- 6/9/2025
On Thursday, the White House held a discussion on the Republican budget with Stephen Miller, Russell Vought, and James Braid.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Okay, we're here at the White House to talk about a critical piece of legislation,
00:05as the president's called it, the one big, beautiful bill.
00:08Stephen, you were with the president and us on the campaign trail as the president traveled the country talking to voters
00:14and making commitments and promises on what he would deliver.
00:18We're now here with our first key piece of legislation.
00:22How did we get here? How has he turned those campaign promises into actual text?
00:26Yeah, so the most important thing in politics in America is honoring the promises that you make to the American people,
00:35that sacred trust between the voter and the man they elect, in this case, the president of the United States.
00:40I, like you, traveled with the president all across the country, packed arenas, packed airport fields, packed stadiums,
00:49and in every one of those campaign rallies, he made a series of very specific promises
00:54that helped propel him to a land of sight of victory.
00:57No tax on tips. No tax on Social Security. No tax on overtime.
01:01No tax you can deduct if you get an American-made car of the interest from your taxes.
01:06Building the Golden Dome to provide a missile defense shield for the United States of America.
01:11Passing comprehensive border security and immigration enforcement legislation
01:16to both seal up the southern border on a permanent basis and get the people here who don't belong back home.
01:23Also, fighting radical transgender insanity.
01:27Also, unleashing American energy.
01:30Deregulating our economy so we can have job growth.
01:32Making the Trump tax cuts permanent.
01:34I could go on and on and on.
01:36Each and every one of those promises is codified in this legislation.
01:41It is literally as though you took a campaign rally speech and turned it into a bill.
01:46The reason it is, the big, beautiful bill, is because it is a campaign speech turned into a piece of legislation.
01:54Which is why I'm so proud of the House Republicans for passing this bill
01:59and honoring our shared promise to the American people.
02:02So now it's headed over to the Senate.
02:04And, I mean, you click through.
02:05I mean, we have three pages here.
02:07You go on and on.
02:20Who benefits from this?
02:22Well, first and foremost, the working and middle class people of this country benefit.
02:26For one, according to our estimates, you're going to see a $13,000 average increase
02:30in take-home pay for the typical family.
02:32$13,000 through both the combination of economic growth that this bill will unleash
02:37as well as the historic tax cuts that will be unleashed.
02:40Again, you're talking about not only making the Trump tax cuts permanent,
02:44but the largest package of working class, middle class tax relief that has ever been proposed.
02:49You combine that with unleashing American energy, getting rid of wasteful regulations,
02:54and also, very importantly, getting the illegal aliens out of the country
02:58who are driving down wages for working people.
03:00This is the most working class bill that has ever been proposed.
03:03I've been in what people call the conservative movement for my entire life,
03:10since I was a child, since I was in high school.
03:13I never dreamed that we could have a bill as conservative, as transformative,
03:19as pro-American as this legislation is.
03:23This is the most populous pro-American bill.
03:26This is the MAGA agenda in legislative form.
03:29I could not be prouder of the people, including the two men to my left,
03:33who worked with our closest allies in Congress to make this bill into a reality.
03:38Well, that's great.
03:39And so, Russ Vogt, director of OMB, I saw you on Will Cain this week,
03:46where your sister emailed in to make sure you pronounced your last name right.
03:50So, Russ Vogt.
03:51Who's talking about it?
03:51No, you know, one of the things, obviously, we talked a lot about last year
03:55and into this year was inflation, record high inflation under Biden.
04:04And there's been some efforts early on to address that.
04:08How does this piece of legislation address the cost of living for the American people?
04:13Across the board, I just need to reiterate one of the points that Stephen made.
04:16You have a bill that is so big on promises kept.
04:21Any one of the provisions in here would have been the kind of thing
04:25that would dominate the entire agenda for an entire year,
04:28and we have so many of them in the same bill.
04:31It is fundamentally not a budget resolution.
04:34This is an agenda-setting, agenda-promises-keeping bill.
04:40From the inflation side, let's look back to what Biden did, right?
04:45So, Biden dramatically increased spending, scaled it, used COVID.
04:50We had already funded what was necessary to deal with the COVID pandemic,
04:53and he dramatically expanded.
04:56And at that moment, you saw inflation really start to become an issue.
05:00They dramatically increased regulations.
05:02They sent energy prices escalating.
05:05And so, when President Trump is running on the campaign trail,
05:09his inflationary efforts are aimed at those three issues, right?
05:14Deregulate the economy, get people's prices down,
05:18get rid of high energy costs, American energy across the board.
05:23This bill furthers that.
05:24And then, of course, the spending driver,
05:27and dealing with the Biden spending regime and pulling that back.
05:31And this has historic levels of mandatory spending reforms
05:35in the—constituted as a work requirement and other reforms,
05:39but things that really drive our spending down.
05:42And I think it's going to—it's one of the reasons,
05:44not the only reason, but it's one of the reasons
05:46we're back to having the lowest inflation in four years,
05:50and we're seeing it drive down.
05:52We'll be below the Fed level soon.
05:54And so, this is on a trajectory that is exactly what he ran on
05:59and dealing with the Biden excesses.
06:01Steven, you had a post on Truth, or on X, I suppose.
06:05Largest tax cut in reform in history.
06:08Interest on car loans, fully tax-deductible if the car is made in America.
06:12Fast-tracks new energy projects and provides protections
06:15against future regulations.
06:17Terminates the Green New Deal.
06:18Cuts $1.6 trillion in net mandatory spending.
06:21The most pro-American tax bill ever, as you were saying.
06:23Jump off of what Russ was talking about,
06:27is how this addresses inflation and the cost of living
06:30for the average American person.
06:32Yes, well, so you may just listen to some of the examples there.
06:34But every economic provision in this bill,
06:38in part of this populist agenda that President Trump has led for a decade now,
06:44is geared towards making life more affordable
06:46and more prosperous for working people.
06:48The ability to go to a car dealership, get a car loan,
06:53and deduct 100% of that interest cost from your taxes,
06:56the kinds of deductions that normally have only been available to rich people,
06:59now are available to the middle class, to the working class in this country.
07:03The ability to get energy prices down even lower
07:06than President Trump has already reduced them,
07:08by creating a permanent structure for deregulating American energy
07:12and keeping it flowing long into the future,
07:14that's going to make life more affordable for everyone,
07:16not just the cost of driving, but the cost of heating,
07:19the cost of air conditioning, the cost of electricity,
07:21the cost of everything is going to go down as a result of this legislation.
07:25The Trump bonus for families with new children,
07:30again, think about who's going to benefit disproportionately from that.
07:32It's not going to be rich people.
07:34It's going to be middle class people, working class people who have children.
07:37They're going to get a Trump savings account for that new child
07:39automatically when they're born.
07:42And, of course, extending and making permanent
07:44the Trump tax cuts from the first administration
07:46that also disproportionately benefited the middle and working class.
07:50Not to mention, of course, as we've already discussed,
07:52no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security.
07:54All geared towards the people who came out in droves to elect President Trump.
07:59There's so much to celebrate in this bill.
08:02And, again, I don't think it's even possible to convey
08:05sort of the point that Russ made.
08:06If any of these things was done on its own,
08:09this would be considered a historic victory
08:11for the movement, for the presidency, for the country.
08:13In other words, if we had just did a bill
08:15that said just did no tax on tips,
08:18that would be, people would talk about that in 50 years, right?
08:21If Ronald Reagan had passed a bill in 1981
08:24saying no tax on tips,
08:25there'd be 15 museums out there
08:27talking about the time that Ronald Reagan did no tax on tips.
08:30There'd be a constant reel on the History Channel
08:32about when Ronald Reagan did no tax on tips.
08:34That's just one part of this bill.
08:36You know, take, of course,
08:37something that I've talked a lot about
08:39with you and with many others
08:40on immigration and border security.
08:43This bill fully funds the entire wall
08:48across the entire southern border, land and river.
08:52So, again, you think about promises made, promises kept.
08:57Is there a bigger promise
08:58than having full, complete, upfront funding
09:01that Democrats can never take away?
09:04So, in other words, it's there, it's upfront.
09:06And, by the way, it's paid for.
09:07Here's another point that isn't discussed very much at all.
09:10The immigration provisions in this bill
09:13are paid for by charging foreign nationals more money
09:17when they want to come to America.
09:18So, by raising the fees on foreign nationals
09:22who are seeking visas and other immigration benefits,
09:24we are paying for the wall, for the ICE officers,
09:28for the border agents, for the pay raise
09:30that President Trump promised the ICE officers
09:31and the border agents.
09:32So, we are literally paying for the defense of the homeland
09:35by increasing fees on those in other countries
09:38who want to come here.
09:39So, it's a win-win.
09:40So, when you hear Stephen talk about it,
09:42obviously, easy sell.
09:44How could anyone vote no?
09:45Let's get into the weeds a little bit.
09:48CBO.
09:49What's the CBO?
09:50How does it work?
09:51What is the scoring mechanism?
09:53And why are people using it as a way to attack the bill?
09:55The Congressional Budget Office scores bills.
09:58They have what we believe is an artificial, unrealistic baseline.
10:02Real quick, what does it mean to score a bill?
10:05You take a look at what the bill's provisions do
10:07and you take it and you apply it
10:10and compare it to current law and current policy
10:13and you say, will this cost more?
10:15Will this save more?
10:17What should the impact be of the various provisions?
10:20Generally, with CBO, we have two main issues.
10:23We have the first issue is that
10:25when they compare it to what is,
10:29it is skewed and is artificial.
10:32So, they make an assumption.
10:33They say all current spending,
10:35which we're on an unaffordable glide path, right?
10:38They say that is extended into eternity.
10:41It's called a baseline.
10:42When they look at tax law, they don't do that.
10:45They assume that if certain things have sunsets,
10:47even though those sunsets exist in spending,
10:50that those sunsets exist in taxes,
10:53revenue rates, that those are going to actually occur.
10:58And so, when we just merely extend,
11:00and we're doing a lot more than just extend,
11:02but at the general level,
11:04if we extend tax relief from 2017,
11:08they give us a $3.7 trillion cost,
11:11of which that's not new policy.
11:14That cost has been already a part of the baseline.
11:19And so, it's important when you're scoring something,
11:21when you're deciding how much something should cost,
11:24it should be as accurate as possible.
11:26When you adjust that,
11:28this bill actually reduces,
11:31at least by $1.4 trillion,
11:35deficits and debt over 10 years.
11:37Including all of the things that we do in this bill,
11:39it reduces.
11:40And that is before the economic growth that we believe in this administration we will produce,
11:46because that's the second big issue we have historically with CBO,
11:50is that they do not believe that your policies will have more than a static approach to anything.
11:56We call this dynamic.
11:58And it's typically in the tax side.
12:00So, not only do they not account for the fact,
12:03if you allow for a 60% tax increase on people,
12:07because you haven't extended their tax rates,
12:09that might actually have a poor negative economic impact, right?
12:13They don't assume that.
12:15They don't assume the recessions,
12:17the economic woes that would come from that.
12:21But they also,
12:21so that's horrifying.
12:23But they also don't then assume that if you have policies like no tax on tips
12:29and no tax on overtimes that are encouraging people to stay and work more and have more productivity,
12:35that that's going to lead to higher levels of economic growth than you would ordinarily assume.
12:41And so, that really is the big argument right now that we're having with CBO.
12:45And unfortunately, it's not just CBO.
12:47It is all of the watchdog groups in this town,
12:50who, by the way, are policy agnostic.
12:54So, unlike this president and his administration that are trying to do a lot of different things
12:59because we have made promises to the American people,
13:02the president has made promises to the American people,
13:04they are looking at this through one small prism,
13:08and they are saying, by our artificial baseline, this impacts the deficit.
13:12Not only are they wrong, but they are being irresponsible
13:16because we are not policy agnostic.
13:18The president ran and won a landslide,
13:21making certain promises to the American people that need to be kept.
13:25And this is a bill, not a budget resolution, mind you.
13:28This is not a bill that's, you know, hey, what is our full budget picture?
13:33This is a procedural bill that is allowed to get through the Senate
13:38and avoid the Senate filibuster,
13:41in which you want to get as much of your agenda into it as possible.
13:44And as a result, it certainly needs to be scored,
13:48but it's important that it be accurate.
13:50Let me, I want to break down some of this deficit stuff,
13:53some of the CBO issues, because I think it's really important.
13:56Believe it or not, I actually was on the,
13:59I was a staffer in the Budget Committee for two years,
14:01so for two years I had to learn everything I wanted to know
14:03about the Congressional Budget Office and scoring rules and budget rules.
14:06So, it's going to get a little bit wonky,
14:09but these are really important points,
14:10so I want to pick up a little bit on what Russ said.
14:12So, every year in, at the end of the fiscal year, September 30th,
14:19all government funding expires.
14:20It goes down to zero, right?
14:22It goes down to zero.
14:24So, the, so if you were to do a score over spending over the next 10 years,
14:29based on what is known as, you know, current law, right,
14:32there'd be one year left of spending and then nine years of nothing.
14:35So, you would have a year of spending out of 10.
14:37So, if you were, if you were scoring based on current law,
14:41you would show basically almost no spending over the next decade,
14:44because spending all goes to zero at the end of the fiscal year.
14:48The Congressional Budget Office, when they're projecting future spending,
14:52assumes that more or less what you spent last year will be spent next year.
14:56Okay.
14:57Now, take taxes.
14:59Tax cuts, most of the time, because of reconciliation rules,
15:03throughout most of the last, you know, number of decades,
15:07have been on five- or ten-year time horizons where they have to be extended and renewed.
15:14And almost with that exception, they always are extended or renewed.
15:17It's just part of the law.
15:18So, the middle-class person is, say, paying 15%,
15:22and that's, say, for 10 years,
15:25and if Congress doesn't renew it, it would go up to 25%,
15:28without fail, almost every time.
15:31Eventually, Congress, usually Republicans,
15:34come in and they extend that tax rate.
15:36So, under a, under what is known as a,
15:39a current law baseline,
15:45CBO is not doing the same assumption it's doing with spending.
15:48CBO is assuming that every single tax rate in America
15:53is going to surge up to what it was before the last Trump tax cuts.
15:59And so, what they're saying is,
16:02merely because this bill, among all the other provisions,
16:07keeps the Trump tax cuts in place and continues them,
16:11they're saying the act of not raising taxes
16:14costs several trillion dollars, which is absurd.
16:17It does not cost the government anything
16:20to maintain status quo tax rates.
16:24Like, by definition, you cannot cost the government something
16:26by not raising taxes.
16:28Only a communist would make the argument
16:30that not raising taxes is stealing something from the government.
16:34So, the only honest way to do a baseline
16:37is to say,
16:39what is Congress going to tax in a realistic scenario,
16:45and what is Congress going to spend in a realistic scenario?
16:47In any realistic scenario, Congress is going to keep the tax rates from jumping up.
16:53So, what this bill does on the tax side by locking in the current rates
17:00and then by cutting spending almost $2 trillion
17:02is it reduces the deficit over any realistic set of assumptions
17:07by almost $2 trillion.
17:08I know there's a very long explanation for getting there.
17:11But, the bottom line for everyone watching at home is this.
17:15When you see anyone online talking about the CBO deficit score,
17:22100% of that is the CBO criticizing the tax cut.
17:27That is it.
17:28So, every reference to the deficit and CBO
17:31is 100% about your tax cut.
17:35It is not about spending.
17:37Spending in this bill is cut almost $2 trillion,
17:40including through the largest welfare reform in history.
17:42Very long, very technical, took up a lot of time, but had to do it.
17:45No, I think it's important.
17:47I don't think that people want to intend on attacking the tax cut,
17:52but the CBO and the scoring mechanism
17:54is obviously convoluted and complicated,
17:57and I think we'll kind of get lost on it.
17:59Hopefully the budget director thinks I did all right explaining it.
18:02I don't know how you ran it.
18:03Nailed it.
18:03So, not to continue the technicality,
18:08but, James, you've been owning this bill.
18:12You've been working the Hill, both on the House.
18:15Congratulations, helping getting it through the House.
18:18I know that was an important lift, an important part.
18:24People on X and non-social media are talking about single subject matter.
18:28Why don't you break this apart into a thousand different little bills
18:32and pass them that way?
18:33And, you know, I think that, to the point that Stephen made earlier,
18:37the reason you cannot do this is because we are doing a special process
18:41called budget reconciliation.
18:45The Senate requires 60 votes to pass legislation,
18:50and the benefit of budget reconciliation,
18:52where we're reconciling the law with the congressional budget,
18:55is that you have a 50-plus-1 vote threshold in the Senate.
19:00The reason you put everything together and as much as you can and everything,
19:06all of, as Stephen said, all of Trump's campaign promises, this campaign speech,
19:11and the covenant that the president made with the American people turned into one big,
19:16beautiful bill, is because you have one bite at the apple,
19:19and you have to execute absolutely as much as you can at that bite.
19:25And so for folks online saying, well, we should do short bills, this bill's long, it's complicated,
19:29I'm finding different things that maybe I don't like as much,
19:31the requirement of getting the president's agenda done is to put everything together
19:37into a single, big, beautiful piece of legislation.
19:41And that's what we've done here.
19:43So in that, the president has said, he said on the campaign trail,
19:46I don't know how many times he's said it in interviews,
19:50he's said it in office,
19:51no cuts to Medicaid.
19:54And yet Democrats are doing what Democrats do.
19:58The media is doing what the media does and says,
20:00the president is trying to push granny off a cliff and cut Medicaid.
20:04Can you unpack that and really explain what they're doing and why they're doing it?
20:07And so first of all, we're talking about Medicaid,
20:09which does not affect, in the main, granny.
20:13Medicare is the health care program for seniors.
20:16What we are doing with Medicaid and with other welfare programs is very simple.
20:22We are eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse using a Clinton-era technique,
20:28which in the past, before the parties became so polarized,
20:33had broad bipartisan support.
20:35And that is through work requirements.
20:37And the work requirements are if you volunteer, go to school, or work 20 hours a week,
20:43no one who does those things will lose any benefits.
20:47What we are focusing these programs on is the actual needy population that can't work,
20:53that's disabled, that has children at home,
20:55who need these benefits in order to continue and carry out their daily lives.
21:02That's what this bill focuses on.
21:04It focuses on a historically bipartisan effective method
21:10for eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in these programs.
21:13And we did it in the late 1990s, saved hundreds of billions of dollars,
21:17and brought more people back into the workforce
21:19where they got better health care than is available through the government.
21:24And we think these reforms and the reform approach that we have done with this bill
21:29is precisely in that vein and will be successful in the same way that the 1990s reforms were.
21:34I mean, you talk about the 1990s, Senator Dick Durbin, who happens to still be around,
21:41liberals, conservatives came together and said,
21:43let us put people back to work.
21:45If we are going to solve the welfare mess for good,
21:48take people off welfare permanently.
21:50We need to put them to work.
21:52Now, we're not even suggesting that.
21:54We're suggesting...
21:55Community service, going to school, these are all options.
21:58And again, it's just 20 hours a week.
22:00It's not even sort of a full-time requirement.
22:02So let's go on then to no tax on Social Security,
22:06another campaign promise that the president made,
22:10another piece of legislation that's packed into this reconciliation bill.
22:14How important is that?
22:16Look, I think, you know, when you look at the tax bill and the tax section,
22:23what do people talk about?
22:24What are people excited about?
22:26What do people are really interested in?
22:28It's those three campaign promises that the president made,
22:31including the four tips, Social Security, overtime, and car loans.
22:37And with the big three, tips, Social Security, and overtime,
22:40and I say big because that's the magnitude of them,
22:43what we're talking about here is a labor stimulus.
22:46We're bringing people off the sidelines into the workforce
22:50and making sure that people who do work more get paid more.
22:55It's about enhancing the dignity and rewards of work.
22:59And we think that's going to bring people off the sidelines,
23:02bring people into the labor force,
23:04and really create that economic surge that the president saw in 2019
23:08and we'll see again as a result of this legislation.
23:11So, Russ, let's talk about cuts because one of the great efforts
23:15that the president has championed is DOGE
23:18and the rooting out of waste, fraud, abuse,
23:22and it's been tremendously successful.
23:25Now, there's critics out there that say there's not enough cuts
23:29and the DOGE cuts aren't in this reconciliation package.
23:33Why aren't they?
23:34To James' point, this is a procedural reconciliation device
23:39to get through the United States Senate's filibuster.
23:42And so there are rules that are part of that.
23:45And one of those rules is that discretionary spending,
23:49that most people would think about is what funds the bureaucracy.
23:53When you talk about the annual process,
23:55about does the government get funded or not,
23:58that is all about discretionary appropriations.
24:01To Stephen's point yesterday, why?
24:03Because if it doesn't pass, it sunsets to zero.
24:05That is something that can't be carried on a reconciliation bill, period, by law.
24:13And so all of the DOGE savings to deal with the USAID
24:17or Department of Education to get woke and weaponized spending,
24:21to get kind of the CRT ideology,
24:25the rank wastefulness out of these agencies,
24:28all of that is stuff that has to be done with a different procedure,
24:32of which we have many, many plans, initiatives, and tools to do so.
24:36We just sent up our first rescission bill
24:38aimed at Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NPR,
24:42and USAID cuts of $9.4 billion
24:45that we're working with Congress to pass.
24:48So we have hundreds of billions of dollars on the DOGE side
24:53that we are working both with Congress
24:56and our own executive tools
24:57just to not spend the money on one side of the House
25:00while we do what there hasn't been even a conversation about doing
25:04since 1997 of dealing with the mandatory spending,
25:08which is on autopilot in law,
25:10that can be done through reconciliation.
25:13And so there is this misperception out there
25:15that this is a budget bill,
25:16that this is a budget resolution,
25:17so why wouldn't you account for all of your savings in there?
25:22And there's a legal reason for why we have not been able to do that.
25:27I want to just pick up on what Russ said.
25:29So there's a process known as reconciliation.
25:34Again, it all gets very technical.
25:36And in that, you're allowed to do savings
25:38on what is called mandatory spending.
25:40Mandatory spending is spending that is automatic
25:44and that doesn't expire.
25:46So these would be things like Medicaid, things like food stamps.
25:49That's where we have the largest welfare reform in history in this bill.
25:52Another kind of spending is known as discretionary.
25:54That's what funds the bureaucracy, as Russ mentioned,
25:57Department of Education, Department of Labor,
25:59Department of Commerce, the federal workforce, federal grants.
26:03That has to be cut through a process known as rescissions.
26:08It's a separate process.
26:09We're sending up rescissions bills to codify all of these cuts.
26:13You can also make these cuts through the annual appropriations process.
26:17That requires 60 votes.
26:18Rescissions requires 50 votes.
26:20This bill is not a spending bill.
26:24So in other words, if you ask me how much...
26:27If we wanted to do it, we couldn't.
26:29Right, we couldn't.
26:30If we wanted to, we couldn't.
26:31But the flip side of that is not only can we not cut discretionary money in this bill,
26:36but this bill is not also responsible for new spending either.
26:39There's no money in this bill to fund the Department of Education.
26:42There's no money in this bill to fund the Department of Labor.
26:45There's no money in this bill to fund the Department of Commerce.
26:47There's no money in this bill to fund the entire architecture of the federal government.
26:51There's no money in this bill to fund the entire architecture of federal grants.
26:54So, again, it's a thought experiment.
26:57If you pass this bill and then said, all right, we're done for the year.
27:02That's it.
27:02No more bills.
27:04Government funding would go down like half overnight.
27:08In other words, this bill is not responsible for funding government.
27:13This bill has two major fiscal provisions in it, reforms welfare and it cuts taxes, two long-held Republican objectives.
27:24And I think it's important to note, too.
27:27I mean, there's probably no bigger defendants or proponents than Doge than this team here.
27:32And as relating to this reconciliation bill, if we wanted to, we couldn't, but we do want to and we will.
27:40It's just not through this vehicle.
27:43And we have.
27:43We've sent that vehicle up to Capitol Hill.
27:45We've started.
27:45At least one of those vehicles that will continue to work on that.
27:47And the great thing is there's tremendous work that's been done by Doge and there's tremendous savings that have been identified.
27:53And it's going to take a meticulous and tireless effort.
27:56It's going to take the support, the continued support of the American people.
28:00But this reconciliation bill is different than that.
28:03And I think it's important to understand that.
28:05James, where does this bill stand now?
28:07I know you had a bunch of the Senate leaders in the White House yesterday talking through it.
28:14Where are we?
28:15So I cleared the House a couple of weeks ago, 2-15, 2-14, with one present vote.
28:21So a very close vote in the House.
28:23In the Senate, you know, we're having great conversations.
28:27The president's been incredibly involved.
28:29He's the best advocate.
28:30He's the best salesman, best negotiator in the world.
28:33You've got the best closer that there is.
28:34Right.
28:35And so, you know, I feel incredibly confident when I'm, you know, happen to be present for some of these conversations and see the president and see the impact that he has on these conversations.
28:44We're sort of balancing different Senate equities.
28:47The reality is, and going back to what I said, 2-15, 2-14.
28:51That's one vote.
28:52So you've got a very narrow pathway in the House.
28:55We've got some senators with some strong opinions about which direction the bill should go.
29:00But the basic structure and features of the House bill have to remain.
29:04But we think we're very optimistic, having great conversations with committees across the United States Senate to ultimately keep this product.
29:12It's a product that we're excited about now.
29:14We think what's going to come out of the Senate is a product we're even more excited about that's going to deliver on even more of the president's campaign promises.
29:21And, you know, ultimately, you know, we think we're going to get this done and we're going to get this done in July and basically have a huge down payment on the extraordinary campaign promises that the president made in the 2024 election cycle.
29:37I think we should talk about what happens if this bill were not to pass.
29:39So, number one, overnight, everyone's tax rates would go up 50%, 60%, 70%.
29:45Number two is the funding for border and immigration security would never happen because you would have to then get it through a 60-vote process and Democrats are never going to give it to you.
29:56In fact, worse than that, Democrats will use the appropriations to starve ICE and starve Border Patrol out of funds to try to shut down the border and immigration enforcement.
30:06You would also have a breach of what's known as the debt ceiling, which would lead to a radical spiral up in interest rates, which would then cause an explosion in the deficit and debt.
30:20In other words, the rise in interest rates payments would go up exponentially, which would cause deficits to go up exponentially, which would cause interest rates to keep going higher, and you would end up with a debt bomb like we've never seen before.
30:32So, everything in this bill is a massive win for the conservative movement, for the president, for the MAAC movement, for the country.
30:40The absence of passing this bill would be all those things that I just said and many more.
30:45So, to sum this up, I think, to the Republicans in the House and, obviously, the Senate who campaigned on making America great again, this is your vote to do it.
30:58To the Democrats that are from districts and states that helped elect Donald Trump, I'm thinking Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin,
31:08listen, this is a bill to honor the promise or the demand from the voters that helped elect Donald Trump.
31:14This is your opportunity to deliver on something that truly is and can be uniting and beneficial to every American.
31:24So, with that, I'd like to conclude.
31:27Thank you, everyone, for being here to try to work through the technical nature of a reconciliation bill,
31:32but, more importantly, of how it really delivers on behalf of the American people.