3: in America. So this is critically important. To lift the
Speaker 3: cap on salt. Ten thousand dollars is woefully insufficient, and
Speaker 3: this is something that I said I would deliver on,
Speaker 3: and we're going to as part of this reconciliation bill.
Speaker 3: Long term for New York, this is critical. We lead
Speaker 3: the nation in out migration. Our tax base is eroding,
Speaker 3: in large part because of the disastrous policies of Cappy
Speaker 3: Hokel and Albany Democrats. One party rule in Albany has
Speaker 3: been an abject disaster, whether you're talking about the affordability
Speaker 3: crisis or public safety. People being burned alive on subways,
Speaker 3: pushed in front of oncoming subway trains. Kappy Hochl now
Speaker 3: scamming New Yorkers out of twenty five hundred dollars a
Speaker 3: year just for the privilege of driving to work, while
Speaker 3: spending billions of dollars of taxpayer money on free housing, clothing, food, education,
Speaker 3: and healthcare for illegal immigrants. New York needs change, there's
Speaker 3: no question about that. But from a federal perspective, we
Speaker 3: should not be penalizing New York taxpayers because of the
Speaker 3: disastrous decisions of Cappy HOCl and Albany Democrats.
Speaker 4: And just to be clear, comes to the salt cap,
Speaker 4: how high are you looking for it to be raised?
Speaker 1: Look, I've introduced legislation.
Speaker 3: You know, my marriage penalty elimination bill reintroduced to raise
Speaker 3: it to one hundred thousand dollars for individuals two hundred
Speaker 3: thousand dollars for married couples.
Speaker 1: This is going to be a negotiation.
Speaker 3: My colleagues and I are looking forward to sitting down
Speaker 3: with the President having a discussion about it, hearing obviously
Speaker 3: what his priorities are as part of the tax bill,
Speaker 3: and working to a consensus. At the end of the day,
Speaker 3: my objective is to provide tax relief to hard working Americans.
Speaker 3: It's incumbent upon everybody to negotiate in good faith because
Speaker 3: here's the reality. If we do not pass a tax
Speaker 3: bill number one, salt comes back unlimited, but it is
Speaker 3: accompanied by the largest tax increase in American history. So
Speaker 3: it is important that we actually negotiate a fair tax
Speaker 3: deal for the American people in August.
Speaker 4: I just want to end on this. You are one
Speaker 4: of these individuals that wrote a letter to the Speaker
Speaker 4: talking about that you didn't want the repeal of energy
Speaker 4: tax credits with the IRA. This is something that president
Speaker 4: like Donald Trump wants. Are you going to be trying
Speaker 4: to assuage him of your view over this weekend in
Speaker 4: mar Lago.
Speaker 3: Look, many provisions of the IRA absolutely need to be repealed.
Speaker 3: What we signed on to a letter is that we
Speaker 3: were not going to just sign off on a wholesale repeal.
Speaker 3: There needed to be a discussion and again a negotiation.
Speaker 3: Companies make decisions based on tax provisions, and they need certainty.
Speaker 3: And there's already been significant investment, including in New York,
Speaker 3: based on some of these energy tax credits, and so
Speaker 3: we want to make sure that any changes are done
Speaker 3: smartly and not just wholesale repeal. So that'll be part
Speaker 3: of the discussion and conversation as we move forward. And again,
Speaker 3: I think the key here is to come up with
Speaker 3: a reconciliation bill that increases domestic production of energy, ensures
Speaker 3: the American people have a good, smart tax bill to
Speaker 3: reduce their taxes, reduce the cost of living here in
Speaker 3: the US, and ultimately secures our border.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of.
Speaker 3: Important issues that have to be included in this reconciliation bill.
Speaker 3: It's going to require negotiation, and it's going to ultimately
Speaker 3: require every Republican supporting the final product.
Speaker 2: A Congressman, as we speak, Bonyold of climbing and We've
Speaker 2: seen quite a significant move since September when the Federal
Speaker 2: Reserve standing its rate cutting effort. We've moved one hundred
Speaker 2: basis points. And I certainly don't expect you to follow
Speaker 2: the ins and outs of fixed income on any given day,
Speaker 2: but I wonder whether you and your colleagues are sensitive
Speaker 2: to some of the pressure that is starting to build
Speaker 2: in the US dept market.
Speaker 3: No question, Look, our tet at thirty six trillion dollars
Speaker 3: total and counting, is a major problem. And this is
Speaker 3: something that everybody in the Republican Conference is in agreement on.
Speaker 1: We have to tackle our debt.
Speaker 3: We have to reduce our deficit spending, we have to
Speaker 3: right size the federal government.
Speaker 1: Spending is out of control.
Speaker 3: Joe Biden's disastrous first two years gave us record inflation
Speaker 3: it spite the cost of living.
Speaker 1: And we have to unwind a lot of this.
Speaker 3: You look at a state like New York, it is
Speaker 3: floundering because of some of the economic pressures.
Speaker 1: And just think about this.
Speaker 3: The MTA has more debt than eighty percent of the
Speaker 3: states in the country. So debt is a major problem.
Speaker 3: It's something that we have to deal with across the board.
Speaker 3: We cannot continue to print and borrow money at the levels.
Speaker 1: That we have.
Speaker 2: Do you think we can and afford to extend CCJA,
Speaker 2: which baseline is something like four to five trillion? Do
Speaker 2: you think we can afford to include an expansion of
Speaker 2: cell tax deductions? And Congressman, I wouldn't push back against
Speaker 2: anything you said about the effort that needs to take
Speaker 2: place elsewear, I'm just wondering how much fiscal space you
Speaker 2: and your colleagues believe we actually have at the moment.
Speaker 3: Look, tax policy is critical to economic growth, but it's
Speaker 3: one part. We need to increase domestic production of energy,
Speaker 3: which will help generate more revenues. Energy policy is also critical,
Speaker 3: not just domestically for cost, but for national security. You
Speaker 3: were talking obviously about the threats to Europe from Russia.
Speaker 3: Europe is still buying gas from Russia. It's idiotic. It
Speaker 3: makes no sense that they're helping fund the very war
Speaker 3: they're trying to stop. So there is a lot that
Speaker 3: has to be done here, including reigning in federal spending. Obviously,
Speaker 3: as we work through the tax cuts, we will look
Speaker 3: to help offset some of the cost through spending reduction.
Speaker 3: So this is going to be a comprehensive approach to
Speaker 3: how we right size the American economy. I do think
Speaker 3: it's possible. It's going to be one of the most
Speaker 3: critical things any of us ever do in our careers
Speaker 3: in government. And so we all have to be committed
Speaker 3: to the final cause here and.
Speaker 2: We're certainly looking forward to continue in the conversation with you, sir,
Speaker 2: in your current capacity and maybe in the future. Is
Speaker 2: the next government of the great State of New York.
Speaker 2: Mike Lauda there, Congressman, thank you, sir, appreciate it.