Transcription
Joining us now, Republican Senator Jim Banks of Indiana. Senator, um, you voted, of course, to proceed with this bill last night. I want to read you something from a man who came to Washington. He says his goal was to cut spending, debts, and deficit. His name's Elon Musk. He says this about the latest version: “The draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country. Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future. Republicans are supposed to be the party of fiscal conservatism, and this doesn't meet that definition.”
Well, Shannon, this is the biggest spending cut in American history, a $1.66 trillion spending cut, getting rid of the Green New Deal scams from the Biden administration. And it's the biggest tax cut in American history for working-class families, for mechanics, for factory workers, teachers, musicians, um, uh, work the working-class men and women of this country who just gave President Trump a historic election victory. Republicans are going to follow through and extend the Trump tax cuts: no taxes on tips, no taxes on overtime, and America is going to be healthier, the economy is going to be stronger for it. And then we'll move on to the next bill and hopefully do even more in spending cuts and helping the American people even more after that.
Okay, so this one, uh, Senator Chris Coons, your colleague from across the aisle, is going to be up next on the show, and he said that this bill hurts everyday Americans. It takes away health care, healthcare insurance coverage, food for people in need. He says that this administration has not gotten prices down and now this is going to be a tax break for billionaires and the wealthiest Americans. Polls show us that that messaging is landing—that people are very skeptical. They have very negative impressions of this bill.
Well, it's just not true. I mean, it's a good thing that the the the clerk in the Senate right now just passed page 600. So, they got they got a little ways to go, but they're they're reading the bill, and the truth is in the bill. The Medicaid uh reforms would affect able-bodied Americans, those who are sitting at home, who can work, who don't work, who don't have a sick kid or a sick mom. They they shouldn't receive Medicaid without working. And though and and on top of that, the bill would take Medicaid away from illegal immigrants. One of the most important amendments that we're going to vote on hopefully sometime tonight or tomorrow morning would be whether or not illegal immigrants should get Medicaid. And Democrats are going to have to they're going to have to vote on that and tell the American people whether or not that's fair to those men and women who work hard every day and pay taxes—that people who who can work but don't work and illegal immigrants should get Medicaid instead. Those would be the Americans who are affected. But at the end of the day, this is the biggest tax cut on working-class families. If we don't pass this bill, everyone's taxes on average will go up $2,000 a household, and that that's not fair to the regular Americans who work hard every day. That's what this bill is all about.
So, there have been changes obviously to the Senate bill, and we'll talk about a little bit of that. But following those changes, here's what the committee for a responsible federal budget has to say: “This thing would explode the debt. They say if you thought the House bill borrowed too much, and it did, the Senate manages to make things even worse. This $4 trillion borrowing bonanza is fiscally dangerous at a time of already exploding debt. It would borrow $1 trillion more than the House bill. It violates the House's reconciliation instructions by hundreds of billions of dollars and it is littered with special interest giveaways. A total hogwash.” Again, $1.6 trillion in spending cuts by eliminating the Green New Deal tax credits, those uh scams that were passed during the Biden administration. But remember, this is phase out or is it over time? Uh, much of it is uh phased out in a quick period of time over the next the next two or three years, and and that that's where much of the cost savings come from. But remember, this is a tax bill. This is about taxes on working-class Americans. And if we don't pass this bill, uh, these Americans will will get such a big tax increase.
Well, I I I'm the son of a factory worker. Everyone in my family is blue-collar working class. They're all going to get socked by another $2,000 on average every year. They already tell me they can't keep up right now. And and the Democrats want them to pay more in taxes. The Republicans are the party of the working class; the the Democrats are focused on screwing the working class with higher taxes and uh and and increasing the size and the scope of government, spending more on government. That's what they that's who they care about. President Trump and Republicans are serious about cutting taxes on the people who need it the most.
Okay, let's talk about Medicaid because this has been a great concern with a number of your GOP colleagues who have very much worried not only about the practical impact but how this is perceived for the party as well. So, Senator Tom Tillis was one of the no votes. He's had a lot of concern about this. He said this yesterday: “Cannot support this bill in its current form. It would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities. We can and must do better than this.” Now, he's got a tough re-election fight next year. The president's talking about primarying him. Are you allowing space? Is the Republican uh leadership in the Senate allowing space for him to be able to vote no on this and go tell North Carolina, “I tried as hard as I could”? Or do you think there's still a way to get him to a yes vote?
I don't I don't know. Hopefully he does vote for it. I mean, I I I I don't know much about North Carolina politics, but in Indiana, my my my voters expect me to cut taxes for the people who need it the most and support President Trump in this endeavor. But we in addressing some of those concerns about rural hospitals, which is what Senator Tillis has been talking about for the last week, Leader McConnell and President Trump have added a fund specifically geared toward uh keeping those rural hospitals going and making up for some of the losses that might be incurred. So that that'll go a long way to take care of that. But remember the Medicaid reforms in this bill are about work requirements and taking illegals off of Medicaid. That that that's what's that's what's in the bill. That's what the clerk is reading on the floor right now. That's the truth.
Well, and that's the part that when that part of that question is bill or pulled that actually works for you. People seem to be in agreement, the average American on that.
Okay. So this bill has gone so through the so-called bird bath. We won't go too wonky with people, but it means the parliamentarian here in the Senate can kick things out that aren't germane to the underlying legislation. You got to keep that together so you can pass this with a simple majority. Um, House Republican Chip Roy, you served with him over in the House. He thinks that some folks in the Senate, some GOP senators are using the parliamentarian um, as kind of a copout. Here's a bit of what he said about that: “I think the Senate is hiding behind the parliamentarian. I think the Senate wants to be able to avoid some of these cuts and these savings and they want to be able to blame it on the parliamentarian. So don't blame the parliamentarian.” So you remember the house just months ago on the other side of the hill. Um, is he right that some of your colleagues are hiding behind her decisions to say, “Well, we tried”?
Well, these these are are process questions. First of all, the the Senate bill cuts more than the House bill. 1.6 to $1.7 trillion in spending cuts in the Senate bill is more than what came out of the House. But secondly, the assessment is it spends more too. Well, it it extends these tax cuts and helps uh the working-class Americans that we were elected to serve. So, I'm not sure what he means by that, but at the end of the day, we we can we can override the parliamentarian with 60 votes on the floor. There will be a lot of amendment votes. The vote-a-rama is going to go on for several hours, hundreds of amendments that are filed. I I I think this bill is going to be better after we get through the amendment process than what it is right now. It will be different, and the speaker has worried about that because of substantive changes here in the Senate. You've got members out there publicly, House members saying, “I can't vote for this or I'm not going to vote for this when it comes back.”
There's a really tight timeline to get this to the president's desk by July 4th. How much does that factor into your assessment of what you will and won't vote for in vote in the amendment process knowing that there are House members who say, “Where it squeaked by the first time, there are no this time with some of these changes”? There's been a lot of coordination between the House and the Senate. Speaker Johnson has been in our Senate lunches several times working closely with Leader McConnell to make sure that we get this right. There's no margin for error, but never bet against President Trump. I mean, he is on the phone. He is working it. Uh, they they uh they passed this by one vote out of the House before. We're likely to pass it with a similar margin in the Senate. But don't don't bet against President Trump. Uh, he's going to get it done. The Senate's going to pass this bill in the next 24 to 36 hours. We're going to send it back to the House and then we're and then the House needs to act on it quickly and get it to the president to sign it into law.
I want to ask you too about the assessment about Iran and how successful that strike was. Um, you all had an intel briefing today. I want to play something that Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, had to say when he came out from that briefing: “I walk away from that briefing still under the belief that that we have not obliterated the program. The president was deliberately misleading the public when he said the program was obliterated. It is it is certain that there is still significant capability and significant equipment uh that uh that that remain.” So his assessment after hearing from the briefers uh and a lot of folks credited former Senator now Secretary Marco Rubio with the thoroughness of that—but that obliterated is not the right word. He says they still have functional capability for a number of things they need for their program.
Yeah, I sat through the same briefing and my takeaway is that we set the program in Iran back by if not uh several months, several years. And the it's almost it's it's almost hilarious to me that we're arguing over whether whether or not it was 90% obliterated or 70% obliterated. At the end of the day, the Democrats know these were effective strikes. President Trump acted in a in the way that he should have to meet his commitment to never allow Iran to gain a nuclear weapon. And he took he struck these three sites. They were effective, set back their program for by by a long a long period of time and then bringing Iran to the table to negotiate a deal, and that that that diplomatic process is beginning. The ceasefire between Israel and Iran is real, and President Trump's right in the middle of it, and he deserves a lot of credit for it.
All right, we'll talk about that assessment with Senator Coons who was in there as well. Uh, Senator Banks, thank you very much for your time. Good to see you this morning. Hey everyone, I'm Emily Compagno. Catch me and my co-hosts Harris Faulkner and Kayleigh McEnany on Outnumbered every weekday at 12 PM Eastern or set your DVR. Also, don't forget to subscribe to the Fox News YouTube page for daily highlights.