Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: We want to go now to Capitol Hill, where a
Speaker 2: lot of these conversations are ongoing. I'm pleased to stay
Speaker 2: joining us on Balance and Power here on Bloomberg TV
Speaker 2: and Radio's Republican Senator Bill Haggerty of Tennessee. Senator, welcome back,
Speaker 2: and there's obviously much we'd like to discuss with you,
Speaker 2: including your new stable coin legislation. But if we could
Speaker 2: first begin with tariffs, as that has dominated the news
Speaker 2: cycle in the last several days, how are you viewing
Speaker 2: what President Trump is actually using these levees for. If
Speaker 2: it was just to extract concessions from Canada and Mexico,
Speaker 2: or if this is really about raising revenue to pay
Speaker 2: for tax guns.
Speaker 3: Well, the answer is both.
Speaker 4: But President Trump was very clear when he imposed the revue,
Speaker 4: when he imposed the tarofts on Canada and Mexico, that
Speaker 4: they needed to do something dramatic to stop the flow
Speaker 4: of illegal migrants coming into our country, the flow of
Speaker 4: ventnol coming into our country, the human trafficking that has
Speaker 4: been the.
Speaker 3: Primary and overarching concern.
Speaker 4: And I've made it clear to my people that reached
Speaker 4: out to me for both nations that it's clear there's
Speaker 4: something they can do about it.
Speaker 3: They need to step up, and frankly they have.
Speaker 4: President Trump was clear about what he wanted to see happen,
Speaker 4: and the Mexican government and the Canadian government, we're both
Speaker 4: stepping up to stop the flow of funnel, to address
Speaker 4: issues at their border, to maintain border security on their side,
Speaker 4: and to be better partners.
Speaker 3: That's what he's trying to accomplish, and I think that's
Speaker 3: what he's achieved.
Speaker 1: Well, you're, of course a former diplomat senator, as you
Speaker 1: represented the United States as our ambassador to Canada, so it.
Speaker 3: Gives you to Japan, forgive me.
Speaker 1: We've been talking about a lot in Canada, a lot
Speaker 1: here in that period of time. Now, that gave you
Speaker 1: a unique view on these issues that maybe not all
Speaker 1: lawmakers have. Are tariffs or threats of tariffs, the new
Speaker 1: form of diplomacy in this administration.
Speaker 3: Well, Joe, this is an important piece of context.
Speaker 4: We've talked about it before, but the United States has
Speaker 4: basically the lowest trade weighted tariffs in the world. Access
Speaker 4: to our markets has been extraordinarily easy.
Speaker 3: There's a historic reason for this.
Speaker 4: For countries like Japan, countries in Europe whose economies were
Speaker 4: devastated after World War Two. We aggressively made our economy
Speaker 4: open to them so they wouldn't turn toward communism and socialism.
Speaker 3: But we should have time limited that.
Speaker 4: We should have put some sort of GDP per capital
Speaker 4: limit on it, because what we have now are extremely
Speaker 4: unfair and non reciprocal trade terms with many of our
Speaker 4: trading partners. President Trump has been clearer, he's just trying
Speaker 4: to bring a reciprocity to bear, trying to get.
Speaker 3: Us to the table with an even deal.
Speaker 4: A lot of these countries that don't want to address
Speaker 4: this do so because they have a better deal now
Speaker 4: than we do.
Speaker 3: We're going to fix that.
Speaker 4: President Trump has been clear about it, and I'm very
Speaker 4: pleased to see him take decisive action in that regard.
Speaker 2: Well, Senator, if we could leave the diplomatic hat on
Speaker 2: for a moment longer. I do wonder what you make
Speaker 2: of the efforts, or at least on the part of
Speaker 2: Elon Musk. And he says he is the President's buy
Speaker 2: in to dismantle USAID. What does that do to US
Speaker 2: soft power?
Speaker 4: Well, you've got a lot of significant problems at USAID.
Speaker 4: Some of the things that have come to bear, some
Speaker 4: of the things that have come to light in terms
Speaker 4: of US taxpayer dollars going to Dei Initition's transgender surgeries
Speaker 4: in Guatemala, things of this nature. I think the American
Speaker 4: public is shocked. And the fact that we're basically taking
Speaker 4: a pause, taking a very hard look and looking at
Speaker 4: agencies like this that have basically gotten out of control.
Speaker 3: I think the time has come. The American public are
Speaker 3: ready for it.
Speaker 4: That doesn't mean that we will not have AID programs
Speaker 4: going forward, but you've got Secretary of State Marco Rubio
Speaker 4: taking charge here. He's going to make certain that those
Speaker 4: those AID programs go to advancing US interest and not
Speaker 4: some of these wild eyed exploits that the previous administration
Speaker 4: and administrations prior to that have been on the USAID. Again,
Speaker 4: basically out of control organization. I'm glad to see it
Speaker 4: rained in.
Speaker 1: Well, we've seen some pretty interesting exploits on behalf of
Speaker 1: DOGE and by Elon Musk. It's not just USAID, of course,
Speaker 1: it's accessing the payment system inside the US Treasury Department. Senator,
Speaker 1: and we understand that Musk is now a special government employee,
Speaker 1: something that emerged in just the last couple of days
Speaker 1: with the Education Department. Now the next target as a
Speaker 1: senator providing advice and consent, would you like Elon Musk
Speaker 1: to come up to Capitol Hill to endure a confirmation
Speaker 1: hearing since this apparently is a government job.
Speaker 4: Well, the special government employee classification is about one hundred
Speaker 4: and thirty days. That allows people to come in from
Speaker 4: the outside, often people that are very capable, as is
Speaker 4: Elon Musk, to come in.
Speaker 3: And provide special advice for the president.
Speaker 4: It's a tool that has been used in administration's Republican
Speaker 4: and Democrat. I'm glad to see this sort of expertise deployed.
Speaker 4: Elon Musk obviously knows how to come in and streamline
Speaker 4: operations and make things work more efficiently.
Speaker 3: Look what he did at Twitter. So I'm very pleased
Speaker 3: to see him step in and do this.
Speaker 4: This doesn't require confirmation, it's not that type of position,
Speaker 4: but he is offering his advice, and President Trump has
Speaker 4: been clear where he wants to accept the advice. Where
Speaker 4: he feels Elon musk efforts are warranted, He's going to
Speaker 4: deploy him there.
Speaker 3: I've talked with Elon about what he's doing.
Speaker 4: I think he's got some very creative ideas about bringing
Speaker 4: much needed efficiency and actually getting far higher return on
Speaker 4: investment for the taxpayer dollum.
Speaker 2: But is there a rule for Congress to place to
Speaker 2: ensure that whatever access he's granted at Treasury, whether it's
Speaker 2: to the payment system specifically or in other cases, that
Speaker 2: it isn't going to interfere with the Treasury's usual business
Speaker 2: of paying bondholders and conducting auctions.
Speaker 4: Well, we certainly have oversight responsibility, Kaylee. We intend to
Speaker 4: fully exercise that. That's not what I've talked with Elon
Speaker 4: about doing. He's looking for efficiencies, ways to do things better,
Speaker 4: to stop doing things that aren't advancing us interest, and
Speaker 4: to do things that you doubled down on, things that
Speaker 4: are going to become more and more productive for US
Speaker 4: taxpayers and advance the American cause. It's not unusual at
Speaker 4: all to take a pause to take a hard look
Speaker 4: in survey what's happening inside these agencies.
Speaker 3: I'm glad that he's doing it.
Speaker 4: I think there's a lot of pro clutching going on
Speaker 4: right now and a lot of expectation that something terrible
Speaker 4: is going to happen. Know In fact, what I think
Speaker 4: is we're going to see is a new wave of
Speaker 4: efficiency coming.
Speaker 3: From all of this, and I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: Well, just wait for the pro clutching to start when
Speaker 1: you start debating taxes and reconciliation centator to ask you
Speaker 1: about where all this stands, because these were supposed to
Speaker 1: come as a package. Right, you'd extend the Trump tax cuts,
Speaker 1: maybe get some of the other things that Donald Trump
Speaker 1: had promised on the campaign trail, and offset those with
Speaker 1: revenue from tariffs that had been promised during the campaign
Speaker 1: as well. We talked to Scott Besson about that at
Speaker 1: length before he was tapped to be the Treasury Secretary.
Speaker 1: With tariffs put aside here, you still have to have
Speaker 1: a debate over taxes, and as the House drags its
Speaker 1: feet on this, I wonder if the Senate and your
Speaker 1: new leader in John Thune might help to lead the way.
Speaker 1: What's about to happen.
Speaker 4: Well, Joe I met with John Thune last night a
Speaker 4: group of us did We're continuing to advance the ball
Speaker 4: on this very subject.
Speaker 3: Again. We know the.
Speaker 4: American public expects us to address the tax package and
Speaker 4: where we're going to do that. We have a number
Speaker 4: of other issues that we're trying to address at the
Speaker 4: same time. How we do it from a process standpoint,
Speaker 4: I'm much less concerned about. I think the concern is
Speaker 4: that we get it done quickly, that we get it
Speaker 4: done efficiently, and I'm optimistic that we will get get
Speaker 4: it done despite the procedural back and forth between the
Speaker 4: House and the Senate.
Speaker 3: We're going to get it done and we're very focused
Speaker 3: on it.
Speaker 2: Senator, I'd like to talk about something else you're looking
Speaker 2: to get done in the Senate, and that's new stable
Speaker 2: coin legislation you've introduced alongside Senator's Lummus and jilibrand, calling
Speaker 2: it the Genius Act. And I do wonder about the
Speaker 2: timeline here. Is it your intent that this legislation be
Speaker 2: pushed through before broader market structure legislation, for example that
Speaker 2: maybewhere could sway through both the Banking and agg oriented
Speaker 2: committees in both chambers.
Speaker 4: Sure, and Kaylee, I'll add Senator Tim Scott, the chair
Speaker 4: of the Banking Committee, is on this legislation with us.
Speaker 3: We're very excited about it.
Speaker 4: This is the first step and we're going to do
Speaker 4: this first before we get to broader market structure, but
Speaker 4: it's going to enable us to take a very positive
Speaker 4: step in the direction of ensuring that the United States
Speaker 4: is a positive environment for cryptocurrency technology. Stable coins is
Speaker 4: one of these issues that I think the United States
Speaker 4: can be a leader on.
Speaker 3: It's time for us to do so.
Speaker 4: Look, they're roughly twenty eight trillion dollars worth of stable
Speaker 4: got transaction is taking place right now across the world.
Speaker 3: We need to be a leader here in America.
Speaker 4: This legislation allows us to do that, and I'm extraordinarily
Speaker 4: optimistic that we're taking that lead. It's going to open
Speaker 4: the door for many other positive things in the industry,
Speaker 4: and I'm so excited to have my colleagues on both
Speaker 4: sides of the aisle join me here. This is going
Speaker 4: to be an important first step to opening up the
Speaker 4: market here in America.
Speaker 1: Senator President Trump is hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjaminett Yahoo today,
Speaker 1: the first world leader to visit the new president in
Speaker 1: this second term. They're going to be holding a news
Speaker 1: conference a little bit later on that we will carry
Speaker 1: if you could put your diplomatic hat back on and
Speaker 1: explore what these two are going to be talking about.
Speaker 1: When it comes number one to a phase two and
Speaker 1: a cease fire. But maybe more importantly this report by
Speaker 1: the New York Times today that Iran is developing plans
Speaker 1: for a faster cruider weapon based on intelligence here in
Speaker 1: the United States. There are some who suggest this is
Speaker 1: the time now to preemptively strike Iran while it's on
Speaker 1: its Are you one of them?
Speaker 4: Well, Joe, the last thing I'm going to do is
Speaker 4: get ahead of the President and Prime Minister Netanyahu on
Speaker 4: this very important strategic discussion.
Speaker 3: But I'll say this, these two.
Speaker 4: Gentlemen are not afraid to point to the real cause
Speaker 4: of all this disruption in.
Speaker 3: The Middle East, and that is Iran.
Speaker 4: Their proxies, the Huthis, Hamas Hesbola, they've been behind all
Speaker 4: of this disruption. But this is Iranian funding, Iranian technology
Speaker 4: behind all of it. So I think the New York
Speaker 4: Times is right to look at the cause here. Finally
Speaker 4: you will see I think both gentlemen today who are
Speaker 4: meeting talking about Iran as the proximate cause for this terrorism.
Speaker 4: And what we've seen is Iran significantly weakened by the
Speaker 4: actions of the Israeli government. What they've done in southern Lebanon,
Speaker 4: taking hesbela down. What's happened in Syria I think is
Speaker 4: significantly exposed and weakened Iran.
Speaker 3: They are not the strong nation that they'd like us
Speaker 3: to believe they are.
Speaker 4: And I think you'll see a strong and united American
Speaker 4: in Israeli front standing up to Iran.
Speaker 3: But I won't go beyond the specifics at that point.
Speaker 3: It's good to have you back, Senator.
Speaker 1: We'll of course be listening when the bilateral news conference
Speaker 1: begins after five PM. Bill Haggerty, the Republican Senator from Tennessee,