Senate Republican leaders hold their weekly press briefing.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good afternoon, everybody.
00:08Republicans continue to have very productive conversations on how to achieve our agenda
00:13and working with President Trump on making sure that we are rebuilding our military,
00:19unleashing American energy dominance, making sure that there isn't a $4.5 trillion tax
00:25increase on the American people at the end of this year, and obviously securing our border.
00:30Those are the priorities that we believe need to be addressed, and those are the discussions
00:34that we've been having in our conference about the best way to achieve that.
00:38Obviously, we are hopeful that this week we can get a budget resolution on the floor that
00:42will unlock the process that will enable us to achieve and reach those goals, and so we
00:47are continuing to move forward with that, and of course we expect the Democrats to resist
00:53us at every turn, but unfortunately for them, when they talk about fighting, fighting, fighting,
00:59what they are fighting, obviously, against, or for, I should say, is a $4.5 trillion tax
01:07increase on the American people at the end of the year.
01:10That's what's at stake in this discussion.
01:13What that means, if you put it into kind of just everyday terms, there are literally those
01:19who make less than $400,000 a year.
01:23There would be a $2.6 trillion tax increase on those wage earners and a $600 billion tax
01:30increase on small businesses.
01:32That's what's at stake in this conversation.
01:34So say, for example, if you're a working family in this country with kids, if we don't extend
01:40the existing tax relief by the end of this year, then we will see the child tax credit
01:46go from a $2,000 child tax credit to a $1,000 child tax credit.
01:51So every family in this country who has children would face, per child, a $1,000 tax increase.
01:57And if you look at the standard deduction, now 91% of the people in this country claim
02:03the standard deduction.
02:05Well, under, if we don't take action by the end of this year to extend the existing tax
02:09policy, you would see that standard deduction cut almost in half.
02:13So about $30,000 to about half that.
02:16Again, hitting middle-income families.
02:19That's what we are talking about and that's what we are doing in this process is working
02:25on an agenda that will be good for the American people, will bring down the cost of energy,
02:30will allow them to keep more of what they earn, that will keep the country safe and
02:34secure for future generations, and make sure that we, our southern border is secure.
02:40And so all the associated problems that we have in the past four years in the Biden administration
02:44are done away with.
02:46This president has made huge progress on that front already.
02:49We want to become partners in working with him to achieve these objectives on behalf
02:53of the American people.
02:54Next up, Senator Barasso.
02:57All the things that Leader Coon talked about are things that I heard about this weekend
03:00all around the state of Wyoming.
03:02We use a lot of hunting phrases in Wyoming, one of which is open season.
03:05And for the last four years with the Democrats, it was open season on high taxes and on reckless
03:12spending.
03:13And that needs to end, and it's going to end right now.
03:16Now what the Democrats want to do, even worse, is have taxes go up by $4 trillion.
03:20It would be the largest tax increase in the history of America, and Republicans are here
03:25standing, resolved to not allow that to happen.
03:30The American people know, and certainly Republicans and all of us know what the American people
03:34want.
03:35They want things to be affordable.
03:36They want a growing, strong, healthy economy.
03:39During the first Trump administration, we've had the best economy in my lifetime.
03:44And I know when I talk to people at home, they want affordable prices.
03:47They want good wages.
03:48That's what we had that last time, growing wages, affordable prices.
03:51We do not have that coming out of the Biden administration.
03:54People want the common sense policies that the Republicans had in the past.
03:58They want to return to that, and we are committed to getting America back on track.
04:05Well, we just finished our Tuesday lunch, where we had a really great discussion, a
04:10fact-filled discussion on where we're going this week.
04:13So I want to thank our leader, John Thune, for giving us a very precise and very detailed
04:20path forward on an extremely important issue in the reconciliation package.
04:26This is going to fulfill not just the promise of what President Trump ran on and what he
04:31elected on, energy, independence, border security, national security, and then prosperity
04:39for every American family, which, as you've heard the previous two speakers, includes
04:43not letting their taxes go up, letting small businesses grow, and letting the American
04:48people decide how and where they want to spend their own money.
04:52So we look forward to this week.
04:54We are, I think, very united coming out – coming into this, coming out of lunch and into this.
05:00And so I think that this week will be tough, but it will, I think, result in a very meaningful
05:09and solid future for the American people.
05:19Sometimes it's just not hard.
05:21When I talk to folks in Oklahoma and I say, what is it you need the government to do or
05:25not do, it's pretty high on the list saying, don't raise my taxes.
05:29Prices under the Biden administration went up 20 percent with inflation in that four years.
05:34Please don't raise the taxes.
05:36Actually help our businesses to be able to grow by getting out of the way with regulatory
05:40issues.
05:41Bring the price of gasoline and diesel down so we can actually do more production and
05:45we get a chance to be able to travel more.
05:47Secure the border and make sure our national defense is done.
05:50That's exactly the debate that we're having right now.
05:53It's what the folks in Oklahoma have asked for over and over again.
05:56Quite frankly, Oklahoma is no different than many other nations and many other states in
06:00that way.
06:01People want to be able to see national security, border security.
06:04They want stable prices and they want some way to be able to tell their families, here's
06:08where the government's out of the way and we can succeed in our small businesses or
06:12grow our manufacturing and to be able to be successful.
06:15That's the focus of this week.
06:17It is the first step of multi-steps that have got to happen to be able to get this done,
06:21but we're ready to take the next step to get it done this week.
06:25Question?
06:26Yeah, I'm going to go ahead.
06:28If the parliamentarian rule that it's not transparent off the base of our disclosure
06:32reconciliation, do you think that will happen?
06:34Well, we are in conversations, as you know, with the parliamentarian about the best way
06:39to get budget reconciliation.
06:42We're trying to accomplish across the finish line.
06:44We think the law is very clear and ultimately the budget committee chair believes that
06:50that determination, but obviously we're consulting regularly with the parliamentarian on the
06:55best way to achieve the desired outcome here in New England, and that is to pass a reconciliation
07:00bill that accomplishes all the objectives that my colleagues are interested in.
07:04Question?
07:05Mark, if the parliamentarians are going to be facing taxes on the American people, then
07:11how are the votes going to be able to stamp out the opportunities that came to you as
07:17president?
07:18Well, my expectation had been, at least, that we would vote on the Cain Resolution
07:22today.
07:23We will see.
07:24Are they still voting on the floor?
07:26If they're still voting, that may get pushed and we may end up voting on it tomorrow.
07:30I think all of us are anxious to see and will wait to see what the president actually comes
07:35out with in terms of tariff policy tomorrow, but I don't think that should change people's
07:41vote on the Cain Resolution.
07:43The president declared the emergency to deal with the issue of fentanyl and the flow of
07:47fentanyl into this country, not only from our southern border, but also from our northern
07:51border.
07:52That's what the emergency declaration is about, and what this will do is undo that, and I
07:57think the president needs to have tools at his disposal to deal with what I think are
08:01national emergencies, and certainly, you know, the tens of thousands of people who are killed
08:06every week in this country every year because of fentanyl represents that, so I hope we'll
08:10have the tools to deal with it.
08:11The public administration acknowledged that it mistakenly reported a parole man to El
08:16Salvador.
08:17I've seen some of these cases, but some of these individuals have not been given due
08:21process.
08:22Should they change their approach to how they're dealing with these deportation cases?
08:26Well, I mean, I think that what they are trying to do is make sure that people who are in
08:30this country illegally who have committed crimes are going back and being sent back to their
08:35home countries, and I'm not familiar with particulars of that individual case, but I'm
08:39sure we'll find out more about it, but at the end of the day, the policy objective here
08:44is clear, and I think the president is correct to make sure that people who are in this country
08:50illegally who have been, you know, arrested for crimes in this country, be sent back to
08:56their home countries.
08:57I think that's a fairly straightforward assumption that most Americans agree with.
09:02Senator Grassley cut the bill, and he's right.
09:08But we'll see.
09:09I don't think he marked it up yet in the Judiciary Committee.
09:12I think he intends to do that.
09:14And my understanding is that the House is going to be suing the bill, although not an
09:18identical bill.
09:19But we'll consider that.
09:20I mean, I think this explosion that we've seen in injunctions issued by district court
09:26judges that are designed to apply nationwide is a trend and a phenomenon that needs to
09:33be addressed, and I don't think that's in any way what the founders intended the district
09:39court's authority to be about.
09:41Obviously, that's also being appealed, and so we'll see what happens there.
09:45But if Senator Grassley gets a bill through the committee, and it looks like we have an
09:49opportunity to schedule it for the floor, we'll give it our reconsideration.