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tv   U.S. Senate U.S. Senate  CSPAN  January 27, 2025 12:25pm-3:59pm EST

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defense department and the cartels are foreign terrorist organizations. as result this pentagon snap to last week we helped move forward troops, put in more barriers, and also to ensure mass deportation support of mass deportation in support of the present objective. that is something the defense department absolute will continue to do. today the more executive offices, executive orders coming that we fully support on removing dei inside the pentagon, reinstating troops who were pushed up because of covid mandate, iron dome for america. this is happening quickly. as secretary of defense it's an honor to salute smartly as i did as a junior officer not as secretary of defense to ensure these orders are complied with rapidly and quickly. every moment i'm here i'm thinking about the guys and gals in guam, in germany, fort benning and fort bragg,
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missile-defense sites, aircraft carriers. our job is lithology and readiness and war fighting. we hold people accountable and the truman agrees. the lawful orders of the president would be executed inside the defense, defense departments with it without excuse. there will be no better friend to our allies and no stronger adversary those who want to test us and try is. so mr. chairman thank you for what we today. i look forward to serving the troops. the warriors, the honor of a lifetime and were going to get to work. god bless you all. [inaudible] >> this right here is -- killed in afghanistan. i was asked about what i wear my wrist every single day. a trooper i with, soldier servant in guantánamo bay when as platoon leader. he was killed in afghanistan not in my unit but when i was there. it's these guys those that give the ultimate sacrifice.
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[inaudible question] >> whatever is needed at the border will be provided. whether that is the state active-duty, title 32 or title x peer because we are we orgy, this is a shift. this is a food business has been the past. this is the defense department will support the defense of the territorial integrity of the trend of america at the southern border to include reservist national guard and active-duty in compliance with the constitution, the laws of our land and the directives of commander-in-chief. [inaudible question] >> those will be decision made by the white house. i look forward to conversations about anything we need to do for securing our southern border. >> military training? >> are. >> are you going to change military training? >> military training will be focused on readiness of what our troops in the field need to deter our enemies. more rapid fielding, more rapid
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opportunity to train as we fight will be something we want our units to do across the spectrum. one more. [inaudible question] >> joint chiefs of staff and of the members of the joint chiefs of staff. >> i'm standing with the right now. look forward to working with them. thank you. [inaudible question] >> there will be an executive order on that right now, today. [inaudible question] >> hey, we're going to make sure there's accountability for what happened in afghanistan and the we stand by our allies. thank you.
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>> good morning, everybody. welcome to the grand finale. we and davos on high note here and a so excited and honored to be here. my name is sarah. i'm a host of cnbc, and we're going to have the conversation everybody has been waiting for, the global debate in the global outlook on the economy. we have tremendous lineup here. we have -- the minister for economy and planning in saudi arabia. his excellence, thank you. larry is a ceo and founder of black rock. christine lagarde is the president of the ecb. we have ahead of the imf and we have the president of singapore. thank you all for joining us. this davos has been very interesting. so much optimism and president
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trump and policies in outlook. i sort of wonder as an asset manager, as a risk manager, like she would take the other side? are you worried eglin is so excited? >> larry? got me? >> it's hard to hear. >> all, it's hard to hear. okay. i was just as he you if there's much optimism around the u.s. outlook right now and whether that was worrisome? >> welcome everybody. thank you. i can hear you. is her too much optimism in the u.s.? no. but that being said there's a lot, this risk in every economy. i can say much more forcefully there's too much pessimism in europe. for someone who is been pessimistic in europe for like ten years. my number one observation this week in davos, the pessimism
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i've never felt, the pessimism be larger and more profound. and i believe it's probably time to be investing back in to europe, focusing on it. i see all the problems in europe but a deeply the pessimism is too large. there's many things that needs to do. they need the banking unit and capital markets union which i could talk about later on. but back to the united states. i think all the ingredients for the united states will be, the continuation of its strength. the foundation of its capital markets, any entrepreneur, any small company, in a large company can find capital. and that foundation of capital raising allows much more
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entrepreneurialism, much more creativity, and so i believe the u.s. has the ability because of its strength of its capital markets which is really underappreciated allows us to rebuild itself, change directions, modify faster than any economy in the world. and i do believe the economy obviously changes depend on the political party, on the president but the room is the economy is larger than any one political party or any one president. obviously they could be additive to any economy and president trump's policies, if we are able to unlock private capital, and put private capital to work faster, easier with less regulation, was time for permitting, it will allow the use less dependent on its own fiscal problems. so those are some of the issues that could be worked out.
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no, there's not too much optimism in the u.s. and there's probably desha optimistic your in europe. >> i bet you didn't expect to kick off the panel with a vote of confidence for europe at what we've been hearing a lot is europe's economy is underperforming, the trump factor is going to be bad for europe. how have you digested all that? >> good morning to everyone. but i was going to say to larry that if ever you look for a proto--- a pro bowler jump come join us in your because you advocate europe in a beautiful way. so given where i am, in my quiet. maggie for monetary policy week, decisions coming up soon, i would just like to underscore what europe is good at. if i look at the scorecard at the moment, whether you look at debt to gdp, about 80% overall,l
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deficit for the euro area about 3%. inflation, latest reading 2.4, and strong confidence that is going down rather than up. interest rates 2%. huge amount of talent, huge amount of savings. and the big wake-up call that is really calling the europeans to action. so if the european leaders can actually get their act together, respond to this wake-up call and existential threat that could be identified, then i think there is a huge potential for europe to respond to the call. i'm also pretty optimistic, i'm realistic about the points larry made. we need capital market union. we need to keep the talent at all. we need to keep the savings at
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home and maybe it's time to import a few of the thomas that would be -- for one reason or the other from another side of the seat. >> why do you call threat? >> why is it? because as lily was suggesting if you talk to the ceos, to the corporate world, those that are making major investment decisions, they are not very upbeat right now. when asked them why they are not, they're making reference to the price of energy. fair enough but energy costs are going down as the recycled and other, -- going up innocent of the going when you consider electricity production in the euro area is now 70% originated. they complained about the excessive red tape and excessive bureaucracy. that's the wake-up call that we
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europeans, those in policymaking places have to really take to heart and respond fast too. there was this great incentive to go in a vest in the united states because of the inflation reduction act and the significant subsidies that were going to be given to those who invested in the u.s. i think the ira has essentially been removed and any subsidies under the ira will not be paid out. so people are going to have to rethink the prism of confidence with the prism of cost as is often the case, and the prism of opportunities. there's no question what is happening outside is a challenge but it's also a big opportunity for revisiting and deciding whether or not europe once to be a key player. but i'm contending that as the talent and the means and it has the ambition. >> were going to talk about the ira. first, if you could give us a
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global overview right now because you guys just punch a big world economic outlook and yes one is lot of optimism and soul group and yes, it's a lopsided around the world. >> great to be on this panel. we published our projections for 25 and 26 just before the forum. and what they paint is a nice picture with some undertones. nice picture because we project growth at 3.3% this year, and next this is a slight upgrade for 2020. five. but andrew the hood of this average number we have very strong performance for u.s. pirg we actually upgraded growth projections for u.s. by half a percentage point from 2.2, to 2.7. and we have sort of -- european
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performance and then with the rest of the world more or less a little bit down. these most important message to have for the audience is to ask the questions why. why growth in united states is so strong? why growth in europe is somewhat underwhelming. why emerging markets are not doing fantastically well. and the answer is primarily in the differences in productivity growth. the u.s. is marching ahead with high productivity because capital markets allocate money to dynamic firms, because technology turned to do business investment and then it grows into companies fast.
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because u.s. has relatively speaking abundant relatively cheap energy. when we look at productivity in united states, year after year after year as close to a percentage point. you look at the rest of the world, advanced economies drop in productivity vis-à-vis pre-pandemic times from 1% productivity growth and pushes growth up, the meager 0.2% now. even more worrisome in emerging markets, productivity dropped from 2.5% to 0.7% and low income countries from two to zero. so my first message is, the world is changing very rapidly.
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we are experiencing tremendous technological transformation. capital has to have long legs and go where it would make the biggest difference. and you look at capitol, where did capital go with its long legs? and went to the united states. and if countries want to move forward, they have to be very aggressive in opening up opportunities for entrepreneurship. and yes, europe has to have deep capital markets. it has to have a unified market that makes it possible to compete. and i want to say i'm a european. i'm a proud european. as european want to make an observation in terms of culture. united states has a culture of confidence. europe has a culture of modesty. when i first went to united
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states i went there, if something is done really fantastically well, my parents would say not too bad, that was the highest praise. in the u.s. you just move your legs and your fantastic. you blink and your great. [laughing] [applause] so my advice to my fellow europeans is more confidence. believe in yourself and most important, tell others that you do. >> good message. president tharman, everybody is wondering how the trump presidency which is so focus on economics and has so many changes from the prior regime, is going to change the outlook for the respective regions and economies. how are you thinking about it? for southeast asia, emerging markets, the regions of that you
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follow. >> first, let me say, i don't want to be a spoiler here. if you look at all the evidence on what ordinary people think and feel, they are not feeling good in the u.s., in europe, everywhere in the world. confidence is down. optimism is down. trust is down. so real task is how do we rebuild the basis for optimism in today's world? we're not going back to the era when the bretton woods institutions were formed. we're not going back to an era where henry morgenthau, the u.s. treasury secretary, said in bretton woods, prosperity is indivisible. just think about that. prosperity is indivisible. meaning, i can't prosper unless you are prospering. no one nation, even the largest, will prosper unless the rest of
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the world is prospering. we're not going back to the air. it's past us. it may have rested on a moment in time when the u.s. had an unassailable lead and had that confidence to say prosperity is indivisible. but what we've got to avoid is going to the other extreme of a real zero-sum world. and there's some tendencies in that direction but it think we are nowhere near it. we have to avoid moving in a gradual, grinding way towards fragmentation and towards some breaking up of the world into blocks. it's a real risk. so what do we do? using all the agency we have, the middle powers, india, asean, europe, japan, the international institutions. what we do in between those two extremes, between the
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unattainable ideal of prosperity being indivisible and avoiding at all cost a zero-sum world. there's a lot we can do. there's a lot that we can do. but start from the reality that there are strengths in each of our nation's, very well described. the u.s. has unique set of markets and institutions that drives innovation in a way that no other nation or region does. and as christine says, europe has human capital. i mean not just in terms of expertise but in terms of values. it's a font of the values that we admire in today's world. asia has a desire to keep opening up, to keep breaking barriers. asia is still striking fta deals and you now have uk joining the
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cptpp and there are several others on the waiting list. so build on these trends. the desire on the part of most of the world to stay open, to be interdependent so that we can all grow. so let's build a realistic basis for optimism, but starting from a position where people are dependent and today's generation of parents has very little faith in their children doing as well as of them. let's build a new bases for optimism. >> i don't think you would of any disagreement on this panel though. i wonder if you have spoken yet with president trump, or your prime minister has. have you shared this view of openness? >> i'm saying something which comes naturally to a small country. i know of other small countries the think alike, including small european countries. being small helps because your basis for doing well in the world is to be relevant to the
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rest of the world. you never look inward and you never get too complacent. you never get too complacent. you are always trying to find a way in which your company someone else's strength and some else is able to complement your strength. but i don't think that should be the province of small countries alone. we have no choice but to have that cast of mind. i think it also has to be the way in which the major powers thinking, and in particular if there's one positive come out president trump's speech yesterday evening at the forum, it was the way he spoke about china and the u.s. it suggested a desire for a new understanding, and a desire to avoid continuous unraveling of a relationship that is still profoundly important for the global world economy. >> excellency, two important questions.
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so in this speech here at the forum, president trump called on saudi arabia specifically and opec to lower oil prices. will you do that? >> so before you answer this question i'm just going to comment on what was discussed. >> i was going to belong to that as well. >> but i'll get to your question. the way we look at the world is in two lenses. one is data-driven to kind of explain to us why we're here, how we got here, where exactly we are. but also another lens of that is more future focus. what is a potential we need to unlock seriously. if you look at the first lens, there's tepid growth, but also the same time we the same people talk about tepid growth are talking about the potential positive promise of technological advancement and including generative ai. this economic stalemate needs to be addressed or disrupted. we can't stay here. keeping an eye on the second
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lens, the vacuum is like we discussed probably throughout a few days, the past few days, is intrepid leadership we need intrepid leadership that is bold but inclusive, disruptive but constructive, ingrained in the longview lake president tharman said, but also action oriented today to come get us out of where we are. >> you see signs of hope for signs of signals that there are directions or momentum in the direction of more leadership that is required for us to get out of where we are from. saudi vision 2030 is an example of that. you talk about complacency, president tharman, i think every day they in and day out complacency in saudi is punched in the face by saudi youth. we need to make this transmission can. every region come every con has its own initiative ir
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european deregulation or innovation, the use and the fiscal outlook. china and this new economic model and whether a a shift to consumption drive will happen, the middle east and stability of the need for more vision 2030. there are some pressing questions that the globe needs to address one of them is energy security or the energy transition. i don't think we can get or can afford not getting the energy transition story right this time. we need to get it right. energy supply, energy security is essential for global growth, global prosperity. the kingdoms positions is all about long-term market stability to make sure there's enough supply for the growing demand and there is a growing demand, whether it's the growing demand we see in the u.s. alone, whether it's a growing demand coming from ai, demand will grow we need to make sure we supply energy and most efficient way without jeopardizing energy supply, without jeopardizing our ability to use technology and
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collaboration to address climate change, which is serious. saudi arabia is in the front line. were in the most, one of the most heat stress trout, stressed areas. without giving the opportunity for developing countries and emerging countries for access to the value of energy. >> what about your transition since you are the master planning? how dependent at this point is economy on oil? because the imf did downgrade the outlook for saudi arabia de son extension of the production cuts. how are you tracking georgia goal of 2030? >> so vision 2030 is a long-term restructuring of the saudi economy. it's not a short-term campaign. it's not a short-term program. we look at her numbers, gdp numbers as one of the indicators that tell us where we're going. we care about the nonoil economy. nonoil activities today represent 52% of total real gdp for the first time. it's not everything.
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it's just the good side keep in mind. i nonoil growth has been steady. expect to close 2024 at 3.9%, 2025 at 4.8% nonoil growth in 2026 at 6.2%. number several revised down our total gdp that includes oil, gdp, that includes the function of oil production and/or voluntary cuts. what we really care about is transitioning from an economic structure that's reliant on resources to another economic structure that's reliant on productivity, , human capital. we are leveraging all our assets and keep those to transition from one to another. >> one more really quickly because this is brought up by the president yesterday. big 600 billion does commitment investment in the united states from the crown prince. how about rounding up to 1 trillion, as trump suggested? is that easy to do? >> i will tell you there is a long-standing, strong partnership between the u.s. and
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the kingdom that lasts so far, eight decades. we've worked very well on important work, global work with all administrations, the matter which administration is in office. this number represents investment, procurement, public and private sector. it's a reflection of the strong relationship what will spin and economy from the start of vision 2030 till 2030 is 12 times that number. >> that might satisfy him. you can have a global discussion these days without talk about inflation or that's been the case in the last few years, certainly. managing director, have put the inflation ginnie back in the bottle? >> well -- >> president nygaard just sounded pretty optimistic. >> that is a very, very good question -- president lingard. here is the bottle pictures of the ginnie. the head of the ginnie is in the bottle. most of the body of the ginnie is in the bottle.
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>> kind of getting stuck there the. >> the legs are kind of hanging still out. we need to push it all the way down. it is remarkable how much progress world has made. i do want to say something that we and our worries about today and tomorrow, we not always reflect on. when we look into the past, over the last decades every inflation result would require interest rates to go up, and the response would be inflation will go down but at the price of recession. this is the first time, so far, when inflation is being brought down, interest rates are still somewhat high. and yet we have admittedly below historic average, but still
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quite a positive growth. we have 3.3%, historical average was around 3.8%. when we look at the next stage, if we succeed to bring inflation down and yet retain the economy functioning so people have jobs, and as tharman said, they get more confidence, that would be a very good outcome. and i and i want the audienk itself the question. how come this time it was different? what is different this time? what is different this time is twofold. first, after the global financial crisis the world created mechanisms for economic policy coordination that didn't exist before.
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we have the g20. we have very active role of the bank for international settlements. every month the central bank governors get together. we had the imf using our twice a year meetings for policy coordination. and what that translates into is more consistent coordination when necessary but also divergent in policies when necessary. and the second thing is -- that is different, we have madame lagarde in ecb. [applause] >> larry, feel like i keep reading headlines. larry fink warns of inflation. we're not been with inflation. larry is very worried about inflation. why? >> i'm not terribly worried. >> do you think the market is
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being too complacent about the inflation? >> i think the bond market is the best reflection of what's going on in the world. it is a barometer for every politician come every central bank. it informs every day where the mood of the global economy, and i believe the bond market is indicating that inflation may be higher than we think. the ginnie may be coming out of the bottle, and i look at this in so many different ways that if you just think about ai for a minute, and the united states meitner davis and represent about 50 gigawatts of power. in the treatment estimating alone that essential represent and need 300 gigawatts of power in the next five years to meet the needs. we're talking about if you expand that throughout the world, that is my optimism about
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growth, but at the same time we actually are going to have a labor shortage witches could be driving up wages. we're going to see more persistent wages, and then the be a good outcome but it's going be an inflationary outcome. we are going to have material shortages with all this building out and so i think we are somewhat complacent that that inflation can hit us again. but i would also say if you look at where the bond market was even a year and half ago and where we are experiencing very elevated inflation, we had a very inverted yield curve. the short rates were higher than long rates. what we are seeing now is this is a normalizing of the yield curve. it also believe were kadena much more steeper yield curve.
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that's a function of forward inflation expectations. one of my fears is because of this complacency and i have not even said the most ugly word that facing economies, that's called the deficits and the debt, the debt of so many countries. when you think about the amount of capital were going to need to be financing all these amazing transformations, we have growing deficits worldwide. the cost of financing is deficits are going to come up. the yield curve is showing you that. i said it repeatedly here in davos. i could see a scenario, i'm not calling for but i can see us and it would have a 5.5%, ten year. >> real quickly, do you think the fed is it done cutting rates this year? >> no, they sell of room to cut. that will create a more steeping
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of the yield curve. i think the next few months of data and information will identify it. i would say to you, the economy is very strong. it was very strong in the fourth quarter, and evidence that we're hearing from different corporations that business is strong already in the first quarter. and so we have, and you see that in the labor statistics now. they may pause for another period of time and they may ease a little bit. i'm notl: worried about the short-term moves. but over the next year, all this materializes, could they revert and go back up? possibly. >> rate hikes? >> a a rate hike. i'm not calling for that. ..
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i think the chinese thought ãã an extreme fountain of, they know what to do, they are measuring the pace of the measures they are taking to strengthen consumer spending to get past the property market overhang. they have an extremely complex task of achieving all this in an economy that is not fully
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market-based economy. but i think they will get there. the goals might be somewhat slower than hoped but i don't see a situation that leads us to depletion every spiral. but more broadly, central banks and fiscal authorities have made mistakes in the last 15 years. at set us on a somewhat higher plane of inflation for the medium-term than the otherwise would be. but the fundamental advantage that we've had for several years now has been two things, the entry of china and some other parts of the developing world into the global labor market and global trading system and countries willingness to be able to resolve their products. it's been a tremendous deflationary force counter inflationary force but they are
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not past that. we also have now an unprecedented situation of aging and the entire developed world, the west, japan, increasingly china, the u.s. seems like in the population ã ãeven though it's not coming down. but you got africa that's coming up. you've got india that is still going rapidly rapidly growing population. so if you think about the fundamental advantage we have for consumers all over the world in having an international trading system that allows for emerging countries with growing populations and growing workforces and lower wages to be a part of a global economy, how do we now replicate that in the next phase when we have the
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added disadvantage of aging in the western world and severely shortages that exist in europe already a very severe labor shortage. south to north. what we do about africa? what we do about some of the other parts of the developing world. how do we have a global industrial policy so we can benefit globally from higher productivity also lower cost of goods for consumers around the world i think it has to be an important challenge. >> i think when it comes to the inflationary outlook lot will depend on trade policy with the u.s. and tariffs. is anybody on the stage a fan of tariffs. nobody thinks it's a good idea. i wonder when it comes to the trade battle the fact that president trump indicated he's going to use tariffs to get
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tariffs on trade or national security regions or negotiations how does a country like saudi arabia fit in with the u.s. and china for instance have deeper trade disputes or even trade war you find yourself in the middle? >> i think we want to be in the middle. i think the position is to have a strong partnership with all of its partners and friends and that is something that is a value proposition in the kingdom that we want to grow but on tariffs i think depending on what objectives and economy has, it's been used as a tool. so long as its objective driven and time bound.
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it's really about the details of tariffs. what it would look like assessing its impact and then figuring out how to deal with it. the important thing is to keep dialogue on the table and keep the respectful discussion going and maintaining it even if it's been absent for a while or not where it should be and continue working on it. kingdom values its partnership with all of its economy since vision 2030 we created even a larger and more domains than oil and gas diplomacy because we understand better through vision 2030 what our economy needs to unlock its potential. >> both u.s. and china? >> u.s. and china. >> president trump yesterday said the eu does not treat this u.s. fairly entrce that he has big complaint is that true?
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>> this is a true or false question. >> is it true that the 㦠>>. [inaudible] [multiple speakers] what i believe is that he is looking very carefully at the deficit in the trade balance in particular focusing on that i think she has to look very carefully under the ããto look at the goods exchanges and services exchanges capital accounts, it cannot just be black and white. what is true is that there has to be negotiations there has to be trade relationships that are organized in a framework that is given confidence to the public. it cannot be about removing all the rules ignoring this institutions. the world has 119+ countries members of the world bank it's
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about all of us operating together. so yes you sit at the table yes you negotiate. yes some countries are in a stronger position than others but we all need each other. if there is one thing the europeans have learned over the course of time since the end of the second world war is that you cannot go alone, you have to work together. you have to respect each other's and you have to understand each other's so for that you sit at the table and you look and i would not say enough about the strength of institutions any literature that you have about stability about economic equilibrium, always reminds us that institutions have a huge value and that frameworks are here for players to know the rules of the game. whether you look at trade or financial regulations i know
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that ããbut there are values and having framework. but within the set of rules, that's how the world has to cooperate. managing director. you don't like tariffs you've been warning against trade section what you do in this environment? >> we look at the evidence and here's what we find. it's actually confirms that saudi arabia has the right strategy. we've seen over the last year's increase in measures tariffs as well as industrial policy
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measures. we have seen countries what the evidence shows is that trade among politically allied countries is higher than trade across politically allied countries but guess what category of countries is performing the best? the countries that are friends with everybody. so in my view what we are going to see over time is a reflection in trade and economic relations of a geopolitically changing world. more regional corporations more corporations based on supply
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chains, more engagement that allows countries to achieve their objectives. and in our institutions we look into how we can support regions. how can we work more closely ã ãso we can provide the analytical and policy encouragement for that kind of practical corporation. of many thousand years ago just we were a handful of people on this planet. today we are 8 billion. how did we get from there to here. by collaborating and competing and it i think there is no way we can wipe out collaboration
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from the future of humanity. >> trade and industrial policy as you heard from the managing
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director. it's happening by way of drift and. [bleep] for tat action. we are in a very unstable situation right now quite frankly.i think we have to take a step back there is a case for industrial policy and it starts recognizing that innovation is the key driver for long-term growth. innovation comes from capabilities the industrial policies that have succeeded in the past and i think through time are industrial policies that involve developing your own capabilities r&d, skills, developing energies across firms, developing your own capabilities rather than constraining someone else's. efforts to develop capabilities it's about developing your own capabilities rather than constraining another country or the rest of the world because the difference between the two is that the first spurs
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innovation and it spurs innovation through competition and the second stifles innovation and stifles long-term growth. the second point, which might seem old-fashioned but still entirely relevant and all the evidence still supports the proposition that grow level interdependence and some specializations that each country engages in is good for everyone.you don't have to be a purist you don't have to know what ricardo said, but the fact is, we all do better when we specialize at what we are good at and develop skill in what we are good at. it's very hard to depart from that. the whole history of import-based import substituting industrialization which we saw in that and part of the developing world and america and now seeing in parts of the advanced world effect in general it's led to massive ãã
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which means costs for ordering taxpayers and big losses. to develop her own capabilities do it in areas where we have some advantage, some accumulated skills, some potential to succeed and develop scale and complement each other in an interdependent world. there is a further very important case today for industrial policy and that is, we need to find ways of scaling up action on climate and associated crises of biodiversity and global water cycle that's out of kilter. it requires the public sector it requires intervention to frontload investments to be able to frontload the demand for new innovations and green
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energy and all the other technologies that are going to get us to net zero. if you leave it to the markets, it's going to take too long it's gonna be too incremental and in the meantime, the turning points to kick in and climate change and we get into a much more dangerous world. from time to time countries will feel they can put climate action on the back burner but climate changes not on the back burner. for you or anyone else. the more we put climate action on the back burner, the more we burn in the future the more the cost are going to be to address the situation and the greater inequality that we are going to face. so we do scale early and drive down the cost for ordering
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consumers off new technologies it's a very important contemporary reason why we need industrial policy. >> larry mentioned that the word. [applause] it's a whole another subject for another panel we don't have time to get into but i'm curious a show of hands as we are talking about the global economy, in the near term, how many of you have put sovereign debt level in your top five lists of riffs for the global outlook? everybody. what about geopolitical tensions? top five? why not? >> obviously it represents idiosyncratic riffs, we have to put that into your forecast. if we are going to grow the economy of the world it's not
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about focusing on tariffs or the issues like but whether it's a deficit or transforming economy it's going to have to be done by both. the more the global population is hopeful about the future, what one of the most fundamental problems this is why they have to be more dependent on exports. i think china is focusing on the spigot have more domestic consumption.
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we talk about tariffs and the what we do about it i can go back and look at europe and say if you're up can solve its own problems, not focusing on the problems that the u.s. may impose on it focusing on their own issues. it's about opening up the capital market union banking unit in to make europe europe one single market. europe is a amiss. it's a beautiful mess but it's not working. >> everybody's gonna take it back. [laughter] it's not working relative to the strength of the united states the innovation of the united states the entrepreneurialism of the united states. the ability to have it and then
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china's entrepreneurialism europe needs to be in the same footing here we are in 2025 now 16 years close to financial crisis and i don't see europe moving forward enough i see europe still focusing on backward looking too much. i believe all the elements are there. i more optimistic but in that to be optimistic you have to admit your problems. >> that's exactly the good point is that it's prerogative. i think europe is not a ms. smith. europe is not a basket case. europe is a fantastic case for transformation. i'm going to quote a report that was issued by the ããi agree with you with that. if europe was a single market as it claims to be, if it was,
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then it would remove the equivalent custom duties of 40% on its goods that are transacted within europe and 110% of custom tariffs on its services.i agree with you that is not operating and functioning as a single market i'm not the author of the report, he pointed it out and mario and rodney is pointing out what needs to be done about it. the real question for the europeans as i have said, corporate and policymakers alike as get on and do it. >> we have one minute left that means like short answer really short like 10 seconds from ability we talk a lot about the refs inflation tariffs industrial policy deficits one opportunity for growth in 2025 that you are thinking about mr. president. >> the most neglected dimension of strategy nationally in most
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parts of the world is social policy. you need social policy on an industrial scale. much more industrial policy in the narrow sense that means that means maximizing human potential at every segment of the population it means finding ways of re-creating social compacts so people feel some sense of solidarity even between different ethnic groups, nationalities. and it means very importantly thereby building the basis for political consensus to keep economies open and interdependent. those three things must go together the economic strategy of openness. the social policy of not leaving things to a social market but intervening to help everyone uplift themselves and the politics that then allows you to carry on being open stop if any one of those fails, each of them falls apart. >> managing director.
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>> remove the self-inflicted injuries. there is so much that's on the way of productivity and faith that comes from comes from misguided policies, poor implementation of the policies. it has to be taken out. i know you are saying one thing but i have to say two. >> i would second what krista lena just said. we have not discussed artificial intelligent and has been much discussed and we are not certain of the potential. i think we should make sure it's used for good to improve the state of the world and the
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world for all of us. >> we spent so much time focusing on all the problems. and when we discussed problems we solve problems i believe there is a great process to discussing problems because we solve problems but because we solve problems, there should be even greater hope. the world is better today than it is 10 years ago 20 years ago we lifted more people there's more opportunity more technology transformations. some of it is very fearful but i just look back and look back at the last 20 years and i more hopeful today than i ever have been. and it's our responsibility to provide that hope for more people. >> i think today we have more clarity in what we need to discuss as a result and there
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is a sign of more optimism. optimism is not just a gut feeling or reaction to environment it could be strategic decision. like any decision you can invest and then put in the hard work. to make the investment reap returns.'s epic reform and transformation is not a 9 to 5 job that requires people working nights and days i was asked by your colleague before one of the panels what extreme sports we play. i blanked out which is depressing within the first thing that came to mind was division 2030 not because of what we are doing that because there are so many young men and women working december 13, 2016 hour to make the transformation count. >> we are and where we started with the optimism. and that's why it's been a really rich economic job ãã
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thank you for participating. >> think you. >> asked. >> we are waiting for a senator to come to the floor to speak step today lawmakers will be voting to confirm president trump's nominee to be treasury secretary scott beckett. later this evening we are expecting a vote to limit debate on the president's nominee to be an area of transportation sean duffy.
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>> today marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the nazi concentration and extermination camp at auschwitz birkenau. we commemorate this day to international holocaust remembrance day. today we remember the six million jewish victims as well as victims of other myriads of other victims persecuted by the nazis. and we do this so that is never repeated. i honor the victims, there are survivors and their families by combating anti-semitism and
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preserving history for future generations. in 2023 simon wiesenthal center approached me about wrongdoing by the swiss bank named credit suisse and its internal investigations into the undisclosed information relating to the banks nazi ties. for decades we tried to correct the nazi confiscation of all kinds of jewish valuables we all know the nazis used swiss banks to hide whatever was confiscated. i went to senator whitehouse, chairman of the budget committee he and i issue the budget committee's first subpoena since 1991 to obtain a
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report that was developed by investigations independent of the fund. so it's very clear to handle this matter they lied to congress while smearing the repetition of the assignment wiesenthal center and the reputation of mr. borowsky. the bank even fired mr. borowsky which is why we had to subpoena his report. since then credit suisse as a
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bank collapsed it was merged and mr. borowsky has been rehired after our pressure. now the bank ubs owns the results of this inquiry. it also owns credit suisse past of mishandling this whole event. earlier this month senator whitehouse and i released updates from this investigation, shortly after, there were negative press leaks about ubs and possibly past disgruntled employees. the leaks contain lies about the work and the attack of mr. borowsky character.
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to observe conduct is in fact a spit in the face to the victims of the holocaust. the united states congress won't tolerate and shouldn't tolerate that kind of evil here in the 21st century. and neither will those brave souls long past that lived through the nazi evil. they stand guard as a spiritual strength so let this be a message to the bank obstructionist that this center of the chair of the judiciary committee i will leave no stone unturned when it comes to nazi evils.
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i might add is without consulting congress and without fully appreciating the damage own taxpayers and our ability to set tax policy or u.s. multinational firms. the tax cuts and jobs act help create an environment where american businesses to thrive in the global stage and i'm committed to working with mr. bessent and the trump administration to protect american businesses and ensure we do not enter into that put u.s. businesses as at a disadvantage. this afternoon we will be voting, and evoke culture on the nomination of sean duffy to be secretary of transportation. mr. duffy brings valuable experience that will help in managing our nation's sprawling transportation system. he has important work ahead of them. in recent years there been a number of challenges in the transportation sector. we've seen serious safety concerns affect air travel, issues that are ports led to
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supply-chain challenges.the pilot shortage has resulted in reduced air service and parts of the country. all the while the biden administration seem to be focused on forcing americans into electric vehicles and forcing progressive ideology in transportation policy. mr. president, the american people expect to have a safe and efficient transportation system and that's the top priority of the transportation department. and it's what sean duffy is focused on. as a five term congressman and cochair of the great lakes task force mr. duffy worked with republicans and democrats in the house and the senate on a number of infrastructure projects including the replacement of decades-old structurally deficient bridge connecting wisconsin and minnesota and upgrading the sewer lots. our colleague senator baldwin has called mr. w, "the right person for the job" and earned
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a unanimous bipartisan vote on the congress committee last week. as mr. duffy mentioned during his confirmation hearing he and his wife rachel have nine children. i'm not the first to observe the logistics of moving the duffy client he's by itself in preparation for the job. more seriously, mr. president as a father and parent of new drivers transportation safety it's personal. as a resident i will state myself he has a proven track record of working with republicans and democrats i look forward to working with him in this new world i look forward to going working with
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both in the very near future. >> the clerk will call the role. mr. president. senator from iowa is recognized. my colleague the majority. as the leader, i come to the floor for the same purpose to talk about my vote in favor of mr. bessent to be secretary of treasury. this cabinet position is one of the most physician's in any
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administration. the secretary is a tip of the sphere will former layers are all will ããclinton's mr.
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bessent i'm confident he is up to the task he has depth of knowledge of economic history. he taught a class on the subject at yale university. in his decades long career in finance they came uniquely qualified to be our next secretary of the treasury. is acutely aware of the risks posed to our national economy, $36 trillion national debt.
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as he discussed in testimony before the senate committee awarding the largest tax hike in the history of our country by extending the 2017 tax law is crucial to the health of the american economy. we all know in this body but the biggest tax increase in the history of the country can hampel to the middle class even without a vote of congress because a 2017 tax bill sunsets at the end of this year. mr. bessette also understands international trade and access to foreign markets are vital. to the economic success of the american farmer.
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when i spoke with this nominee in my office i was pleasantly surprised by his knowledge of agricultural standing from his ownership of farmland in north dakota. as with all nominees i stressed to mr. bessent the imprint of responding to the letters, congress has a constitutional duty to perform oversight of the integrity branch i intend to hold him to his commitment to respond to all congressional inquiries in a timely and responsive manner. i also told him that every nominee that comes before any committee is asked that same question, will you respond to our letters? and i say tongue-in-cheek but with some truth to it, that you want to say maybe because i
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showed pam bondi are nominee for attorney general when she was in my office a whole file of 158 letters in the last four years that i sent to the department of justice. that have remained unanswered or not fully answered. so i hope we can get this trump cabinet to keep their word that they can answer our letters because they need to focus it from the standpoint of the constitution you learn in eighth grade physics that we not only pass laws here inappropriate money but under checks and balances we have the responsibility to make sure that the executive branch faithfully executes that law. or spend that money
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appropriately. so checking up on that requires a lot of communication between us and the congress and executive branch and that's true whether it's republican or democrat president. i hope this administration is committed to fully cooperating with congress on our oversight responsibilities. there is another item i always stress with treasury nominees is the importance of the irs muscle program that offer critical updates in 2006. to date this program has brought in over $6 billion to the treasury thanks to whistleblowers who often risk their careers to blow the whistle on ããthis legislation is meant to make sure that the
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irs has total information on who is paying their taxes and who isn't. if you are working with some corporation not paying their taxes and you could report back successfully the collection of those taxes to the irs, that whistleblower could get a share of the return. so far since 2006, $6 billion billion dollars has come back into the federal treasury as a result of that program. however, in regard to that program, for much of the program's history, there has been an embedded culture in treasury and the irs has hampered the success of the program. so i look forward to working with mr. bessent to turn that
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culture around so that the 2006 legislation will be much more productive in getting the federal government not having the federal government cheated out of taxes that people owe. based on my discussions there is no doubt in my mind that he is well qualified to be treasury secretary. so i urge all of my colleagues to join me in voting in favor of his nomination later today. i yield the floor to the absence of the quorum.
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we are waiting for a senator to come to the floor to speak. today lawmakers will be voting to confirm president trumps nominee to be treasury secretary scott bessent.later this evening we are also expecting to see a vote to limit debate on the president's nominee to be secretary of transportation, sean duffy. you can watch live coverage of those vote right here on c-span2 and that c-span now at in our website c-span.org. [music]
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hey
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ric. >> it's great to be back in this beautiful city to celebrate the historic first week in the white house, 㦠[cheering] have a lot of help in winning, joe lombardo your governors here someplace. thank you joe. thank you very much, how can you fail with that guy.
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also lieutenant governor stavros anthony. thank you very much. is he doing a good job? i think so. michael macdonald. he has done something was not a lot of people been able to do but i think republicans are going to start winning this. typically they don't necessarily do so good, we did really well. we won from a landslide, that's really why i'm here, republican national committee women said allwherever you may be, thank you very much. publican national committeemen gender grafton read. that guy, hello beautiful name
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i know the name so long step one of the greatest people, a man who's done so dam well i don't know what it is with him he's a legend. you know how we all could be replaced. maybe it's not true. but this is a guy that can't be replaced there's nobody like him, dana white, where is dana white b& there they are. rick harrison, thank you very much for being here. you are around here someplace with dana. mr. phil ruffin his wife alexandra and their two beautiful children richard and
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melina. he's a legend in las vegas and beyond. he will be coming out today we talked about how we are going to end the economic suffering and stagnation and disaster of the past four years and create the four greatest years in the history of our country this was going to happen. as i said in my inaugural address, which by the way, if not the highest rating in the history. can you believe it? the golden age of america begins right now but i have to be honest, i'm really here for a different reason i'm here to say thank you. i went to north carolina yesterday then i flew to see an unbelievable problem, just a mess in ããi said you know what i ought to do want to come
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to a state known as nevada. has anyone ever been? don't ever mispronounce the name. you're not allowed to do that. you ever see somebody when they say it's nevada. nevada. there in deep trouble. i want to come to nevada. to pay my respects because it is the only republican win in the state in decades is a very big landslide. but i think republicans are going to win a lot now but we had a big win and it was an early win and that was a bad signal because the democrats they heard we were leaving so big here and joel helped us so much and a lot of people in this room helped us a lot a special group. so i said we will fly around it
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and let's fly right over it and i want to say, i came here because i wanted to thank the people of nevada for giving us such a big win. under our leadership we are going to defeat inflation bring down prices, we are going to raise those wages they're going to go up. put more money in your pocket secure our borders. restore law and order to our cities and make america great
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again. i'm for four long years the last administration waged war on the american middle class and everybody else. we had no wars when we left we defeated eyes is not. and we stayed out nobody wanted to mess with us. we are trying to put them out we will get them put out. we were headed to world war iii. they shut down american energy imposed hidden taxes and spent trillions and trillions of dollars on waste corruption and radical diplomacy. these were lunatics. the result was the most brutal inflation and and a half a century perhaps ever in this country. i think ever. restoring prices for food groceries and other goods the people of nevada now paying nearly $1200 per month more to make ends meet since i left office. think about, $1200 at least but
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since i became the 47th president noon on monday have been moving fast ¦ [cheering] this year alone i took nearly 350 executive actions to reverse the horrible failures in the trials we inherited from a group of people that didn't know what they were doing. but they have done to this country especially the open borders 21 million people came in, many of them are criminals, murderers, we are getting them out. you see it yesterday. our message could not be more clear, america's decline american decline is over.
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what the world witnessed this week is nothing less than a revolution of wealth creation for everyone and also comments about common sense. we are the party of common sense. day one i directed every member of my cabinet and by the way pete got approved. and kristi just got approved governor she's gotta keep that. she's a tough one. she's going to do a great job day one i directed every member of my cabinet to defeat inflation and bring down the cost of daily life we want to bring prices down. they were way up they didn't come down i imposed a federal hiring freeze of federal regulation for use wasn't the
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environment supposed to stop in 12 years that i was like 13 years ago. we are still here. somebody who never even took a course on environment. they would tell us about the environment. keeping my secret pledge to
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america's oil workers. and any teamsters in the room? we've got a tremendous vote, teamsters. they voted for us in the millions. we have so many people pouring and we have no idea we go up going down a little bit now. to take some bad ones out.
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he went back and they offered me 39 million they said we will let you back in 39 they reduced from 539 i turned them down because it became so popular i didn't know if it would be well received even in 39. but maybe we would consider doing it again.i don't know they have to clean it up a little bit but china pays $39 million 1.4 million and we are paying 500 million for 325 million ããi don't know what is wrong with these people. then when biden went back in they paid more than they were paying in the first place. you wouldn't do that, joe, think of it, they know they have a deal at 39 so they went back in at 525 million,
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.... >> for decades same size to the square foot probably got smaller actually but we might be in large country pretty soon. one of the things we're going to be doing is drill, baby, drill. that's going to bring everything down. going to bring everything down. my administration has become the largest deregulation campaign in history of our country. far exceeding, i had the records we ran, we had a great economy, the greatest economy that we've
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ever had four years ago but this is going to be better, you watch. this would be better even than the first term. and the reason i got elected was because of the first term. somebody said what was the reason you got elected? he won by so much. i said, my first term. that's all he did. i just said take look at the numbers. take a look at the numbers. in total the biden administration imposed $50,000 in additional regulation costs so the average american and think of this the average american was paying much more than $50,000. just think of it. nobody can every believe the numbers. i promise to eliminate ten whole regulation for every new regulation. if we put in a regulation with the get rid of ten. i did it i did it i did at 17. we're going to do one in ten this time which will soon put many thousands of dollars back into your pockets in the pockets of american families as a result
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of the reforms we have just begun to implement economic confidence. so this week oracle open ai and softbank announced stargate a $500 million investment in a infrastructure which is going to be very big for nevada i had to chile. the largest in history. and which will create an estimated 100,000 american jobs. saudi arabia to said they're going to invest at least $600 million because of the election by the way. and i believe bill make it 1 trillion. i'm going to ask them to make it one truly. what the hell? money mean nothing to do. you know where they made their money? from liquid gold. they have got a lot of liquid gold. we have more with more than saudi raid. they've got a lot. with that more than anybody. we just a use it because of the environment. these people are crazy. and many other companies likewise are looking to invest but i don't have enough time to
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do that and we have a lot of news conferences. but once to have a news conference. going up by the hundreds. we were having news conferences. invest $12. $12. i don't do that. got to be 1 billion or more. one a trillion or more. just two days ago because of our tariff plans, slightest announced, pacifica, bill company, the revival of its belvidere illinois plant, jobs and were headed to canada along with major investments to expand american auto production in detroit, michigan, toledo, ohio, and kokomo indiana. good place. all of these investments are happening only because of our historic victory and if we didn't win, just the opposite. they were pulling out. they were really pulling out. so they would be withdrawing money. our country was on the verge of
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some of the very bad things, bad things are happening and now there's light not only over america. from even our enemies they call up and they say sir, we hate you. we do a jupiters light over the world. i say they hate me. some of them haiti. they like that, you got a problem right? what's not to like? they call up, funny, i was told today the one of the big leaders in the world, would call for a telephone call with the president of the united states a year ago, and they would say we would like to speak with who is this? is that of germany, the head of, name it, the head of france, the name of any, any country, it didn't matter. he would never pick up the call. they would say he will call you back in two months. two months? yes. if the schedule, he's extremely busy sleeping.
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macron the fancy will call you back in two months. so too much comes along and there's no call. they would say he didn't call. the stories i mean the stories are not very exaggerated. i want to tell you. a little bit but it's only for laughter. the fake is a safe he exaggerated. it was only one month, you know? but they've say call you back that he would never call and they could never get them on the phone. the problem i have is when he speak, and he speak to the community. it was a good we speak to the president would that be possible we can get it done over the next month? they're so used to this. i said i'll pick it up right now. hello. that's what you know -- get -- the only problem they were so starved for love from the united
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states i cannot get them off the phone. i can't get people to have to go now, king, or have to go now, president. but you can get them off the phone. they are starved for love. for years they haven't spoken. they didn't even know we had a president if you want to know the truth. but under our leadership america is back open for business. and the half, they said the light all over the world now. it's not just you. we feel the light over our country everywhere. there's light all over the world. we've accomplished more in one week than other administrations have accomplished in four years. we are just getting started. we got rid of the woke crap, whatever. what a, what a lot of crap that
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was. it was, and you know these people were petrified. these companies they run these big companies they were petrified of it. i don't think they believed it. i'm sure they didn't believe, some i know didn't believe it but they were so afraid. near the top of the agenda for the store republican majority congress is to pass a massive tax cut for american workers and families. last we campaigned in the pledge i'm sure most of you didn't hear too much about, pledged to take the trump tax cuts and make them permanent and that's exactly what we're doing. in the coming weeks i'll be working with cones bill on my desk at cuts taxes for workers, families, small businesses. very important to me. keeps my promise for a thing called and enough you didn't hear anything about this, adventure had no influence on the state the fact we won this crazy massive majority, state
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that hasn't been won by republican in decades but am sure you haven't heard that were going to get it for you. no tax on tips. no tax on tips. so if you're a restaurant worker a server of ballet and bellhop a bartender are one of my caddies, i go through caddies like candy. if i play badly i always blame my caddie. or any other worker who relies on tip income, your tips will be 100% yours. joe, governor to think that an impact on the election? you do? like what, i have a point? you, you had an impact. nationwide over 4 million workers depend on tip income
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including an estimated 700,000 single moms. here in nevada we will have a quarter, think of it, a quarter of a typical restaurant workers paycom's from tips. you have been reporting them for the last ten years. so here's argue. we will have no tax on tips from not one but we're going to go after your mission slate for all the money you didn't report for the last ten, 15. going to go after you for all the money you didn't report. i'm only kidding. i'm only kidding. i had to say to the fake disco failsafe trump after all, trump is after all restaurant workers. many of these workers are some of the very citizens who were hit hard and very hard by the ravages of the biden inflation. when i think a biden i think of -- and inflation.
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[inaudible] i am being nice what i said. >> vice president -- this community withstood a a devastating storm. where we're standing was literally deep, deep, deep with water with a mud. this is a wash away. houses were washed away and the community has responded. we find ourselves now looking back in awe of the heroes that had over 100 swiftwater rescues that saved lives of the community the can together and tother.r g what we also see as the federal government has really ground to a halt in getting the resources to us. that was a very large disaster funding in and that money to
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flow. what i appreciate is the vice president and president understand that the funds are available but the funds have to get to the people to use them. we are ready. we are already rebuilding homes. we are already rebuilding businesses. we are ready to work as your prototype project on how to do this at an accelerated way. i think everybody here is encouraged to the vice president's words that were going to go to work together in order to streamline streamline these processes to get the bureaucracy and the red tape out of the way so that virginians and tennesseans and north carolinians and south carolinians and georgians and the folks in florida can get ths that we need and particularly as a see the devastating fires in california if there's another process there to be had. i cannot tell you what it means to this community, the southwest virginia to virginia as a whole for you to be here and to work with us to make sure that when
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we are rebuilding, we are rebuilding in a way that everybody in the nation can say that's the way to do it. that's the way to get. >> great. we'll take a few questions, guys. >> one of the things i heard from people that are affected by -- and do it was a potential may a flood not to this magnitude but they couldn't afford flood insurance even if they wanted to. is anything your administration is doing? >> first of all as the governor said the most important thing we're doing is trying to pick up and fill the gap with the insurance isn't necessary available. there's been about $4 billion earmarked for the state of virginia. only about 47 million has actually been delivered or even promised to be delivered to virginia. what were going to have to deal with there are major gaps flood insurance isn't your peoples government is helping people rebuilt and recover. yet there are things we can do
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to make flood insurance more available. there's regulatory changes we can engage in but the most important thing people here need this help recovery, help rebuilding of us were going to do. the basic thrust of the trump administration whether it's a defense policy to helping people in damascus is were putting people over bureaucrats. the bureaucracy has for too long stood in a way of the peoples business. that's going to stop will fight to make shortstops every single day. >> do you have a timeline of when we might be able to see some of the federal response, governor, even stay response? there's a home around the corner that even split in half. a man said his mother had insurance, flood insurance, probably she couldn't get any federal insurance. runs through all this rigmarole and just looking for an answer. what could you possibly provide? >> as soon as possible, right?
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we need to get back to washington can figure out what the holdup is an power through that holdup for people. every single day after date is too long. we recognize the sinks and always happen as quickly as they can but the big difference now compared to a week ago if people have an administration that will have the power through that bureaucracy. we will fight for them every single day. try to get the money as soon as possible because that's what's necessary to help rebuild. >> i can chili we heard from business leaders today that even in the last week they have seen more movement than that seen before. this is the opportunity for us, yes, cut through red tape, cut through bureaucracy at the state level, have $127 million budget $7 million budget amendment and to supplement what has already been at least appropriated by the now it needs to come out. this is a sprint. as the vice president says, folks can't wait. they had been waiting for four
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months since system and you don't need to wait another day. >> in seven days of being in office you have been to two-thirds of all of this -- [inaudible] i want to ask you about east tennessee being part of the funding to all people. i know people are appreciative and we want to know if east tennessee is going to see a part of that and how this is going to energize how you going to energize the communities? >> yes, ma'am. i met with the congresswoman from east tennessee this point when related. we landed in tennessee and drove her to virginia. look, we recognize while most of the attention from helene is focus on north carolina a particular and to be clear there's a lot of devastation in north carolina. there's also a lot of devastation in tennessee. our promise and focus going to be on leaving no american behind. behind. that includes those in tennessee
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and certainly here in damascus. >> could you preview what this means -- with regard to fema response? does that include possibly of the mating fema? >> all is not just the men. there's housing and urban till the, department of agriculture, a lot of different agencies coordinate a response. a couple of things that particularly seemed about of the most to people damascus is one of this incredible bike trail and hiking trail that runs along these fountains is a major source of economic opportunity and develop them. people come in, they stayed airbnb's, they go to the coffee shop, the restaurants but, unfortunately, the part of that trail that is managed and monitored by the federal government has been way too slow to start the rebuilding process. that something we want to focus on immediately. a second big issue is and the government knows these numbers but as an idea but i believe the maximum you can get from fema
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form for home building is $42,000. the average amount of damages $130,000. that's a massive, 80, $90,000 shortfall that shortfall that we need to make sure other parts of the federal government are fixing. to be clear the continuing resolution passed a few weeks ago does have the resources to fill that gap but only if bureaucrats get of the way to make sure people get the money that they're entitled to, the american people decide we want to contribute and we want to fund this incredible redevelop it back out to happen quicker than has been happening with you bureaucracy in washington. >> one more question. one more. >> as some people complaining about the red tape to get trailers or the hotel vouchers, you were about to end in january when there was a snowstorm. what do you guys make a sum that disorganization and what are some specific ways to streamline
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the process to make the recovery process more -- >> unfortunately is a perfect example of a bureaucratic inadequacy of the last of administration of why we need to do better in this country. the thing and most and those in western north carolina before the migration but after the election is there were people who wanted to put trailers or other temporary housing in particular areas of western north carolina but he couldn't because fema designated particular areas to be ineligible for the type of assistance that would let people to put up temporary housing in first place. that's another example of the sort of thing is broken about the federal response. when you have such great covers like glenn youngkin and you talk to people and dislike the local government is working, the state government is working, the local committees and nonprofits and the churches are working at breakneck speed and yet you the federal government out the, the vicissitudes with the most money is not doing its job.
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it just right so how much better we can do. one of the takeaways of this might nonetheless week seen after being the people's vice president is they should have higher expectations of the folk of it. i talked to so may people say in effect it's the federal government. the bureaucracy, the red tape. no, no, no. the bureaucracy and red tape is not an excuse for the job government not to do its job. government is as tall as people run it but we can do have a lot better than we have over the last few years and that is something president trump and i are committed to doing. let me leave you with one final thought. i know a lot of people watching in the local news, look, this is a part of our country, appalachia and virginia has been ignored and left behind for decades come for generations in this country. again were never going to be perfect but i promise you this administration will not forget you. we love you. we're waiting for you we want to be part of this incredible
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recovery in southwest virginia. god bless you guys. thanks for being here. [inaudible] >> we don't allow people to enter our country and to dump the present into the united states anymore. our people are instructed to do whatever they have to do come to do whatever the hell they want to do. throughout this week the heroes of bicep and had to get an arresting hundreds of illegal aliens -- of ice.
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and its immediate expulsion including those with charges of convictions for rape, child sexual assault, terrorism and even murder. members of the savage venezuelan prison gang, this is not a nice group of people. they formed in prison and that they don't the present into our country so we had them. we had them all over the place. as combat of the governor of colorado doesn't know what to do about it. all over the place. we'll get them out. we'll get them out. in essence there in the real estate business. they go into building and to take it. when you buy both get to go to get a mortgage for use on cash or they just go in and take it. they actually said it's not that bad. they have taken that many buildings. can you imagine? they have taken that many buildings? they're not that bad but their
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bad as the bloodthirsty ms-13 gangs that we've gotten thousands and thousands of them out there to facts over 11,000 murders were released into our country by other countries all over the world because of biden's open border policy. when he heard about that i said everybody is going to empty out the prisons into our country. i said that i do that. if i were heading up any one of the many countries, not just south america come all over. they take the prisons, mental institutions and empty them out into our country. can you imagine a person doing this? can you imagine somebody doing that to our country? for american citizens, january 20, 2025, was truly liberation day. that was liberation day. this wiki also signed on to win the weaponization of art government against american people and political people like
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me. we never had a thing like that. he went after his political opponent who would've thought he helped me? i think he helped get elected, if you want to know the truth. i think, bellicosity became more popular when something like that happen. but these guys were just so inept. deranged, a deranged human being. but they thought this would biden could snakebite and he could win an election. another cheating, and another election that's what it was. we won. to think that was fun? to think that was easy? and investigate all of the abuses of power. i pardoned hundreds of political prisoners had been viciously persecuted by the biden scheme. hundreds. people were persecuted. including christians, pro-life activists, two washington d.c. police officers yesterday his lives were destroyed from
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chasing down a dangerous illegal alien criminal and, of course, i was very proud to pardon the j6 hostages. once and for all i stop government censorship and we brought back free speech in america. we brought it back. we did more of this last week. people can't even believe it. i also signed an order to declassify and publish all remaining files with her to the assassinations of president john f. kennedy, robert kennedy and martin luther king, jr. i signed an order that will in all of the lawless diversity, equity, and inclusion nonsense. all the cost the government and the private sector. we abolished 60 years of prejudice and hatred with the signing of one order, all approved by the united states supreme court were about to do because we are now in a
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merit-based world. we are a merit-based country. did you ever think you would hear that again? it's based on merit if you've it the talent, if you've got the work, the whole thing it's based on, it's a basin in the other thing. it's based on a period it's based on your capability. the united states has now become again a meritocracy. isn't that a beautiful word? based on merit. you're doing a job well you will go places. and i made the official policy of the united states government that there are only two genders, male and female. male and female. every single day of my term we are living by the model promises made promises kept. i kept my promises.
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it really is why we won. we won because of the past four years. we won because, but this will blow it away because when i came and i had no experience. i didn't do this before. i never did this. i would give a politician before. i was talking to j. d. vance, by the way hasn't he done a great job? j. d. went right to the scene and then he went to the vice presidency. j. d. you're really upwardly mobile. he said you're more so than me. i said why do you say that? he said you went from being a real estate developer to the president. that's a pretty big that's a pretty i never thought of it that way a guest on the most upwardly mobile politician in history. i didn't make any stops along the way. it will be the greatest honor of my life to serve not once but twice or three times or four times.
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headlines from the fake news. it will be to serve twice. for the next four years i will not rest. i will not yield and together we will not fail. we will win-win-win. we will bring back the american dream. we will bring it back. in recent years our nation has suffered greatly but we're going to make it great again, greater than ever before. we will be in nations like no other full of compassion courage and exceptionalism. that's what we're doing and that's what it's all about. and you see that i think you see it more last week then you seen it in years. and i walked up the stairs of that massive plainness waiting for me, big 747 and i said there's no way i'm going to let myself fall because that was that was one hell of a -- that
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triple fall was a disaster. i would call that a political disaster. you could fall once, you could fall twice but you can't fault three times. you can't fault three times. what a disaster. i use that in every ad i ever did. our power will stop world wars and bring new spirit of unity to a world that's been angry, violent and very unpredictable. america would be respected again and admired again including by the people of religion faith and good will. we're bringing back religion in this country. we will be brought, we will be free, we will be bigger bolder and more ambitious than ever before. together we will make america powerful again. make a call wealthy again. make america healthy again.
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we will make america strong again. make america proud again. we're going to make america safe again. and we will make america great again. thank you very much. and thank you very much nevada. thank you, joe. thank you very much. we will be back. we will be back. thank you. thank you, my man. right job. thank you, everybody. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
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>> chairman crapo, ranking rankg member wyden, it's an honor and a privilege to be considered by this committee as the president's nominate for the secretary of the treasury. i want to thank all of you who took the time to meet with me over the past few weeks. i want to thank my spouse who is here today and the wonderful children who were sitting behind me -- >> could you pull a microphone a little closer to you?
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>> who were sitting behind me for the ultimate civics lesson. i want to acknowledge three people who couldn't be here today, my 98-year-old mother-in-law, and world war two french were bright of an american soldier who lives with us in charleston, south carolina, making for a three generation household. my sister who doesn't like -- to large cities and my recently deceased sister who worked tirelessly as a public defender and what south carolina's poorest canister also want to thank president trump for having placed his trust and confidence in me for such an important role in his administration. while i met with many of you most americans watching at home will be unfamiliar with my background. i have been blessed with fulfillment and successful career but my presence here
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today was far from predetermined that i was born and raised in the south carolina low country. my father fell into extremely financial difficulty when i was young. when i was nine i started working to next summer jobs and haven't stopped working since. eventually made my way to yale. accepted my first internship in finance because the job came with the pullout sofa in the office to sleep on. which is lucky to live in new york city rent free. i've been involved in the financial market ever since. i've been fortunate enough to work with some of the world's greatest investors in a career that is taken me to almost 60 countries over 40 years. my life has been the only in america story that i am determined to preserve for future generations. today, i believe president trump has a generational opportunity to unleash a new economic golden
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age that will create more jobs, wealth and prosperity for all americans. my wife's work in the private sector has given me a deep understanding of the economy and markets. while this expense will be invaluable in crafting economic policy i have long adhered to the principle that you should know what you don't know, and lean on those who do. having never served in government, i intend if confirmed to be in close contact with each of you in your offices and seek your counsel. the treasury department plays a critical role in protecting american national security. we must secure supply chains that are vulnerable to strategic competitors and in the most carefully to play sanctions as part of the whole of government approach to address our national security requirements and critically, critically we must ensure that the u.s. dollar remains the world reserve
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currency. today american face challenges an economy that is not greater enough opportunities for working men and women. we had affordable to crisis, the housing shortage and for the first time in my lifetime parents feel us of the american dream is slipping away from their children. the federal government has significant spending problem driving deficits that if average at historically high 7% of gdp during the past four years. we must work to get our fiscal house in order and adjust federal domestic discretionary spending that has grown by an astonishing 40% over the past four years. productive investment grows economy must be prioritized over wasteful spending that tries to inflation. as we began 2025, americans are americans are barreling towards an economic crisis at year-end. if congress fails to act,
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americans will face the largest tax increase in history, a crushing 4 trillion-dollar tax hike. we must make permanent the 2017 tax cuts and jobs act and implement new pro-growth policies to reduce the tax burden on american manufacturers, service workers and seniors. i have already spoken with several members of the committee as well as leaders of the house about the best approach to achieving these important goals together. as president trump assent, we will unleash the american economy by implementing pro-growth regulatory policies, reducing taxes and unleash an american energy production. the breadth and depth for capital markets along with predictable pro-growth tax policy and smart updated regulation will continue to make america the most popular destination in the world for starting, growing and taking public for business.
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as we rebuild our economy and lay the foundation for the next generation of american competitiveness we must use all the tools available to realign the economic system to better serve the interests of working americans. for too long our nation has about unfair distortion in the national trading system. president trump was a first president in modern times to recognize the need to change our trade policy and stand up for american workers. if confirmed, i i look forwaro working with president trump and members of this committee to do just that. members of the committee, these are just some of me important goals president trump has laid out for me and others on his economic team. i firmly believe that if confirmed in with your counsel and support we can usher in a new or violence era of prosperity that will lift up all americans and rebuild
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communities across the country. i humbly thank you for your consideration and an eager to take your question. >> thank you, mr. bessent. before i begin my question of what to reemphasize how appreciative i am of your diligence in the process we've gone through. i appreciate the more than 3000 pages of supporting richer you provided as well as the countless hours you and your staff have offered to respond to questions from members of this committee. let me be clear. you followed all the applicable law and that the committee's long-standing diligence standard. your process matched that which has applied to nominees in every previous administration. my first question to you, i want to go to the tax cuts and jobs act which senator wyden and i have both mentioned already and you mention in your remarks. the attack on this statute, this
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law, which is law, remind everybody it is along now. it was passed in 2017. is that it was a tax cut for the wealthy. i i appreciate you, mr. bessent noting that it will be a four plus trillion dollars tax increase if we do not extend this law. and a point i would remind all of my colleagues is that if that tax increase happens, it's not just going to be something that impacts the wealthy. it is 2.6 trillion of it, the majority of it, falls on people who make less than $400,000 for a family with two taxpayers. under $400,000. that's the number president biden chose to say he wanted to protect it. 2.6 trillion of this tax cut
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hits those making less than $400,000. moreover, massive amounts of it hit pastor entities. small businesses across this country. this is not a tax cut for the wealthy we're talking about. it is a tax increase on all americans, the majority of whom are in the lower and middle income categories. my question to you is, one of our pivotal tax is to make sure this tax increase does not happen. can you give us your perspective on the impact that would occur in this country if we allowed this $4 trillion tax increase to happen? >> senator, senator crapo, thank you for this and thank you for the meetings over the past few weeks. i've enjoyed working with her staff, and this is the single most important economic issue of the day. this is pass fail, that if we do
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not fix these tax cuts, if we do not renew and extend, then we will be facing an economic calamity. and as always with financialinae middle and working class people. we will see a gigantic middle-class tax increase. we will see a child tax credit cap. we will see the deductions cut in half. so it will be what we call in economics, it has a potential for a sudden stop. as i said, traditionally with these sudden stops it falls on working americans. >> you may be aware of this, , t the tax foundation has indicated that if we do sustain these tax
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cuts and protect them from expiring and stop this tax increase, that extension of this policy would increase the growth of the gdp in the united states by 1.1% over time. similarly at a doughnut they came up with the same number but the national association of manufacturers indicates if we don't extend this tax relief that there would be 1.1% reduction in growth of jobs and developing in our economy. it seems to me that as we are talking about what to do for america, the protecting america from a 1% reduction versus a 1% growth in gdp is a critical objective. could you give a little bit of perspective -- i know you just answer this question and of the
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context but could you give a little more perspective on those kinds of dynamics? i'm sorry, i'm going to try to keep the five minutes and we've only got about 15 seconds left of mind and want to make sure everybody else stays on time so i will, too. could you quickly respond? >> i would say we saw the power of these tax cuts and 18, 19 and going into january of 20 before them interrupted by covid and the great success that we had. >> thank you. senator wyden. >> thank you very much. let me say to the nominee i form a question i'm going to ask and if we both can keep it brief i think we can get to all of them and you can really frame for us what this debate is all about. i'm going to start by talking about the future of direct file. this is the program that helps our people who choose it to save hundreds of dollars when they file their tax return. last year the irs launched it,,
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enormously popular among taxpayers but, of course, the tax software giants and the big lobby just hate it. they want to shut it down. the filing season starts januar. so it opens in ten days in billions of of taxpayers around the country have already been notified that they are going be eligible to use direct file this year. i won't i will do this foy question but i would really like a yes or no on this one. will you commit to keeping direct file up and run, up and running if your confirm? >> i will commit that for this tax season that direct file will be operative and the american taxpayers who choose to use it will. and if confirmed i will consult and study the program and understand it better and make
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sure that it works to serve the irs's three goals of collections, customer service, and privacy. >> i appreciate the answer. it means taxpayers are going to save hundreds of dollars and will have a chance to see once again how popular it is with practically everybody except the tax prep software crowd. on two tariffs. donald trump with no plan in no strategy says he's going to put across the board tariffs, blanket tariffs on all imported goods, which means our workers and small businesses are going to get clobbered with additional taxes on practically everything to buy from other countries. my question is who would pay these tariffs, americans or foreign country?
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>> so senator wyden, just to understand so i can frame the answer correctly, do you believe that these tariffs are a consumption tax increase? >> i believe these tariffs, you can call it whatever you want in terms of trying to guess yet out, they are going to be paid for by our workers and small businesses. all to the campaign we heard foreign country going to paper i think that's baloney. it would be paid for by workers in small businesses. so your response. >> senator, i would respectfully disagree. the history of tariffs and tariff theory does not support what you're saying. traditionally, if we were to say use number that has been thrown around in the press of 10%, then
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traditionally the currency appreciates by 4%. so the 10% is not passed through. then we have various elasticities, consumer preferences may change. and finally foreign manufacturers especially china especially china which is trying to export their way out of their current economic malaise will continue cutting prices to maintain market share. >> that's an academic view of it. but what i know is the history of this is it clobbers people of modest means. they are the people who are going to get hit. all to the campaign there was a big show that it was going to be paid for by foreigners, not so. two other questions i i want o give in. i already made it clear and you and i talked about this. i am for a tax code that gives everybody the opportunity to get ahead. you and i talked about my friend
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l bradley. he and i have been working on this for years. do you believe the tax code should treat wages differently than it treats well? >> look, in any tax system that advantages and create distortions, it is a change -- senator, it is a decision that was made when the tax codes were written and so every tax codes, and, involves the trade-offs and distortions and in favor of other, they gains. >> it sounds to me like you believe it is fine to treat wealth more favorably. i couldn't disagree more. the idea that a dollar earned by a hedge fund manager has more value than a dollar earned by teacher or factory worker, i just think it's a disconnect
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with the american people. one last question and that is not the legislation that was written in this room that was the biggest transformation on clean energy in american history. that is our package that basically said the tax code as relates to energy is a a brokn donbas. basically said we will have technology neutral system. the more you reduce carbon the bigger your tax savings. now there is a a big effort ie trump administration to reverse it. that's going to be bad for the economy but it's going to be damn good for china because we are in an arms race in clean energy with them. are you going to be undecided oe of people to want to unravel this? >> senator, senator wyden, just so we can frame this for everyone in the room. china will build a hundred new coal plants this year. there is not a clean energy race. there is an energy race. china will build ten nuclear
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plants this year. that is not solar. i am in favor of more nuclear plants and i would note that the ira as scored by the cbo is wildly out of control in terms of spending on the upside. >> first of all the clean energy package does protect nuclear because members on both sides of the aisle wanted it to be that way. but if you're going to talk about fossils, the united states achieve a greater level of energy security and we had in generations. oil and gas production is at record highs and it's not just that but it's about clean energy. i'm very troubled by your position denying that we're in an arms race with china and clean energy because we definitely are. thank you, mr. chairman. >> we do need to move on. i told senator wyden he could have those four question but what went of widows we've got a five minute time limit. senator grassley.
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>> congratulations. i want to start out where you and i talked about something in my office, and you remember that tongue-in-cheek, i make to you that you were going to be asked by the chairman william and all of our letters, and everybody that comes to vail says yes they're going to. and i said maybe you better say may be because most people don't keep that promise. so i just want to remind you if i write you a letter, oversight responsibility would appreciate if you would answer. now to my first question. my democratic colleagues -- are you going to put that up? by democrat colleagues believe the only solution to our unsustainable debt and deficit is higher taxes. higher tax rates on and that into being on job creators and families alike. history proves high tax rate failed to raise significant
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revenues. taxpayers can workers and investors are smarter than that. in other words, they are smarter than we in congress that thinks that at one time i-93% marginal tax rate would bring in more revenue. then a 70% tax rate with a 2% tax rate tax rate for a 30% tax rate, or a 40% tax rate. and so on. but as you can see from this chart, congress isn't too smart because the taxpayers decide how much money they're going to bring into the federal treasury. now on the other side of the ledger, federal spending is at levels we've never seen outside of war and recession, and still growing. so i'm making a statement to you but if you'd like to comment on whether or not we have a fiscal and balance primarily, or a spending problem rather than a revenue problem.
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>> senator, senator grassley, i enjoyed visiting you in your office and will remind you that when we were talking about the american agriculture that i may be the first treasury secretary nominee in a long time and knows what a section is, 642-acre. and involved in the farming business. and yes, we do not have a revenue problem in the united states of america. we have a spending problem. historically for the past 40 or 50 years revenues, federal government revenues, have averaged about 17, 17.5% of gdp. spending has been slightly over that, leading us to 3.5% budget deficit. which is manageable because we have roughly 3.8% nominal growth. 1.8% real growth, 2% inflation.
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today as you stated and to be clear this is one of the things that come out from behind my desk and my quiet life in this campaign was the thought that this spending is out of control. we are spending about 24, 25% of gdp. of gdp. so as you said 6.8, 7% deficit. we have never seen this before when it is not a recession or not a war. i am concerned because several times the treasury of the united states has been called upon to save the nation. whether it was the civil war, the great depression, world war ii, or the recent covid epidemic. treasury along with full government and congress has used its borrowing capacity to save the union, to save the world, and to save the american people.
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what we currently have now we would be hard-pressed to do the same. >> my last question is one i've asked a lot of people who come from treasury. while i oppose tax hikes on individuals, families and small businesses, i have long championed sensible policies geared towards shutting down tax loopholes and providing tools to irs to detect tax cheats. primary example was my legislation that he offered in 2006, the irs whistleblower law has brought $6 billion back to the treasury. this could raise billions more if at the irs would use it to its full potential. so i hope i can count on you if you confirm and i think you'll be confirmed to be supportive of this whistleblower program and work to ensure its full use, to
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its full potential. >> senator grassley, we are in complete alignment on this program. >> thank you. next would be senator cornyn. >> well, thank you, mr. chairman. mr. bessent, welcome to washington, d.c. you are getting a taste of what it's like here, which is an out of body experience for most people who are not acquainted with it. i haven't represent a state that has the eighth largest economy in the world. we think we understand the formula for economic growth and prosperity and opportunity with your low taxes reasonable, modest regulatory footprint. and opportunities for people to prosper and by prospering, invest and create opportunities for other people to pursue their dreams. we think there's a lot washington can learn from that
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formula and the sounds to me like you agree. one of the strange experiences i've had here is so many of our colleagues principally on the other side think that the money that you earn is not actually yours. it's the federal governments and you just get to keep a little bit of it. conversely, i believe money that people aren't is there an have the responsibility pay taxes. but as you point out, and overtaxed burden or large tax burden has led to passing the economy and reducing standard of living. i'm grateful for your nomination and i think you are exactly the type of individual that needs to serve in this important position and i support your nomination wholeheartedly. i may ask you short term that short time have one obscure question and another one that we discussed in our office.
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as you know the market u.s. treasuries is a largest market in the world at $28 trillion, critical to the financial stability of the united states. there's a proposal for entity to clear u.s. treasury futures at the london clearinghouse which is overseen by the bank of england. some argue that the bank of england would have control over a, heaven for bid, a default scenario, in this critical market instead of the u.s. is this of concern to you? >> senator cornyn, , i enjoyed visiting in your office and i would note that while texas has more arrivals due to economic policies, south carolina has more arrivals as a percent of population. ..
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>> investigate further, i was unaware until the past few days of the new exchange. what i can tell you as a student and professor of economic history, thats the important for the u.s., for u.s. treasuries, for us to be able to resolve any stress issues in the market in the u.s. we saw during the lehman brothers' bankruptcy that that much, many of the problems emanated through, from the u.k. subsidiary. so this is something that -- thank you for bringing this to my attention, and i am, my
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inclination is that the resolution authority must if lie here in the u.s. but i will get back to you in writing with an answer on this, if confirmed. >> thank you. you appropriately mentioned china as one of our biggest challenges. and while i believe in free and fair trade, we know that some countries, principally the prc and chinese communist party, don't play by the the rules. over the years by some estimates u.s. investments in chinese companies totaled $2.3 trillion in market value. that was at the end of 2020. that included $21 billion. these are american companies invested in china. $21 billion in semiconductors, $54 billion in military companies and also in artificial intelligence. it's pretty clear to me me that u.s. investments have fueled china's economic growth which has allowed them not only an
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increased standard of living which is great for the chinese people, but problemmatically it's also allowed them to modernize their military and now threaten peace in the indo-pacific and beyond. we, as we've discussed, i've introduced a bill that would require transparency of american companies investing in china. and, of course, the entity that would receive the reports from american companies that do that, and this is strictly a reporting requirement, would be treasury. what's your view of a transparency requirement? >> senator cornyn, i believe that as we discussed in your office, this is a very important issue. we can -- the chinese economy is the most imbalanced, unbalanced economy in the history of the world. they are using their surpluses to fund their military machine.
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china, or i'm not to going to try the hand if run pronunciation for the sake of everyone in the room, but it's two words, military industrial. and military always comes first. so we should understand that, and we should have a very rigorous screening process for, as you identified, anything that could be used in a.i., in quantum computing, in surveillance, in chips that the u.s. has the lead. we must make sure that we maintain it be it through smart policies such as you and i discussed. >> senator bennet. >> mr. bessent, thank you for being here. mr. chairman, congratulations on your position. look forward to working with you, as i always have. mr. bessent, thank you for your willingness to serve. we are at the beginning of
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what's going to be a vigorous conversation about the country's fiscal health. you described our deficit as alarming, and yet you're here with the same trump tax policy tata has burdened the american people -- that has burdened the american people with another $232 trillion of debt that theit their kids and grandkids are going to have to pay back. and despite the conversation we've heard over here, clearly, you know, the distribution of it was deeply, deeply, deeply unfair. 50% of it went to the top 5% of americans, 75 you add the s.a.l.t. which even "the wall street journal" won't support becausest so unbelievably outrageous, will go to to the wealthiest 5 of americans. the tax policy is one that's -- it is for some reason in this room it makes sense to people. in america i don't think there's been a mayor in the history of the united states whose tax policy has been to go to the
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people of new york city or of flickty or even of, even of mar-a-lago and said to them, i have an idea. i'm going to borrow more money than we have ever borrowed in the history of that community, and i'm going to spend it. and i would say, well, jeez, i'm worried about that. i don't want us to borrow a bunch of money without knowing what it's going for. what is it going for? is it going for schools? no. is it going to compete with the chinese in their defense? no. is it going the pay for parks? no. is it going to deal with the mental health crisis that we have in america? >> no -- no. is it going to pay to secure our border? no. what are you doing with the money, mr. bessent? what were you doing with the money, mr. mnuchin? what are you doing with the money, mayor in america in we are going to give it to the rich peel many our -- people in our community and expect that somehow that's going to trickle down the everybody else. that has been the trump tax policy since the day he showed up, and no mayor in america
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would ever with a straight face say that's what they should do. and, in fact, no america in history has done that. but to add insult to injury, you sit here and mr. mnuchin sat here in his time and said it's all going to be paid for by economic growth. we know that's not true. we know it costs $22 trillion. so while -- $2 trillion. so while the benefit went to the richest people in america, the cost is being borne by the children of working people all over this country. and that's what's going to the happen now. it's $4.6 trillion this time, not $2 trillion. and then you come here, and this is my question, mr. bessent, and you sneak into your opening at the same time -- statement that we have a spending program and what we have to focus on, as you said, is discretionary spending after your crocodile tears about the, about how china's outcompeting us. and as you know, because you're
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a smart person and you spent a lot of time on wall street just like your predecessor did, discretionary spending is about a third of our overall spending. 17 of what we spend is domestic. 17 roughly what we spend is military spending. that spending you were talking about with respect to china. there's so many things that i think to you owe the american people after we have seen the catastrophe of the result from the tax cuts the last time and the fact that the benefits went to the -- but don't you at least owe the american people a refund for the $2 trillion that they've already incurred because of the last round? before you get to the $4.6 trillion? can't we hi of a better idea if in this, the halls here, than cutting taxes for the wealthiest people and expecting that it will trickle down the everybody else when we have the profound need that you have talk talked about or when we're living an
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economy -- you had the american dream. we heard you say that. fewer and fewer people can get ahead. where this generation of americans is going to be the first generation to leave less opportunity, not more to our kids and grandkids, where we see massive income inequality and wealth inequality the when trump was president, when biden was president. can't we think of a better idea than that? and at a bare minimum, and this is tiny, don't we owe them the an answer about what you are going to do to that 17% of discretionary spending or even the third before you come in here and say that the most important thing we should do is cut taxes for the richest people in america? >> senator, thank you, and i would respectfully disagree with much of your with categorization many terms of the benefits accruing to the richest
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americans. actually, the share of taxes paid by the upper percent of americans increased after 2cja. it went from 39 to 46%. the top 50% of americans now pay 98% of taxes. and working families at real wage increases in 2018 and 2019 and going into 2020 the pre-covid. the cb if o scoring for the trump tax cuts got rescored by 1.5 trillion -- >> make sure that, make sure, because we're in the beginning of a long debate, that if you're going to rely on the cbo score for this, that you're going to be willing to rely on it for the things that you said it's no good. >> look, i'm not in love with cbo scoring -- >> i know that. now you're relying on it. so i'm just saying -- >> the language -- [inaudible conversations] >> it's not funny money.
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this is the american people's money. we can do math. every mayor in america has to do math, and we're going to insist that you do the math too because we know george soros understands the math when you worked there, and you understand full well what's going on here just like steve mnuchin kid, just -- did, like donald trump does, and we're not going to let it happen again to the american people. thank you. >> thank you. and i again remind my colleagues, we need to hold our time to to five minutes. senator cassidy. >> mr. bessent, i'm always going to pronounce your name with a french bessent. that's what the focus in south carolina do. i'll rye. let me compliment you on substantive answers. sometimes we get people here that just rope a done, and all due respect to my colleague, you actually give substantive answers. i thank you for that. by the way, lindsey graham alluded to it, going back the
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tariffs which senator wyden spoke of, i've been very concerned that countries like china manipulate if environmental regulations. you point out that they're putting -- they're building a hundred coal-fired plants over a period of time and that whatever we do will not have an impact on global greenhouse gas emissions because china's putting up so much -- so many. i believe that's called an externality in economics. when we discussed the foreign pollution fee which would put a lev city -- levy, a tariff on carbon-intensive products coming from countries like china roughly commensurate with the cost of not controlling it. now, i would think that my democratic colleagues would like that because it's clearly a way that they are manipulating the world economy to steal jobs from the united states and simultaneously increase global greenhouse gas emissions. my comments on such a foreign pollution fee? >> senator cassidy, i enjoyed, greatly enjoyed our discussion
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and the extensive presentation you gave me when i visited with you. this is a very good question, because -- and i believe it is one for your democratic colleagues to understand whether they would be in favor of the equivalent of a carbon tariff. senator graham is in favor of it, and i think this is a very interesting idea that could be part of a entire tariff program because i think president trump hasn't taken office yet, but if confirmed, i look forward to working with them on various strategies, some that could be specifically aimed toward carbon, as you say, others that could be aimed toward unfair trade practices, unfair financing -- >> so if you will, there's
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externalities that a tariff can address. those externalities in and of themselves are the job prospects of an average american. let me move on. i think the you would agree with that. i applaud your goal the get our debt to gdp ratio down the 3%, percent of our gdp down to 3%. but you studiously say that we can't talk about things like social security. and i think that's because routinely if we talk about social security, we presume that there's going to be a cut in benefits or a raise in taxes. i think we spoke when we met, i and others, of a bipartisan plan that would create a pension investment fund separate from the social security trust fund and that, just like we do with our 401(k)s, invest it in the broader economy and use the proceeds from that to offset the upcoming 25% cut in social security benefits that will occur if we don't address this problem. and just so folks get that,
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under current law when the social security program goes insolvent in eight years, per cbo there'll be a 25% cut in benefit. other the plan -- under the plan i and others have endorsed, we would invest in the broader economy with all the safeguards to keep the government from interfering. i mention that because it seems that other advisers to the president, incoming president, have spoken of creating an investment fund to benefit. mr. lutnick, i think, has. mr. paulson did on the campaign trail. what are your thoughts about that concept? i think they spoke about it as sovereign wealth, i'm speaking about it as a fund to bail out social. not, by the way, all risk borne by the fund, none borne by the beneficiary. what are your thoughts on that? >> senator cassidy, first of all, i want to emphasize that president trump has said that social security and med if care, they will not be touched. and i believe --
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>> but i'm saying touched in a positive way. not cut benefits, not raise taxes. indeed, increase benefits and take that 25% cut off the table. just to make that clear. >> i understand. those would not be touched. one of the tragedies of this blowout in the budget deficit is that we have to get our short-term house in order. to start, before we can start implementing the smart plans such as yours. i do believe that there is discussion to leverage the asset side of the u.s. balance sheet as we discussed in your office in favor of whether it's a sovereign wealth fund, something as you discuss, a supplemental fund. so that is purchase mt. mix.
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i look forward to getting back to you on it. president trump hasn't taken office yet. if confirmed, this is something that i think could be very exciting because we always look at the debt of the united states, and we have fantastic assets that could be earning, leveraged or used for multiple revenue generating opportunities. >> thank you. i yield. >> senator warner. >> thank you, mr. chairman. congratulations. mr. bessent, it's good to see you. enjoyed our meeting. i've got some specific questions i want to ask, and i don't want to litigate this now, but i do feel as someone working with senator crepe a poe and others when we took on i still think the most comprehensive -- simpson-bowles, we took arrows from each side.
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and i'm looking at any kind of pro-growth policies possible. but i just respectfully want to say there is not an industrial nation, paris if world industrial nation in the world that gets anywhere close the meeting the revenue needs. and i'm not propose posing america spend anywhere like the europeans at a 17-18%gdp. it's not going to happen in a trump administration or future democratic administrations. a lot of time the talk back and forth on this, but i can't let some of this go without at least offering something that there's not an economist around that wouldn't -- we've got to bring down spend, but the revenue if side alone is not -- excluding that, we're never going to get to a balance. i do want to raise, on a more positive note, again, something i worked closely with the chairman on and actually worked with the your predecessor on, was very proud of that relationship. i disagreed with secretary mnuchin on a lot of things, but
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i found a lot of things to agree with him on and one was community development financial institutions, cdfis. under the previous trump administration, we put $12 billion in. this serves access to capital for underserved communities. under senator crepe crapo's -- crapo's leadership, we built a bipart san caucus to -- bipartisan caucus. kind of low hanging fruit. there are things we can do to continue to expand this area and create a secondary market. we've got some bipartisan legislation there trying to reward patient capital. a lot of these institutions now have equity, but they've got to get patient capital can and, again, senator crapo and i have worked with the current administration on an equal opportunity coalition. but can you say a word about how you view cdfi and making sure that underserved communities get the access the capital so they can have their own american
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dream, how that fits into your lexicon. >> senator warner, i enjoyed talking to to you about cdfis in your office. i am -- the early part of my career was as a financial services analyst. so i have a depth and breadth, and i believe that the breadth. of the u.s. financial services industry is what makes the u.s. economy, differentiates the u.s. economy from the rest of the world. and i think the addition of these cdfi into upside served communities are very -- underserved communities are very important. >> i appreciate that. and, again, you understand markets well. if we could spark a secondary market in this debt, if we could leverage -- i'm talking about private capital. i know that's what my colleagues but we can leverage it
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exponentially. >> one of the things we discussed, and we talked about this in my office, and i don't want to -- you know, one of the things i was happy to hear, i feel very strongly that we cannot reward vladimir putin's aggressive, outrageous behavior in ukraine. and i think the ukrainians have performedded remarkably. obviously, they have manpower issues. i see this from the intel side on a daily basis. one of the areas that i think we have not done as well and, candidly, the sanctions regime i don't think was as effective as it should have been. i frankly think the biden administration waited too late to put some of these sanctions on oil and tankers. the ability for russia to retool, listen, i hope that president trump can settle this. hallelujah. the world will be better off. bun of the things we discussed
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in my office a was the potential to actually increase the sanctions regime as a way to help further leverage that. would you care to talk for a moment about that again? >> yes. senator warner, i believe that the sanctions regime -- first of all, i would say in my adult life that the tragedy going on in ukraine is one of the greatest tragedies of my adult life. and ending that as soon as possible and a role treasury can play in that if confirmed, i would like to do. as we discussed, i believe that the sanctions were not full is? enough. -- fulsome enough. i believe that we, i believe that the previous administration was worried about raising u.s. energy prices during an election
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season, and i am perplexed to see that martial security advisor suggest sullivan on his way out -- sullivan on his way out the door is raising the sanctions level on russian oil companies and, indeed, oil prices in the u.s. are up about 9% this month. so what was good for that administration is being foisted on us. but having gone from, i think hoe-level sanctions to mid-leves to mid-level, that if any officials in the russian federation are watching this confirmation hearing, they should me that if i'm confirmed and if president trump requests as part of his strategy to end the ukraine war that i will be 100% onboard for taking sanctions up especially on the russian oil majors the levels --
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to levels that would bring the russian federation to the table. >> and let me just get 30 seconds. thank you for that, because i think it's important that we don't take these tools out of the tool kit. we can litigate what the past administration did and when they did it, but increasing pressure on putin to bring about a resolution, i very much appreciate your willingness. and i hope you will be an advocate for keeping those sanctions on and actually advancing them even further. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator warner. senator lankford. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. bess sent, good to see you again -- mr. bessent. i was interested to be able to hear your thattist ticks you shared earlier that after the tax cuts and jobs act of 2017, now we've had several years of being able to see what happens, and i believe the statistic you gave is the top 50 of earners in america now paying 98% of the taxes. did i hear that correctly? because i've heard over and over again that it's the only the
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wealthy, only the big companies that get it. i would encourage, quite frankly, every oklahoma company that's a small business to ask their cpa this year when they're filing their taxes what did the tax -- what if the tax cuts and jobs act expires next year, what would my taxes be next year and have small business owners ask that question of their cpa, and i think they will be quite surprised the say this is only about big companies and -- be the same thing on the child tax credit, the tax cuts and jobs act goes away, it gets cut in half and all the inversions that were happening under the obama administration where american companies were being bought up by foreign entities, now that's actually switched. now american companies are buying foreign companies and those jobs are coming here. so there's been a tremendous amount of benefit in that. the one challenge that we've had on this committee has been a conversation with janet yellen about pillar two. and it started really four years
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ago now, three years ago, with the conversation was about, well, we really don't need congress to act on this. of we feel like we can do unilaterally. we can change america's tax policy for all businesses in america. and now in the last year they've shifted to say, well, we're going to have to come back to you at some point to get this. in the meantime, a deal has been negotiated that literally helps european countries and hurts the united states on this. and they negotiated a deal that exempts china from being affected by this at all. my question to you is, are you going to engage in this issue of pillar two, number one, have this committee involved in rig writing taxes which seems to be consistent with the constitution, and then what is your message to other countries if they try to implement pillar two on american businesses? >> thank you, senator. as we discussed in your office, senator lankford, i believe that any especially european country,
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but any country that in the next few days before president trump takes office is intent on implementing pillar two will find it a great mistake. that the taxation of u.s. companies is a sovereign issue, and it is -- that authority lies with this congress, and i will respect that. i will work with you to undo what i think has been a terrible policy. >> yeah. which i would agree and many members of this committee would agree. not only did they go around congress violating the constitution, but it deliberately hurt american companies. and i just think that's really terrible policy. it truly was america last policy. on the energy side, you've talked a lot about energy production. i'm in oklahoma, and unashamedly, we're all of the above and all the below energy. we probably have more wind if my degree and solar -- hydro and
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solar production than any other state, but we also use oil and gas. and we're going to produce if all the a energy that our state needs to be able to make sure that we stay stable on that. one of the issues that is a business issue for small or large businesses that i've been fighting for is a stable -- [inaudible] amount. this is not about the type of emergency or type of business even. it's if you're actually investing in your company and trying to grow your company, you would know what that bonus depreciation. this will help with pipeline reductions, but it will also help a pet shop and a hair salon and a restaurant just as much as well. so thought it is on bonus depreciation and and just a stable rate for that. >> so, senator, you're referring to the 100 -- >> yes. what has been in the past. but for, quite frankly, a stable rate period. right now we have a diminishing rate that's unpredictable. >> yes. so i think that increasing the after-tax return on capital for u.s. companies, especially small
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business, is one of the greatest forms of job creation that we could see. and to go back to your point on energy production, we have heard much here today saying we are at a record amount of energy production, and we know that's a canard. we are barely above where we were in 2020. and if we were to look at the department of energy projections for 2024 and 2025, we are well below those. the past four years we have seen u.s. production constrained, and part of a fulsome sanctions program would mean that we need more energy production in the u.s. to make up for the sanctioned russian oil protect the u.s. consumer. >> right. which is american jobs, american income, which is one with of the things we're going to have to deal with, the intangible costs that was put to all the end dependent oil and gas companies in my sate and everywhere else
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that drives up costs finish for consumers as well. mr. chairman, thank you. >> thank you. senator hassan. >> mr. chairman, thank you. again, congratulations. i look forward to talking with you and all of our colleagues on the committee. and thank you, mr. bessent, for being here. congratulations on your nomination and for your willingness to serve, and well with come to your husband and children as well. we are grateful for their willingness to share you with the country. i appreciate you meeting with me in this process and sharing your priorities at treasury if you are confirmed, and i want to follow up on some of those topics today. i also just want to associate myself with the comments of my if colleagues, senator bennet and senator warren -- warner. i certainly believe we need to cut taxes for working people, and we need to make sure the wealthiest pay their fair share. and with regard to senator warner's comments on the sanctions, you mentioned if vladimir putin is watching this hearing, he's not the only one watching this hearing. china is watching this hearing. and we have talked about the
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importance of making sure that we are not only competitive, but outperforming china for economic purposes as well as for national security reasons. and as important as a resolution in ukraine is, history tells us that the appeasing tyrants at the expense of freedom fighters never works. and it is critically important not only for the ukrainian people and for the freedom of all of us, but it is the important because china and north korea are also watching what we do and watching this hearing and how we will go forward imposing sanctions. to turn to some of the topics that we discussed when we met in my office, the research and development tax deduction was one of them. it's critical to helping us outcompete countries like china. currently, can china provides a 200% superreduction for r&d while american businesses can only immediately can deduct 10% for r&d. i worked on a bipartisan effort
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to restore the full and immediate r&d deduction. do you support that? will you work with me and my colleagues to get this across the finish line in congress? >> senator, i enjoyed the meeting in your office. i am not fully versed in this, but my inclination is that this is something that the i would support. and i will get back to you, if confirmed. i will get back to you very quickly on it and will make it a priority. >> do you agree it's an important tool for american companies to the improve their competitiveness? if. >> yes, senator. >> thank you. one of my other top priorities is working on a bipartisan basis to lower costs for families. under president-elect trump's policies, do you believe that prices for families will go up or down? >> i believe that inflation will be much closer to the federal
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reserve's target of 2%, and i believe that what we have seen over the past few years is that the bottom two income quintiles have a very different basket of goods and services. so there are two ways. we can either lower costs or get real wages up. i would hope that we would be able to do both. >> so you believe that president trump's policies will further increase wages and lower inflation? >> i believe that they will increase real wages and lower inflation closer to the federal reserve's 2% target as it did during president trump's first administration. >> are there any specific policies proposed by the president-elect that you expect will increase prices for families? if. >> nothing i can immediately think of. >> so that's a no. if the president-elect were to propose a policy that you believe will increase prices, would you advise existence it?
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-- against it? would, i would so president trump about it. it is his decision. and i believe that we think that if we look back, that it is a complete composite return in terms of aggregate inflation numbers. and if i think it's very difficult -- >> well, if you believe -- [inaudible conversations] i have limited time. so if you have you believe that a policy proposed by president trump would increase price, would you advise him against doing it? yes or no? >> i can't answer that question because it's a hypothetical. >> all right. let's move on. when we met prior to hearing, you told me president biden was responsible for increased prices over the past four years, something we can litigate, but i don't want to right here. by the same token, i assume you would agree that if prices increase in the next four years,
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president-elect trump would be responsible. >> i think there could be a variety of reasons. i the that it could be -- i think that it could be, we will see the policies of the federal reserve, the spending policies. congress sets the spending policies. >> so, look, i'm just going to -- i'm going to cut to the chase because i'm out of time. at the end of the day, what you're articulating is a double standard, and it's disappointing to me. thank you, mr. chair. >> thank you. senator daines. >> chairman, thank you. mr. bessent, good to have you here this morning. i think we're seeing in this committee is we really do have a divide between two very different philosophies about how to go forward and what's best for the american people in this economy, and what's best for global competitiveness. i remember sitting right in this chamber as we were debating whether or not we should launch the multiple trillion dollar massive spending bills, a $2 trillion covid bill, the inflation reduction act, massive, multitrillion dollar bills that even democrat former
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secretaries of treasury said could be inflationary, and indeed, it was. you compare that outcome to what we are going to return back to the policies of the prior trump administration that when you lower taxes for businesses, the american people, you create more tax revenue, you create more if economic activity, more wage growth particularly for minorities as well. and you start to get back into winning in terms of global competitiveness. we stop the inversions. it was absolutely the presiding officer: the democratic whip. mr. durbin: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: in 2018 i had the opportunity to visit venezuela. it was a once prosperous country suffering from economic and political decline. i told president maduro, if he
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interrupted the upcoming election, venezuelans would endure unnecessary suffering. he went ahead with a discredited election. the economy of venezuela started descending into chaos. people were literally starving. there was an exodus of millions of people from venezuela. you might say, if you believe that the united states has no responsibility, why is it our business anyway? countries are going to have failed governments and so what? what difference does it make? the difference it makes is the thousands and thousands of venezuelans who were part of an exodus from venezuela. s most went to columbia and nearby nations but many came to the united states. i know, i met them.
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they were the bus people sent to chicago, for example many, by the governor of texas. overwhelmingly venezuelans. how many actually came to the united states, i'm not sure. i'm not sure anybody really knows, but we're talking about thousands. and at this point, imagine what we're suggesting. this man maduro is still in control in venezuela and we're going to go through a mass deportation where we round up the venezuelans who came to the country and send them back, back to starvation, political oppression. i get it, if you're a dangerous person you never should have come to this country in the first place. if you commit a serious crime once you're here, i don't believe you should stay. it's just that basic. i don't go as far as the bill we considered a week or so ago, i believe prosecution and a finding of guilt is still important in america that is
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ruled by due process. having said that, what are we going to do about venezuela? the same man is still there but there have been not one, but two rotten suspect elections in the time since i've been there. last july venezuela held another presidential election, where the regime blocked leading candidates from the ballot and tried to undermine the electoral process. nonetheless, more than 10 million venezuelans actually voted and the votes were documented by election monitors showed a sweeping victory for edmundo gonzalez. i was glad toe see one of secretary of state's rubio's calls was to gonzalez. despite his clear victory, the
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maduro administration has refused to give up the election results. the maduro regime announced it won. not true. arbitrarily arrested thousands of opponents. issued an arrest warrant for gonzalez, which is a common trick by these dictators and refused to swear him in on inauguration day. today i'm introducing a short bill terminating u.s. petroleum cooperation and related trade with venezuela until the legitimate results of the election are respected. it's pretty simple. the entrenched regime clings to power using oil revenues, some from the united states. under my bill, that comes to an end. president trump and secretary rubio could also take this step right now with my legislation, maybe the bill will be a reminder this is a good idea. lastly i peel to our democratic allies in the region, including
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the democracies of the caribbean to stand resolute. they cannot sit idly by for another six years of regime-inflicted suffering and collapse in venezuela. mr. president, on a totally unrelated subject. this week two senate committees will hold confirmation hearings for robert f. kennedy jr., president trump's nominee to be secretary for health and human services. every day hhs, this major government agency, makes life or death decisions. that agency oversees the food and drug administration to make sure that what we eat is safe, to make sure the drugs that are sold to us are effective and safe as well. the inf inf is in this -- the national institutes of health is in this agency. it is the remere medical agency in the world. in the world.
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some $40 billion spent each year to find cures, to find new drugs, to move us toward a better america. and the centers for disease control, their job is not as flashy as some, but it's so important. what they do is toak sure that whatever is going around, as they say, doesn't hit our families. we count on them every single day. it's a big job, it requires responsible leadership and honesty, overseeing an agency that has these critical agencies of government. now, there may be certain areas where we agree, such as curbing drug ads or the quality of food supply, i worked with robert f. kennedy in the past, i can work with him on those issues. on the fundamentally -- the fundamentals of his leadership
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is troublesome. john f. kennedy jr. is dangerously unqualified and entirely irresponsible in his judgment. he embraces quack science and cherry picks information to fulfill his numerous conspiracy theories. his decades-long crew side to sprayed -- crusade to spread lies about vaccines is one example. robert f. kennedy jr., there is no vaccine that is safe and effective. this man, who wants to head the agency which develops vaccines and monitors their use says there is not a sengle vaccine -- single vaccine that is safe and effective. he stated that as recently as july of 2023. he's also said, quote, i do believe autism does come from vaccines. i've heard this theory and i
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think about it so many times when i think of my friends and family who are raising autistic children. what a burden, what a responsibility. what an effort they have to put into it to give these young children a chance and to have this quack theory out there that their child's problems has something to do with vaccines is cruel. an analyst conspiracy manifesto, which he helped to publish and it is entitled cause unknown. here's the book. it attempted to link covid-19 vaccination and deaths in young kids -- i will put this up here. it's a picture of the cover of this become with a forward written by robert f. kennedy jr., who is up for approval as part of the trump cabinet, head of hhs. this book cover has a picture of
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a young man whose name is braid -- braidon faye, this book talks about covid vaccine, braiden never received a covid vaccine. he died at a football practice due to a malformed blood vessel. the height of irresponsibility. mr. kennedy pushes facts aside when he wants to tell us about his agenda. the hippocratic oath for doctors state first do no harm, but i am fearful that if we put robert kennedy jr. in charge of our nation's health innocent children will do. it's no secret what he will do. mr. kennedy petitions the fda to rescind authorization of all
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covid vaccines in 2021, and a key associate of his has petitioned to remove the polio vaccine. look over here to the pages we have in the senate. i think of my own experience when i was four or five years younger than them. it was in the 1950's. we knew polio because we saw kids in our classrooms who were here today and in the hospital tomorrow. they contracted polio. it could be deadly. it could be crippling. it could affect you for the rest of your life. we knew this thing called an iron lung. it looked like a big vat, big white vat and the head sticking out at the end of it was this young person who contracted polio. this iron lung was helping kids to breathe and stay alive. we lived in dread of the possibility of coming down with polio. i remember talking about it when i was a little kid. how do you get polio?
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nobody knew. then the day came when dr. jonas salk developed a vaccine that was going to protect us from coming down with polio. later on dr. sabin developed an oral version of the vaccine which we kids like a lot more. but the bottom line was in my lifetime, in my childhood, we stopped polio in the united states. it it was a vaccine that worked over and over and over again and a million times over again. it worked. in 1952, polio paralyzed more than 21,000 americans and killed more than 3,000. but thanks to researcher jonas salk, the vaccine discovered and studied among 1.3 million children, they did testing of thousands of kids across the united states before they injected all of us. it was proven safe. the last case of wild polio found in the united states was
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1979. that's over 40 years ago. robert kennedy jr. has spread conspiracy theories to discourage uptick of the measles vaccine including traveling somoa fueling an outbreak that took 80 lives in schmoe yachlt before the measles vaccine, 48,000 people were hospitalized each year in the united states with thousands experiencing life threatening brain swelling. by 2000 measles was officially declared eliminated because of vaccines. mr. kennedy's dangerous antiscience views don't stop with these obvious vaccine that have helped america. he's also targeted the floor ride in -- flouride in drinking water. we have tested it every way you
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can imagine, as we should, to make sure it is safe for all of us to drink. and the tests come back suggesting it has always proven its safety. why do we do it? it reduces cavities in teeth dramatically. a little bit of flouride can go a long way in that regard. it has changed industry since i was a kid. going to the dentist ute to be a not very welcome adventure and kids went regularly with cavities galore. i was one of them. flouride changed things for my children and grandchildren. it's safe and it helps. robert f. kennedy jr. wants to contest flouride in drinking water. this man is not a scientist. he is a political figure. i've known him for many years. he has no special knowledge when it comes to these issues and buys into a myriad of conspiracy theories. let's be clear, there is no evidence that current
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recommended levels of flouride causes harm. on the flip side it has been established for over 7 decades it helps prevents cavities in children. god forbid we ever encounter another infectious or disease threat. do you want this denier robert f. kennedy jr. at the helm? i enter a challenge to my colleagues. go ask your medical professionals if they think robert f. kennedy would help or harm? the united states senate is better than this. i urge them to think twice p before voting on this nominee. the impact on the benefit of america could be devastating and we've got to accept the responsibility that this is the wrong nominee for this.
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mr. president, i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. # r
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>> a skilled negotiate i might sometimes use broad tariffs to bring leverage and in other cases a more sector-specific approach could be effective. so what criteria a or bench marks would you use to inform your decision to go with across the board measures or more surgical tariffs, and do you believe there should be any caps or triggers to prevent an unintended escalation? >> so, senator, i haven't been confirmed yet, president trump isn't in office, but i would imagine that you, the american
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people should think about tariffs in three ways under the trump administration. one will be for remedying unfair if trade practices either by industry or country. a la the chinese tariffs via steel. two, maybe for a more generalized tariff as a revenue raiser for the federal budget and, three, plump, i think, has added a third use of tariffs as you said as a skilled negotiator to -- he believes that is we've probably gotten over our skis a bit on sanctions and that sanctions may be driving countries out of the use of the u.s. dollar. so the tariffs can be used for negotiations whether it's for mexico on the fentanyl crisis, so i think you and the american
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people should think about those three broad categories. >> thank you. we need to to move on. and next is senator sanders. senator sanders, i don't believe you were here when i welcomed everyone to the committee this morning, but as a new member of the committee, i personally welcome you and look forward too or -- to work being with you. >> thank you very much, and it's a pleasure to be here. mr. bessent, thanks very much for being in the office the other day. mr. bessent, the united states today has more income and wealth inequality than the has ever existed in the history of our country. you have got three people on top, mr. musk, mr. bezos and mrw worth almost a trillion dollars, that is more than half of the bottom of our society, some 170 million people. three people, more wealth than the bottom 170 million. with more concentration of
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ownershipped the today than we've ever had, we have more concentration of ownership in the media where a handful of billionaires like musk, bezos, rupert murdoch increasingly own the media and the information that the american people receive. we have a corrupt campaign finance system in which a small number of billion their -- billionaires in both political parties make huge contributions into the presidential and congressional campaigns. when you have a small number of multibillionaires who have enormous if economic, media and political power, would you agree with president biden who last night stated, and i quote, an oligarchy is taking shape in america of extreme wealth, power and influence that threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, end of
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quote. that's what president biden said last night. i agree with him. do you? >> senator sanders, i enjoyed our -- >> could you talk a little closer into the mic. >> i enjoyed our visit, and i hope you got my follow-up materials -- >> yes, thank you. >> -- on the tariff ands china. tariffs and china p. look, the three billionaires who you listed, they all made the money themselves. many musk came to the country -- mr. musk came to the country as an immigrant -- >> i understand that. but what i'm asking you is when you have handful of people like musk who will soon be part of the trump administration and others, when you have three people owning more wealth than the bomb half of american society, end -- bottom half, when these people have enormous influence over the mediaing when they spend huge amounts of money in both political parties to
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elect candidates, what biden said last night is we're moving toward an oligarch key. i'm asking you that question with. do you think, forget how they made their money, do you think when so few people have so much wealth and so much economic and political power that that is an oligarchic form of society? >> well, i would note that president biden gave the presidential medal of freedom to two people who i think would qualify for his oligarchs. and so -- >> this is not a condemnation of any one individual. i'm just asking you, when so but if people have so much wealth and power, do you think that is an oligarchic form of society? >> senator, i think it depends on the ability to move up and down the -- >> no, that's not really the answerment even if you had that mobility no matter who those individuals might be, all right, but let me ask you another question. right now in america we have
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over 22 million workers who are making less than $15 an hour and nearly 40 million people in our country earning less than $17 an hour. shamefully, the federal minimum wage despite the efforts of myself and other people here have not been raised since 2009 and remains an unbelievable $7.25 an hour. will you work with those of us who want to raise the federal minimum wage to a living wage to take millions of americans out of poverty? senator, i believe that the minimum wage is more of a state the wide and regional issue. >> so you don't think we should change the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour? >> no, sir. >> okay. mr. bessent, millions of working class americans who are struggling to keep their heads above water are paying outrageously high interest rates on their, credit cards.
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over half the american people who take out new credit cards are being charged interest rates of over 24%. 24%. during his campaign, president-elect trump promised that he was going to cap credit card interest rates at 10%. if i happen to think that that is a very good idea. and i will soon the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: madam president, i want to open with a few words on the announcement from china by deep seek. today's announcement from china has been called a.i.'s sputnik moment for america. this announcement is precisely why i made a.i. a top priority in the last congress and will continue to do so. our competitors are going to use every single opportunity to overtake the united states's lead on the technologies of the future, particularly a.i. if congress does not lead

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