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Speaker 1: My name is Kevin Sireli, and I am the chief

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Speaker 1: Washington correspondent for Bloomberg Television and for Bloomberg Radio. We

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Speaker 1: begin tonight with the big story, which is the Senate

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Speaker 1: is now taking up the one point nine trillion dollar

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Speaker 1: stimulus bill, and during an Oval Office press briefing on

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Speaker 1: infrastructure today, President Biden took questions on the pandemic relief

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Speaker 1: package that was passed by the House and is now

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Speaker 1: in the Senate. Here's the sound on that from President Biden.

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Speaker 1: We met have a number of meetings with Republicans on

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Speaker 1: the coronavirus bill and how Senate a combination of both,

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Speaker 1: so we're keeping everybody informed. Back in the Senate, Senator

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Speaker 1: Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, said that

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Speaker 1: the clock is ticking on Congress to pass a new

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Speaker 1: COVID relief bill before the extended federal unemployment benefits expired

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Speaker 1: later this month. Here's what Senator Schumer had to say.

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Speaker 1: No matter how long it takes, the Senate is going

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Speaker 1: to stay in session to finish the bill this week.

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Speaker 1: The American people deserve nothing less. The American people support

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Speaker 1: the plan, including a clear majority of Democrats, Independence Republicans.

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Speaker 1: It seems the only group that opposes the bill are

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Speaker 1: Republicans here in Washington. I'm incredibly grateful to welcome our

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Speaker 1: first guest to tonight's program. It's his first time appearing

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Speaker 1: on this platform, and I hope it will not be

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Speaker 1: the last. He is someone who has had a long

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Speaker 1: career both in the private sector and private equity, and

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Speaker 1: then serving the country as the United States Ambassador to Japan,

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Speaker 1: and now he is a Senator from Tennessee. His name

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Speaker 1: is Bill Haggardy. Senator, thank you for joining us. You

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Speaker 1: are a Republican from Tennessee. You're a member of the

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Speaker 1: Banking Committee. Let's start with the stimulus. Is this an

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Speaker 1: effective use of taxpayer dollars? Kevin Uh, It's great to

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Speaker 1: be on with you today and great to be with

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Speaker 1: your listeners. Um, if you just think about it, there's

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Speaker 1: already been a four trillion dollar bipartisan commitment of funds

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Speaker 1: for the for stimulus and to combat the pandemic. A

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Speaker 1: trillion of that's not even spent. That's how hard it

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Speaker 1: is to spend this kind of money. Yet the Democrats

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Speaker 1: want to come and load another one point nine trillion

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Speaker 1: dollars onto the backs of our children and grandchildren here. Uh,

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Speaker 1: this is going to increase debt for capita in America

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Speaker 1: by by a significant amount. It's already increased by ten

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars per person just in the past year. Uh.

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Speaker 1: You know, we've got again a trillion dollars of unallocated

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Speaker 1: funds that haven't been spent. We're talking about adding another

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Speaker 1: two trillion to that. I think what will happen is

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Speaker 1: the same thing that happened back in two thousand eight,

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Speaker 1: two thousand nine, when the obambul Stimus Obama stimulus program

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Speaker 1: came into place, we had the most sluggish recovery that

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Speaker 1: we've ever seen. This is this is going to dampen

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Speaker 1: our ability to recover broadly speaking. So I find this fascinating, Senator,

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Speaker 1: when I talk or when I read the reports of

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Speaker 1: how this is being framed. It's not that Republicans want

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Speaker 1: to spend zero dollars here. What I hear, based though

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Speaker 1: my reporting, is that people like yourselves would just like

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Speaker 1: to see it more targeted. And so, how much money

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Speaker 1: do you think is actually effective in in terms of

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Speaker 1: what we need right now in terms of stimulus, Kevin,

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Speaker 1: You're exactly right. It should be targeted and it should

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Speaker 1: be temporary. Look, this pandemic was given to us courtesy

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Speaker 1: of China. This isn't the fault of anybody that suffered

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Speaker 1: from the disease. Are certainly any one of the businesses

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Speaker 1: that had to be shut down, but some governors went

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Speaker 1: far beyond what they needed to do in terms of

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Speaker 1: the economic shutdown. This is meant to be a bridge

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Speaker 1: for those businesses and for those employees. This isn't meant

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Speaker 1: to be something that allows the Democrats to come in

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Speaker 1: and put through all their pet projects. So what I

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Speaker 1: would say we need to do is reprogram those dollars

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Speaker 1: that haven't been spent yet, target the men, zero the

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Speaker 1: men to to follow the purpose of the bill, and

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Speaker 1: that's to deal with the pandemic. We should be focused

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Speaker 1: on getting shots and people's arms, getting our kids back

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Speaker 1: to school, and getting our parents back to work. Anything

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Speaker 1: beyond that shouldn't be the subject of this bill and

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Speaker 1: should be out of it. So one of the one

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Speaker 1: of the main questions on people's minds, especially this week,

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Speaker 1: is just the divide that has been going on from

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Speaker 1: the governors across this country, whether it's down in Texas,

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Speaker 1: Governor Abbott or in Florida, Governor de Santis, give us

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Speaker 1: the lay of the land in Tennessee, and when do

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Speaker 1: you think the country might be able to put this

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Speaker 1: thing behind us? That was pretty striking to hear President

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Speaker 1: Biden say that every adult American can get a vaccine

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Speaker 1: a shot in the arm by the end of May. Well,

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Speaker 1: I I love President Biden's optimism in that regard. I

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Speaker 1: wanted to write, I want to congratulate President Trump though

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Speaker 1: in the administration that put Operation Warp Speed together, so

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Speaker 1: President Biden can make that plaint that claim it was

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Speaker 1: a tremendous, tremendous feed. I don't think it's been rivaled

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Speaker 1: since the Moon Shot. So Operation Warp Speed has put

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Speaker 1: us in a position today so that President Biden can

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Speaker 1: make that sort of optimistic statement. That is terrific news

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Speaker 1: to me. And again, I'm supportive of vaccines, of vaccine distribution,

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Speaker 1: of testing, things that have to do again with putting

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Speaker 1: the pandemic, making our rearview mirror. That's the way we

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Speaker 1: come out of this. And it certainly isn't through pet

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Speaker 1: projects for Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi in their districts,

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Speaker 1: and it's not going to be through this massive expansion

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Speaker 1: of federal funding that has very little to do with

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Speaker 1: the pandemic. One of one of the issues that we've

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Speaker 1: talked about over the past couple of weeks that we've

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Speaker 1: been reporting on is this issue of the minimum wage,

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Speaker 1: which obviously it's not going to be included this time

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Speaker 1: around in the stimulus, but it was interesting to me

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Speaker 1: Senator Bill Haggerty of Republican of Tennessee UH to report

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Speaker 1: on Senator Cinema and Mansion to centrist Democrats who came

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Speaker 1: out against the minimum wage and essentially said, look, while

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Speaker 1: they are in favor of folks in cities where cost

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Speaker 1: of living has skyrocketed, getting a pay pay increase in

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Speaker 1: rural America and for small businesses on main street, that

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Speaker 1: just might be unrealistic. I mean, where is the minimum

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Speaker 1: wage debate issue in Tennessee, Kevin. What this does is

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Speaker 1: takes high cost jurisdictions and blue states and allows them

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Speaker 1: to take away all of our competitive advantage in a

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Speaker 1: state like Tennessee. Our cost of living in rural Tennessee

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Speaker 1: is far lower than it might be in New York

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Speaker 1: or California. They're trying to quote level the playing field

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Speaker 1: and it's going to generate unemployment at a time when

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Speaker 1: we have many small businesses. You think the local restaurants

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Speaker 1: that are trying to get reopened again, they don't have

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Speaker 1: the kind of margins to have a doubling or tripling

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Speaker 1: of their labor cost. There's there's something called the tip

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Speaker 1: credit that that needs to be accommodated. I think a

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Speaker 1: number of folks in the service industries are worried that

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Speaker 1: the actual total wages will go down if this type

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Speaker 1: of one size fits all solution is imposed. So Joe

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Speaker 1: Mansion from West Virginia, Christen Cinema from Arizona have similar

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Speaker 1: concerns that I do in Tennessee about the negative impact

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Speaker 1: that this would have in the economy. In fact, the

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Speaker 1: Congressional Budget Office has projected that it would be a

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Speaker 1: one point four million dollar net loss of jobs. I'm sorry,

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Speaker 1: at one point four million net loss of jobs, not dollars.

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Speaker 1: These are human beings jobs that will be lost as

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Speaker 1: a result of it. I'm going to about the script

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Speaker 1: here to to quote my friend Tom Keane, a mentor

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Speaker 1: here at Bloomberg, because I gotta be candid, and this

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Speaker 1: isn't a reporting question, but it's it's I'm gonna say

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Speaker 1: the question that I get most from my friends, which is,

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Speaker 1: where is the From your perspective, Senator Bill Haggerty, where

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Speaker 1: is the organization and the I guess what is informing

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Speaker 1: some of these elected officials rulemaking process for what percentage

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Speaker 1: of folks can go into a restaurant, whether or not

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Speaker 1: a gym can go open, whether or not a school

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Speaker 1: or a nursing home or in this case a preschool

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Speaker 1: for example. I mean what, because to the average person,

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Speaker 1: it's a really hard to keep up with, it doesn't

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Speaker 1: always make sense, and it is increasingly becoming more and

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Speaker 1: more frustrating. Well, it certainly doesn't make sense to people

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Speaker 1: of Tennessee, and I think that's felt across the board.

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Speaker 1: This has been very arbitrary. You think about it. You

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Speaker 1: have governors making decisions to keep churches closed, at liquor

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Speaker 1: stores and abortion clinics can be open. This is not

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Speaker 1: something that's appreciated at all in my home state. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The amount of government overreach has been significant. And you know,

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Speaker 1: you've you've got governors that are willing to inform and

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Speaker 1: trust their population. That's a very different perspective from those

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Speaker 1: governors that feel like they need to control the population.

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Speaker 1: Want to talk, go ahead, No, I was I always

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Speaker 1: saying I want to move to geopolitics. I mean, just

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Speaker 1: as you're a member of the Banking Committee. That's a

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Speaker 1: committee that obviously we we cover very closely. Uh here,

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Speaker 1: And I was struck by the other week President Biden

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Speaker 1: issuing those executive orders on supply chains and in particular

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Speaker 1: about supply chains and US reliance upon global supply chains,

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Speaker 1: and he's calling for a study. He's instructed members of

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Speaker 1: Congress to come up with some some various nonpartisan proposals.

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Speaker 1: The other senator of your state, Senator Blackburn, and people

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Speaker 1: like Senator Cotton, for example, have have come out with

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Speaker 1: various propos posals that would make the United States less

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Speaker 1: reliant upon China and the supply chain. And you know,

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Speaker 1: you arguably would have one of the most uh uh

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Speaker 1: pressing views of this matter, just given where you served

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Speaker 1: as the ambassador to Japan. What can you tell us

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Speaker 1: about how dangerous it is for the United States to

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Speaker 1: be overly reliant upon any country in our supply chains,

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Speaker 1: in this case China. Well, I think that you recognize

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Speaker 1: two leaders in the Senate that have been very good

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Speaker 1: on this issue and that Senators Blackburn and Cotton they

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Speaker 1: get it. Uh. Senator Blackburn came over to join me

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Speaker 1: in Japan. Uh, she understands very much. The issue is

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Speaker 1: the supply chain and how much we worked to get

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Speaker 1: more of uh. You know, companies that are producing a

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Speaker 1: product in America to to actually have their entire supply

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Speaker 1: chain located in America. Tennessee has been very, very very

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Speaker 1: good about getting that done. The vulnerability, though, I think,

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Speaker 1: is something that's been recognized by US companies more and

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Speaker 1: more since President Trump took office. Look, he called out

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Speaker 1: China for what have been doing in terms of stealing

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Speaker 1: intellectual property, unfairly blocking American companies from competing on Chinese

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Speaker 1: soil uh, and then heavily subsidizing their own industries to

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Speaker 1: compete unfairly against US. When President Trump put the tariffs

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Speaker 1: in place on China, I think that was an extreme

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Speaker 1: wake up call to corporate America. And when I served

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Speaker 1: as U s Investador to Japan, there were many companies

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Speaker 1: that realized very quickly that they needed to end their

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Speaker 1: reliance on China, and they were doing everything they could

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Speaker 1: to come back to America. What's the formula for that though,

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Speaker 1: we've got to make America the most attractive place in

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Speaker 1: the world to invest capital. President's Trump started that process

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Speaker 1: by going through a heavy deregulatory process making it easier

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Speaker 1: to do business. And then with the Tax Act, he

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Speaker 1: took America from having the highest corporate tax rate in

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Speaker 1: the world at and brought that tax rate down to

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Speaker 1: something that was far more competitive. That began a process

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Speaker 1: of America's economy taking off. We brought back five thousand

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Speaker 1: new manufacturing jobs during that period. Up. Well, now I'm

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Speaker 1: more in especially but especially Senator Bill Haggerty. I mean,

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Speaker 1: this is a week when Senator Elizabeth Warren was on

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Speaker 1: this program and said that there needs to be a

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Speaker 1: wealth tax. So I mean, so, how do you how

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Speaker 1: do you fight for that type of de regulatory policy

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Speaker 1: when literally in the same week you've got Senator Warren

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Speaker 1: proposing that ultra millionaires should should be taxed more on

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Speaker 1: their income and and and I guess I'm trying to

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Speaker 1: tie it to the geopolitical angle. Well, that's my job

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Speaker 1: here in the Senator to fight every day so Elizabeth

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Speaker 1: Warren's programs do not become law. There are very few

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Speaker 1: people like me who have a real business background, and

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Speaker 1: my voice is going to be very important here to

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Speaker 1: make certain that people understand that investment capital comes where

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Speaker 1: the environment attracts it. And if Elizabeth Warren and others

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Speaker 1: want to make America inhospitable to capital or the creation

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Speaker 1: of wealth, that capital will move to other markets, That

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Speaker 1: capital will go elsewhere. People vote with their feet, as

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Speaker 1: do companies. So we have to stay focused on getting

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Speaker 1: more capital investment here that that will beget more jobs,

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Speaker 1: that will beget more economic prosperity. That's the way he

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Speaker 1: wins by growing, not by shrinking. We're just a couple

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Speaker 1: of more questions on this issue of of of Asia

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Speaker 1: in particular and and the the competitive economic race with

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Speaker 1: China on the technology front, because there's we've been also

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Speaker 1: talking about this semiconductor shortage and the reliance upon China

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Speaker 1: UH and various companies in the Shenjang Province UH for

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Speaker 1: for various parts of these semi conductor chips. When you,

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Speaker 1: in your service as ambassador to Japan, UH did did

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Speaker 1: the United States? What what did you glean in terms

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Speaker 1: of the economic relationships that the United States should have

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Speaker 1: in Japan? Again, in order to make sure that that

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Speaker 1: China isn't gaining uh too much reliance or that we're

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Speaker 1: not gaining too much reliance on China in these supply chains.

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Speaker 1: I think Japan is a critical partner to us. If

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Speaker 1: you think about the size of the Japanese economy, after

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Speaker 1: the United States and China, Japan is the third large

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Speaker 1: is economy in the world. We have an extremely strong

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Speaker 1: strategic alliance you you may you may know this, many

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Speaker 1: of your your listeners may already know this, but we

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Speaker 1: have more you more US military station in Japan than

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Speaker 1: any place else in the world. Why is that Because

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Speaker 1: Japan is located in a very tough region. You've got

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Speaker 1: North Korea, Russia, and China right at your doorstep. And

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Speaker 1: as a result, we have an extraordinarily strong strategic relationship

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Speaker 1: with Japan that we need to make stronger. They are

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Speaker 1: our strongest ally in the Asia Pacific, of not in

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Speaker 1: the world. So those are the countries that we need

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Speaker 1: to have stronger, tighter and closer economic bonds with. And

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Speaker 1: we need to acknowledge the fact that countries like China

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Speaker 1: don't play by the same set of rules. They have

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Speaker 1: a very large market. I'm not advocating that we ignore

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Speaker 1: their marketplace at all. But we need to use strength.

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Speaker 1: We need to to force them to compete on terms

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Speaker 1: that are fair and reciprocal. Uh. And we need to

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Speaker 1: stand tall when they don't. And in a market like

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Speaker 1: America is the most attractive market in the world, that

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Speaker 1: they want to access our markets, they better start playing

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Speaker 1: by our rules. Also, the train position director for John

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Speaker 1: McCain's two thousand and eight presidential campaign, and he brought

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Speaker 1: major league soccer to Nashville. What is that like? Did

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Speaker 1: you get Keith Urban in the stands? Uh? You know,

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Speaker 1: we we we only had one game before the pandemic

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Speaker 1: hit us. And um, you know our our our you

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Speaker 1: know that process of bringing a major league soccer to

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Speaker 1: Nashville is so much FUNM a soccer fan. Great great

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Speaker 1: state and and and Nashville is a great entertainment city.

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Speaker 1: We already have an NFL team and the Titans we have.

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Speaker 1: You know, if you think about an unlikely success story,

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Speaker 1: that's the NHL team, the Predators in Nashville team you know,

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Speaker 1: like crazy, kids don't grow up playing hockey at every

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Speaker 1: high school. I can tell you that in the South.

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Speaker 1: But Nashville is a great entertainment town. I could see

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Speaker 1: a void in terms of having something that the millennial

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Speaker 1: population would really be attracted to. And you know, soccer

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Speaker 1: fits that. My kids grew up playing soccer, they still do.

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Speaker 1: They love it. And you look around the state, you

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Speaker 1: look around the nation, so occer is growing. So that

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Speaker 1: was an opportunity for us to really thank and they're

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Speaker 1: fun games. I was. I became a d C United

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Speaker 1: fan because I'm a massive Philadelphia sports fan, but I

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Speaker 1: will say this, I became a d C United soccer

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Speaker 1: fan because of the work that DC Score does in

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Speaker 1: the Greater d C. Region. They do a lot of

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Speaker 1: philanthropy as well. Senator Bill Haggarty, I hope you'll come

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Speaker 1: back on and talk to us all right. Thank you

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Speaker 1: very much. Great to be on with you, Kevin,