01:09I think, as everybody knows, the Senate Republicans are prepared to do our part on reconciliation.
01:16We're anxious to have the ball and to run with it.
01:18We think that the bill as passed by the House and with the way the opportunity the Senate has to make some modifications to it, to strengthen and improve it, will be something that will make this country more safe and people in this country more prosperous.
01:35And so we're anxious to get to work on it.
01:38It addresses, as you know, a number of issues.
01:41It talks about modernizing our military, making America energy dominant, securing our border, and making sure that the American people aren't faced with a $4.5 trillion tax increase at the end of this year, not to mention significant savings achieved by the deficit reduction measures that are included in the bill.
02:00So those are all things that are part of the reconciliation bill that the Senate will be taking up and ultimately voting on.
02:07We have a planned, obviously, schedule in which to complete it, and we'll try and stay on that.
02:12But obviously, we're going to take a lot of input from our members and make sure that as we go through this process, it's done in a way that incorporates the views of Republican senators.
02:21What's interesting, of course, is the fact that Senate Democrats have said they are going to fight it with everything they've got, according to their leader.
02:28And it's interesting to me that what they are going to be fighting against is border security, modernizing our military, making America energy dominant, and they are going to be voting for the largest tax increase in American history.
02:42It would put $2.6 trillion in new taxes on people in this country making less than $400,000 a year.
02:49That's what the Democrats are going to be fighting tooth and nail for, in addition to fighting against all the things that I just mentioned.
02:56But Republican senators are anxious to move forward, and we are going to get this done one way or the other.
03:01It will take some time, obviously. There are a lot of moving parts, as I've said.
03:05But we are excited to be working with the president and working with our colleagues in the House of Representatives on the agenda that the American people elected last November.
03:15Senator Capito.
03:17Well, thank you. I want to, at the risk of being redundant, I think it can't be said enough that we actually have a responsibility here.
03:25We have a responsibility of the people that elected us, but the people that elected President Trump.
03:30We remember back in 2018, I do, in 2018, 2019, after we passed the 2017 jobs and tax relief bill that we passed, we saw people's salaries, people's wages going up, more people working in every single different, diverse category of our workforce.
03:51And if it weren't for the pandemic, I think many of us wonder, how far could we have gone in terms of our productivity, in terms of families becoming more prosperous?
04:01And so I think we do have a mandate to lead, to make sure our taxes don't go up, to make sure that we have our small – I visited small businesses while I was home.
04:13They are very anxious for the depreciation and the expensing so that they can grow their businesses and hire more people.
04:21These are extremely essential to every small business, which is really the foundational aspect of a small state like mine, where most of the employment arises and where people can stay and raise their families.
04:34So I'm excited about what we're going to do. We will not fail here. I'll make a prediction. We will not fail. We will bring forward from the Senate a robust product that will protect the American people, that will unleash our American energy, but also, we'll make sure that those flourishing days of 2018 and 2019, when we were on a roll, will return for every single American.
05:01You criticize the Democrats, saying they're going to fight against this with everything they've got. That doesn't seem to be your problem. Elon Musk seems to be your problem.
05:11Absolutely torching this bill here, saying everybody who voted for that should be ashamed?
05:16Well, look, we obviously respect everything that Elon did with Doge. On this particular issue, we have a difference of opinion.
05:24And I think it's rooted in the fact that he's accepting the CBO assumptions that are built upon a static scoring assessment of the effect, the macroeconomic effect, growth effect, that these changes will have on our economy.
05:39And all the modeling that we've seen suggests that the changes that are being made in the tax policy, particularly making permanent bonus depreciation, interest deductibility, R&D expensing, are going to lead to significant growth.
05:53And you couple the growth with the biggest spending reduction in American history, and you will see a reduction, not an increase in the deficit.
06:01So we have a difference of opinion. He's entitled to that opinion. We're going to proceed full speed together.
06:06Are you concerned that he could help tank this bill and whip members against it? Do you listen to him, or do they listen to you?
06:15Well, my hope is that as he has an opportunity to further assess what this bill actually does, that he'll come to a different conclusion.
06:22But nevertheless, I mean, we have a job to do, the American people elected us to do.
06:26We have an agenda that everybody campaigned on, most notably the President of the United States, and we're going to deliver on that agenda.
06:32And the legislation, as passed by the House, can be approved here in the Senate, can be strengthened in the Senate in a number of ways.
06:38We intend to do that, but when it's all said and done, we'll send it back to the House and hope that they can pass it and put it on the President's desk.
06:45And as I said, it does everything that we set out to do.
06:48It modernizes our military, secures our border, extends tax relief and makes permanent tax relief that will lead to economic growth and better jobs in this country,
06:57and makes America energy dominant, coupled with the biggest spending reduction in American history.
07:04Those are our agenda items, and that's what we campaigned on.
07:06That's what we're going to do.
07:07There are certainly members in your conference who want to see steeper cuts than what are included in this proposal that came from the House.
07:15You have yourself suggested to your conference that perhaps there could be more you could do on the Medicaid side of things.
07:21Is that something that you guys are looking at in our public conference?
07:24Do you see further cuts to Medicaid coming to the Senate bill?
07:26We are running all the traps to make sure that we have as a robust of a bill as possible coming out of the Senate.
07:34I think the House made good headway on a number of fronts, but we think there are areas in the federal government,
07:42areas of waste, fraud, and abuse that we can further identify that would make that a more robust package.
07:49And obviously, we have members, as you point out, who have their own opinions about how to do this.
07:53But at the end of the day, the math is very simple.
07:55It's 51 in the Senate and 218 in the House in order to get a bill on the President's desk.
08:00And so as we work through that process, we're going to have our eye on that prize, and that is getting 51 in 218.
08:06How realistic is the July 4th deadline, given the differences, the conflicting interests in the Senate?
08:17We've even heard that there may be discussions going on with the House on the possibility of canceling the July 4th recess to get the bill done, to get it back to the House.
08:29And how would you describe the difficulty today in getting this done?
08:35Speaker Johnson was quoted recently as saying that the negotiating process in the House was like trying to walk over the Grand Canyon on a piece of dental floor.
08:46That's pretty good.
08:50Look, it's very complicated.
08:52We know that.
08:52I can't speak for the House schedule.
08:54What I can tell you is that we're going to do everything we can to stay on what we've laid out,
08:58and that is to try and work through these next couple, two, three weeks to be prepared to be able to put that bill on the floor the last week before the 4th of July.
09:07And so there's a lot of work ahead of us.
09:10We know that.
09:11None of this is easy.
09:13There are, as I've said before, a ton of moving parts.
09:16But at the end of the day, failure is not an option.
09:18We're going to succeed, and the House is going to succeed, and we're going to get a bill to the President.
09:24The timing, as I said, is what we've laid out.
09:26That is our goal.
09:28I believe we can meet it.
09:30But in any event, it's going to get done one way or the other.
