John Thune, Senate GOP Leaders Hold Press Briefing Amidst Signal Group Chat Leak Scandal

3 days ago

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Republican leaders hold their weekly press briefing.

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Transcript

00:00Well, good afternoon, everybody. Last week's vote, I should say it's the week before last

00:08week's vote, not to shut the government down has seemed to create something of a civil

00:13war among the Democrats. And as they're sort of hashing that out, figuring out their path

00:20forward, we're going to continue to stay focused on our agenda. And this is this week is getting

00:26the President's people into place, continuing to process nominations so that the President

00:31has his team ready and ready to go to work. We'll continue working that we're going to

00:37be working on unwinding a lot of the Biden administration's burdensome regulations through

00:43the Congressional Review Act process. And obviously, we're going to stay very focused

00:47on budget reconciliation, which is part of the President and our presence in our agenda

00:54as we head forward. And we had a good conversation about that at our lunch just now. And we're

00:59going to continue to be talking about this with our members and having the end goal in

01:06mind that end goal is coming up with a budget reconciliation bill in the end, that extends

01:13the existing tax policy, which if isn't done will lead to a four and a half billion dollar

01:18tax increase at the end of this year, unlocking and restoring America's energy dominance,

01:24rebuilding our military, and making sure that our border is secure. Those are the issues

01:30that we believe need to be addressed in the budget reconciliation bill. And that's consistent

01:33with the President's agenda, and with what the American people voted for in November.

01:39So that's the that's the work at hand right now. And obviously, as we as we move forward,

01:45we're going to be talking closely, working closely with our counterparts in the House

01:48of Representatives, and with the President and his team and putting this together. But

01:53it draws a stark contrast with what the Democrats want to see. And that clearly is a four and

01:59a half trillion dollar tax increase at the end of the year, a lot more government spending,

02:04and obviously an open border, which is what we've had for the last four years. So we think

02:09that the work we're doing is going to draw a clear contrast between us and the Democrats

02:14and what the American people we believe voted for in November. So question.

02:18Leader Thune, with this text chain, there was some indication that the officials didn't

02:23think much of the Europeans. Doesn't that problem with this antipathy for the Europeans

02:28underscore issues for this administration dealing with our allies?

02:32Well, I mean, I think obviously, we're getting to the bottom of what that whole text chain

02:39entailed. And I think obviously, people are asking questions and they deserve answers.

02:45But I think that the United States right now is the recognized world leader. And I think

02:52the President's moves on the world stage, including the initiative against the Houthis

02:57in Yemen, demonstrates that this is a this is a new administration. There's a new sheriff

03:03in town. And at some point, I think the Europeans and all the other countries around the world,

03:07whether they like it or not, realize that. And I think they have to understand that if

03:12they want to have the U.S. support, they've got to do their fair share as well. And I

03:17think that's the message the President has delivered to our European allies. And some

03:20of them don't like it. They've been riding on the U.S. for way too long. And it's time

03:24for them to step up and do more.

03:26Doesn't that publicly, though, harm our relationship with them?

03:29Well, any text chains that are exchanged privately, I think you have to put that into context

03:34for what it is. I think you have to look at what the President says and what the people

03:39around him are saying on these issues of foreign policy and national security and not text

03:45messages that were obviously probably inappropriate.

03:49On reconciliation, you have a goal of maybe more than a trillion dollars in cuts. You

03:55want to extend the Trump tax cuts. Democrats have said that you can't do that without

03:59impacting the government programs. Can you guarantee at this stage of the negotiations

04:03that no one's Social Security benefits will be impacted at the end of this?

04:07Well, Social Security is not eligible for consideration under reconciliation. So that

04:11doesn't get touched. And the President has said, made certain statements with respect

04:16to Medicare and Medicaid. And so as we look at this process, we're going to be looking

04:21at where can we find savings that are associated with waste, fraud, and abuse in some of these

04:25government programs, notwithstanding what the program is. And I think every American

04:29expects us to root out. If there are programs that people are qualifying for or using or

04:36abusing in a fraudulent way, we ought to be taking care of that. And I think both Republicans

04:41and Democrats and anybody else in this country would agree with that sentiment.

04:45I think at the end of the day, what is going to happen in reconciliation is we're going

04:50to have to figure out how to extend the tax policy. And remember, this is extending existing

04:54tax policy. There are some other things the President wants to do in the context of that,

04:58all of which we think will be additive to the economy. When the economy is growing,

05:02expanding, creating better-paying jobs, typically what happens is you get more government revenue

05:06out less. In fact, the rule of thumb generally is about for every one percentage increase

05:10in GDP, you get an additional $3 trillion in revenue over a 10-year period. So growth

05:15is the driving, in my view at least, should be the driving motivation when it comes to

05:21tax policy. And when it comes to deficit reduction, it's trying to get this country

05:25on a more sustainable fiscal path. If you look at the trajectory right now, it's not

05:31sustainable. I mean, these deficits, we can't continue this. And so we've got to start making

05:35some of the hard decisions. And I think you need to look at every area of the budget,

05:39but bear in mind, obviously, that programs like Social Security and Medicare are incredibly

05:45important. But even in those areas, if there's waste, fraud, and abuse, then I think those

05:52are areas that we ought to be looking at.

05:55Later in the week, there were concerns about the single-file checks and their mistakes

06:00that were made. So should there be a full-fledged Senate investigation into this? Would you

06:05support a Senate investigation?

06:07Well, I think that's happening already. I mean, I think the hearing is still going on

06:10at the Senate Intelligence Committee today. I mean, they're up here, at least two of

06:14the relevant players in that conversation were in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee

06:18for a very long period of time in an open setting. And my guess is you'll probably,

06:23I suspect the Armed Services Committee may want to have some folks testify and have some

06:28of those questions answered as well. I think everybody has acknowledged, including the

06:31White House, that, yeah, mistakes were made. And what we want to do is make sure that something

06:37like that doesn't happen again.

06:39In terms of reconciliation, you'll note that we worked on it for many years as a budget

06:43scanner. So if you just look at a handful of tax breaks that are important for small

06:49businesses or farms, as long as the appropriations of small businesses have started to go up,

06:54the death tax, extending those across three and a half billion dollars a year, it doesn't

06:58even come close to what the President wants, a lower corporate tax rate, some hand-made

07:04incentives, some taxes on tips, on Social Security. He just doesn't see how it fits

07:10anything, so you're going to need an extension, just a straight extension of 2017 jobs cut

07:16tax act. Do you disagree with that? And if so, how do you see this fitting a square peg

07:23in a round hole?

07:25Well, I mean, again, you'll have to forgive me for being kind of playing inside Washington

07:31But what we are doing by extending existing tax policy is just that. You're extending

07:37the existing law as it has existed for the last eight years, since 2017. And so we don't

07:44think that ought to be offset or paid for, as you say. If you're doing new things, if

07:50you're doing things that are creating new tax policy or new spending, then yes, you

07:55ought to be looking at offsetting that. But a lot of the tax policy we're talking about

07:59here, including the programs that you mentioned, whether it's bonus depreciation or interest

08:03deductibility or the 199A deduction for pass-through businesses, that's an extension of existing

08:09tax policy. And so you're simply extending what already exists. And that doesn't change

08:15anything. That's basically status quo going forward.

08:18There are other things the President does want to do in terms of tax policy. And as

08:22the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee, other committees of jurisdiction

08:27look at the broader conversation about reconciliation, obviously we're going to be looking at how

08:32can we pay for, offset, fine savings and reductions in other areas of the budget as we look at

08:38potentially new tax policy.

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