WEBVTT - Jason Smith 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:05.440 Jason Smith of Missouri, as chairman of the House Ways 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:08.440 and Means Committee, which was responsible for drafting tax legislation, 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:10.639 had a chance to ask him how the new tax 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:13.560 legislation is going to change the way the economy operates. 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:17.880 Let's talk about the overall bill itself. Now, the bill 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:20.720 has passed the House Ways and Means Committee. Now you 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:23.119 need to get a rule from the Rules Committee, and 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:24.360 then you take it to the floor. 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:25.840 Is that the way it works? 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:27.200 Pretty close to that. 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:31.159 Since we're using the rules of reconciliation, which is a 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:33.520 tool to help the Senate get the fifty one votes 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:38.040 to pass pass any legislation, there's certain parameters that we 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:41.159 have to fall under. We had to pass the Budget resolution. 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:43.920 The Budget Resolution was passed by both the House and 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:47.240 the Senate, and it gave us specific instructions. And within 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:52.280 that budget resolution, it instructed eleven different committees in the 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.680 House of Representatives. Ten of the eleven have marked up. 0:00:55.800 --> 0:01:00.960 The last one is finishing up right now, the ad Committee, 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:04.360 And once all eleven are done their bills that they 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:07.080 marked up, it goes to the Budget Committee. 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:08.920 So let's talk about how we got to where we 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:11.600 are today in coming up with the bill that you 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:14.759 have passed through the committee. Did you meet with the Treasury, 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:19.240 with the Senate Finance Committee people, and the President from 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:21.039 time to time? And how regularly did you meet with 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:21.600 these people? 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:25.120 So we had the Big Six meetings, which was referred 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:28.200 to as the Speaker of the House, the Leader of 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.600 the Senate, so mister Thune, also Chairman Crapo of the 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:37.720 Finance Committee, myself, It had Kevin Hassett economic advisor, and 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:41.160 then also the Treasury Secretary of Besson, and so the 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:46.240 six of us met quite often. Typically it's about every 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:48.640 week to two weeks, and we've been doing that for 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:52.160 several months right now, discussing different tax provisions. But in 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:56.520 regards to my counterpart over on the Senate side, Chairman Crepo, 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:02.000 we talk, our teams communicate NonStop, and we've been working 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:03.160 pretty well hand in glove. 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:05.400 President get involved too. Did you meeting the President in 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:07.680 the Oval office talk about the bill or how often 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:08.160 did that happen? 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:08.640 I do. 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:13.680 Our President is very accessible and he calls me when 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:16.040 he wants to talk tax or trade or some other 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:21.359 items that's within our committee's jurisdiction, and so I've met 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:24.640 with him several times. On this on this tax bill. 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:27.880 Twice in the last two weeks in the Oval office. 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:32.120 I shared with him the main priorities that he asked 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:35.000 us to deliver on, and what I could deliver on 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:36.600 and what I couldn't deliver on. 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:38.639 Okay, so let's go through some of those. 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:41.680 So the main thing that he wanted, I thought, was 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:44.960 to get the tax cuts that we'd had before extended 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:49.440 for corporations and for individuals, so individuals will have their 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:53.160 tax rate be the same as it's currently Is that right. 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:53.839 That's exactly right. 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:58.120 The first thing in his first priority was permanency of 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:02.320 his expiring two thousand and seven tax cuts, and some 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:05.000 of the main items that we're expiring was all the 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:09.320 individual rates would go up. This makes the current rates 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:12.960 that you're paying taxes right now will stay the current rates, 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:16.800 regardless of what tax bracket that you're in. The child 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:20.560 tax credit was going to be slashed in half. It 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.120 would have went from two thousand to one thousand. We 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:26.800 made permanent the two thousand dollars child tax credit, the 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:30.200 guaranteed deduction, which ninety one percent of Americans used to 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:34.920 file their taxes, that got doubled in twenty seventeen. It's 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:38.440 roughly fifteen thousand dollars per person right now, and we 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:40.119 made that permanent as well. 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:42.800 So let's talk about things that President was famous for 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:47.520 morning and the bill No tax on tips. Is that 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:49.960 because people getting tips or paying a lot of taxes. 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:52.640 The idea of the no tax on tips to the 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:55.880 President was he was actually having dinner at one of 0:03:55.920 --> 0:04:02.320 his properties in Nevada during the campaign and the waitress said, 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:06.240 can you not tax my tips? And that's where the 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:10.240 idea came from from a waitress in Nevada to the President. 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:14.160 And so what you know, what we've. 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:17.320 Done within this bill is to eliminate the tax on 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:18.200 tips altogether. 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.520 What about no tax on overtime? What if you take 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:22.000 care of that? 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:23.120 We did. 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:27.159 We eliminated no tax on overtime. It affects about eighty 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:33.600 million workers across the country. And we put special guidelines 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:37.160 both in no Tax on tips and overtime that it 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:42.480 can't be high compensated employees. For example, by definition within statute, 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:44.840 a high compensated employee as someone who makes more than 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:46.880 one hundred and sixty thousand dollars a year. 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:47.680 What about now? 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.440 President also talked about no tax on Social Security what 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:51.000 about that. 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:56.760 So within the rules of reconciliation, by statute, you cannot 0:04:56.800 --> 0:04:59.960 touch social Security, and so we wanted to make sure 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:04.039 we delivered on this priority in reconciliation. And if you 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:07.720 want to know about the Social Security tax in like 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:11.320 nineteen eighty one, it was created that you were tax 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.440 free off your first twenty five thousand dollars for an 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:18.680 individual or thirty two thousand for a married couple, and 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:23.440 that hasn't changed in forty three, forty four years. And 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:27.520 so there is an item within the tax code that 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:32.480 you get an added standard deduction if you're a senior, 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:34.960 if you're sixty five years old or older. It's currently 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:37.840 about two thousand dollars that could be added on top 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:42.080 of your guaranteed deduction, and so we've increased that four 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:46.359 thousand dollars per person so that their deduction would be 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:52.280 six thousand. And that equates to anyone who makes less 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:55.640 than seventy five thousand dollars per person, so seventy five 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:57.320 for an individual or one hundred and fifty for a 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:01.479 married that they would not be paid any taxes on 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:04.560 their Social Security because of the tax cuts from the 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:05.359 income code. 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:09.480 Let's talk about the famous carried interest provision. 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:11.479 I've never heard of it. 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:13.440 Yeah, well I should disclose. 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:15.480 I don't collect carried interest the way I've structured my 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:17.880 affairs because I didn't like being criticized for it so much. 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:21.280 So I'm not a carried interest recipient any longer. It 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:23.560 is reporting the press that the President of the United 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.520 States likes to get rid of carried interest, and you 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:27.280 didn't do. 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:30.000 That in this bill, So is he going to be upset? 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:33.400 So throughout this whole process, David, I've had to thread 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.880 a needle. We have one of the smallest majorities in 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:40.080 the history of Congress, both in the House and the Senate, 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.640 and so I can only lose three people in passing 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:49.920 this tax bill, and so trying to thread that needle 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:53.000 where people are in the extremes in all areas, whether 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:58.200 it's the green credits, whether it's salt, whether it's other 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.240 various tax provisions. Just trying to find that balance has 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.520 been what I've been striving and trying to to do 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:08.680 in this bill. In regards to carried interest, I got 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:15.080 a letter from thirty five different members of our Congress 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:19.400 for being committee chairman that was saying, do not put 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:22.360 this in the bill. We can't support the bill. It 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.800 was a priority. The President wanted it. The President had 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:28.680 a lot of priorities, and I delivered on most of them. 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:31.480 What about the other one which doesn't affect me, either 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:34.080 the sports stadium exemption or something. 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:35.200 Is that did that get in there? 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:36.720 Or what I delivered on that one? 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:37.000 Oh? 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:39.080 Okay, So, but you're going to be fine. 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:41.720 You're going to be fine, David, because you've purchased the 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:42.560 team before it. 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:44.320 Takes Oh yeah, okay, good, thank you. 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:45.720 So it's only new owners. 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:48.440 Okay, okay, good. So I'm glad to hear that. 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:52.840 So okay, I was thinking, oh, thanking, okay, thanks very much. 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:53.600 I appreciate it. 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:56.000 So I saw it, which is a state and local 0:07:56.080 --> 0:08:00.840 tax deduction. It was limited to ten thousand dollars. Now 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:03.240 you've increased its thirty thousand dollars. 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:06.240 Yes, we increased it three hundred percent because it was 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:11.400 currently ten thousand. Now it's at three three hundred percent increase. 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:13.520 It's thirty thousand. 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:15.560 Unless you have a larger income than which case it 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:16.280 goes down a bit. 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:18.640 Yeah, it's thirty thousand. If you make less than four 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:21.560 hundred thousand dollars. A year and then it starts phasing 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:26.360 back down to ten thousand. So we've we've tried to 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:30.320 find what is that that good spot. Even talking to 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:34.439 my ranking member, he's like, salts just salts an obstacle 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:37.120 for both parties in that sense. 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:37.760 And so. 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:44.479 We've checked numbers like I've I've got numbers from Treasury 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:48.480 and the irs of the different Salt congressional districts within 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:53.800 our conference, and this thirty thousand dollars cap that we 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:58.960 have under four hundred thousand will provide more than ninety 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:04.119 percent of every one of our SALT members districts coverage 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:05.000 under this. 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:09.000 So it's a balance. 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:13.120 It's not everything that some of the SALT members want, 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:16.120 but I have members of our conference that doesn't even 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:18.600 think you should be able to deduct one dollar, let 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:21.600 alone thirty thousand dollars. 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:23.720 But it's a fair balance approach. 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:26.480 When do you think the bill will actually become law? 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:29.560 Is it before the end of the year or before 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:30.760 the end of the Congress. 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.480 My goal is July fourth. I want the President to 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:37.520 be able to sign into law on July fourth. That's 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:39.360 my goal, and that's the president's goal. 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:43.079 You are from the Great state of Missouri, Missouri. 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:44.719 Is there any other all right? 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:48.840 And did you grow up in a city, a big 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:50.760 city like Saint Louis or something like that. 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:55.920 So the congressional district that I represent, David, my family's 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:59.480 called it home for seven generations. My hometown is less 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:04.600 than five people. It's called Salem, Missouri. It's the county seat. 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:08.640 The population of my county is only about sixteen thousand. 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:11.200 So what is the main business of your district? Is 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:11.800 it farming? 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:12.800 Agriculture? 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:15.600 Agriculture without a doubt in manufacturing. 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.080 I grew up working on my grandparents farm. 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:22.200 My father was an auto mechanic, and so where I 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:25.840 lived was we had a single white trailer right next 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:28.280 to his auto repair business, which was just a two 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:34.160 bay unit, and my grandparents farm was three miles away, 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:38.160 and so I always spent the weekends, the summers, the 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.680 evenings working on the farm. And now I own that farm. 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.120 I purchased it when my granddad died. 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:46.880 But you decided to get into politics. So you went 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:47.760 to college. 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:52.719 Where University of Missouri in Colombia. Graduated with two degrees. 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:57.559 At twenty business administration emphasis finance and agriculture economics. And 0:10:57.600 --> 0:10:59.760 then I went to law school three days later. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.200 All right, so you're a lawyer as well, but you 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:03.320 did not practice law. 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:08.480 I practiced law for just about a year and then 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.000 got elected to the Missouri State House when I was 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.559 twenty four. Was one of the youngest members in the 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:19.840 Missouri State House. I became the majority whip, the youngest 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:23.320 Speaker pro tem in Missouri's history, and then ran for 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:24.720 Congress at thirty two. 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:27.679 Thirty two, So you got elected and what year did 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:28.960 you get elected Congress? 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:32.360 Initially it was June of twenty thirteen. I will never 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:36.199 forget my first day I got sworn in. My predecessor 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:39.400 was Congresswoman Joe and Emerson, and she led me down 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:41.480 to the floor. She was there when I got sworn 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:45.400 in entire with the Missouri delegation, and she's like, do 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:47.959 you know how to get back to your office, which 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:50.720 my office was her old office at that time in 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:52.520 the Rayburn House Office building. 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:54.040 And I was like, yeah, I can do it. 0:11:54.559 --> 0:12:00.360 Right, So okay, So now, how do you go from 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:02.800 being a young member of Congress to being the Waysey 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:04.400 Means Committee used to be Seniority? 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.640 How did you become the chairman of the Waysey Means Committee. 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:09.400 It's all about relationships. 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:12.920 I go back to that first day that when I 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:16.680 was sworn into office. My senator at that time was 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:21.600 Roy Blunt, and Roy Blunt pulled me aside and he said, Jason, 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:22.160 there's two. 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:24.880 Ways you can be effective in Washington, d C. 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:27.840 One you can be here for twenty years and just 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:31.360 build natural seniority, or two you can build relationships. And 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:35.760 so I made it a focus to schedule five to 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:40.640 fifteen minute meetings, coffees teas with every member of Congress 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:42.400 that would meet with me whenever I came up here, 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:44.720 because they all knew who I was, being the new 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:47.640 special election kid, but I didn't know who the other 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.680 four hundred and thirty four were. And so I just 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:53.760 started going through getting to know them, not asking for anything, 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:57.280 but just figure out where we have some common ground, 0:12:57.440 --> 0:12:57.760 all right. 0:12:57.800 --> 0:12:59.680 So it used to be on seniority. You work your 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:01.480 way up up and then you become a chairman of 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.920 the committee. Now the members of each caucus decide who 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:07.520 they want to have. And so you ran for an 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:11.520 election as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. I did, 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:13.960 and you got elected the last congress I did. 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:16.640 I've been elected twice now, as Chairman of the House 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:18.240 Ways and Means Committee. 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:18.720 I worked really hard. 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:23.679 I traveled to forty two of the fifty states, campaigning 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:27.000 for my colleagues and for candidates in eighty seven different 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:31.680 congressional districts. I did more than three hundred TV appearance 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:38.640 appearances trying to push the Republican message. And I met 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:41.400 with every one of the thirty plus members of the 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:45.440 Steering Committee multiple times, giving them the pitch of why 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:48.520 I should lead the Ways and Means Committee and under 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:50.080 what leadership I would lead on. 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:53.400 So what was your most effective argument for why somebody 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.720 from a farming district in Missouri should be the chairman 0:13:56.720 --> 0:14:00.000 of the Ways and Means Committee at a relatively young age. 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.680 Believe that our party is not the party of seniority 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:05.800 or who's next in line, but it's the party who's 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:06.720 best for the job. 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:09.000 And I felt like I was the best. 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:10.760 Person for the job. That's why I was running for it. 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:13.760 I wouldn't have wouldn't have done it. And I said 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:16.600 that if you elect me to be the chairman of 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:20.120 this committee, that the policies it's within the Ways and 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:25.600 Means jurisdiction, tax trade, healthcare, social security needs to be 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:29.120 the policies that reflect the priorities of the working class. 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:31.360 I'm a product of the working class. 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:32.400 I grew up in a. 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:34.800 Single by trailer most of my life, and then we 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:39.560 upgraded to a double wide. My mother was a factory worker, 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:42.000 just so that we had health insurance. That's how we 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:44.960 made it by. But I am so grateful for how 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:48.720 I was raised, because it doesn't matter like what family 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:52.040 you're born into. If you get a quality education and 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:54.080 you're determined to work hard and not give up, you 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:57.520 can accomplish just about anything. And that's how I view 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:00.720 everything that I've done, whether it's becoming the Ways Means chairman, 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:03.840 or when I ran for Congress, there were twenty six 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:06.920 other Republicans that I had to beat out in order 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:09.760 to just become the nominee to take my predecessor spot. 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:12.240 So when you were elected chairman of the Weaseley Means Committee, 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:14.080 did you call your mother and explain it to her 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:16.840 and was she ecstatic or what did you say? 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:18.280 She's like, what does that mean? 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:20.680 Does she tell everybody her son is the chairman of 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:21.600 the Waisley Means Committee? 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:24.160 Or she doesn't she doesn't like people don't care. 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:24.720 I don't care. 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:31.400 My friends and neighbors don't care. It's so funny. 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:33.760 I woke up this morning with the text message from 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:37.400 a high school classmate who's a school teacher in my hometown. 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:40.960 She's like, why is your face continuing to pop up 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:41.680 on the TV? 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.880 Like are you important? I was like, no, not at all. 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:49.240 If you want to call the President of United States? 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:51.320 How long does it take before you get a callback? 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:55.400 Most time when I call him, he answers, he's He 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:58.080 is the most accessible. 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:00.600 Executive I have or worked with. 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:04.440 I'll wake up in the morning sometimes from a text 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:06.760 message from the President at five thirty in the morning 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:09.400 and it's sent to me at like two thirty, and 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:12.280 I'm like, oh, no, he knows I was sleeping, you know. 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:16.600 So he's always working. He'll text you. I can text him. 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:19.640 He is so productive in regards to talking policy. 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:24.040 Now that you've got this bill behind you, what is 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:27.040 the highest priority when you get the bill through the 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:29.280 House and the Senate and you've ultimately how he his 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:30.520 life worth ceremony? 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:32.560 Is it to deal with trade? Is that your next 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:34.240 big issue? 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:35.320 So multiple things. 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:39.080 We have to get this bill signed into law, delivered 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:42.320 for the American people, but after it's signed into law, 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:46.000 I'm going to hold I'm going to hold Treasury accountable 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:49.400 to make sure that they're implementing the tax bill how 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:50.760 Congress passed it. 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:52.200 It's not always been fun. 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:54.320 That's going to be a big priority to make sure 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:56.640 that the tax codes implemented as the priority that we're 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:57.520 passing Congress. 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:00.360 But trade, trade is super poor. 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:03.640 Ninety six percent of the world's consumers are outside of 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:07.600 the United States. I represent a farming congressional district. We 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:11.440 were dependent on trade. We grow rice, corn, cotton, beef, 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.160 cattle in my district, and so we need more markets. 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:17.600 We need to eliminate those those non tariff barriers. 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:19.639 Let's suppose you have all this in the big bill, 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.879 and let's suppose it passes. The total cost of the 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:28.000 big beautiful bill, your parts and other things, is it 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:30.760 four trillion dollars or something like that. 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:33.880 It was the House number was you could not exceed 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:36.800 four and a half trillion, Yeah, trillion. And then they 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:42.240 had this ratchet item that if you didn't didn't make 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:46.360 two trillion dollars worth of spending cuts, it would ratchet 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:50.320 down to four trillion. And so our bill actually comes 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.159 in below four trillion dollars. 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:54.640 But part of the Big Beautiful Bill is to have 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:58.359 the increase of the debt limit. Right now, we have 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:01.160 a debt limit that's pull more more or less, it's 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:04.399 sort of expired a while ago. But you're going to 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:06.680 pass in this Big Beautiful bill as it a five 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:09.440 trillion dollar increase in the debt limit something like that. 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:10.840 So you're right. 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:13.400 The debt limit, David expired at the first of the year. 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:16.680 We're operating under extraordinary measures right now is what they 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.760 refer to, and it's projected that will last us some 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:20.800 time in July. 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:23.520 And so we have to address that. 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:27.679 And part of the bill that we voted out a 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:31.280 committee increase the debt limit. It increased the debt limit 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:34.800 four trillion dollars, which was in the budget instructions that 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:38.040 we were required to do. The Senate instructions is higher 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:41.800 with a higher debt limit, and so that's one of 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:44.040 those things that I'm sure that is going to be 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:44.800 figured out throughout. 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:46.880 I just get rid of the debt limit completely. 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:49.320 We've raised it over ninety times since it first was 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:51.919 put into effect in the early part of the twentieth century. 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:54.040 We've never really complied with it, Why not just get 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:55.600 rid of it? I think President Trump said he would 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:56.159 like to get rid of it. 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:58.480 At one point I was about to say, you, David, 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.760 you and President Trump are exactly agreeing on that issue. 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:05.040 And I think there's a lot of members of both 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:10.280 parties that that view the debt limit as like a 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:15.439 very poison pill that individuals have to worry about, and 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:18.680 when you think about defaulting on US debt, that can 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:19.800 create a big problem. 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.159 So well, you think it's unlikely that we're going to 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:24.600 get rid of the debt limit in this bill, We're 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:25.399 just going to increase it. 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:25.800 Probably. 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:30.240 I tell everyone, I've said this before the bills were 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:34.240 out there, is that pretty much everything's on the table 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:37.280 because we don't know what is needed to thread that 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:40.879 needle to get the votes. People will talk about different 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:44.160 tax brackets or whatever, and I would just say everything's 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:44.800 on the table. 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:47.280 Is your expectation the Senate will take your bill and 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:48.920 say it's really great and we're going to pass it, 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:50.000 or it's going to come back to you. 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:54.440 So I'm sure they will make changes. We've been working 0:19:55.000 --> 0:20:00.320 with Senate Finance. I've been meeting with numerous Senators have 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.679 been calling me telling me their priorities. We put a 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:05.840 lot of the senator's priorities in this bill. 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:08.600 So what is the best way to get something in 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:11.239 the tax bill? Or was the best way is it 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:17.000