Mr. President -- Mr. President, Andy Harris said you didn't convince enough people to vote for the bill in there. He said you didn't adequately convince enough people to vote for the bill.
Mr. President, should Republicans that hinder this bill be primaried?
Mr. President? Mr. President, what's your message to the holdouts?
What was your expression you used now? Were you embarrassed?
Possibly. Possibly. We'll have to see. I think we have great -- we have a very, very united party. This man has done a fantastic job. And so have you, Lisa.
Well, it's not a question of holdouts. We have a tremendously unified party. I don't think we've ever had a party like this. There are some people that want a couple of things that maybe I don't like or that they're not going to get, but I think we're going to have tremendous -- not luck. We have tremendous talent.
No, I said Andy Harris said that you didn't adequately convince enough people to vote for the bill, The House Freedom Caucus.
Thank you.
This man has done an incredible job as speaker. You know, we had a majority of one. We were one heart attack away from losing the House. OK? Now we have seven. That's a big -- because we won some elections, as you probably noticed, and we're going to win a lot of elections. We have an economy that's roaring.
You mean, after this speech?
But this man has done a fantastic job. He's a real unifier. I don't think anybody else could have done it. We had -- I just said to your cohorts downstairs, we had a majority of one for a period of five months. And he kept it together. And we actually passed things. And nobody else could have done that. He's done a fantastic job, the speaker.
We took out $5.1 billion, if you take a look, $5.1 trillion with a T, not a B, $5.1 trillion out of the Middle East, and they're investing more than that. It's going to be ultimately more than that. But 180 widebody Boeing aircraft. They're spending money at levels that nobody's ever seen. Usually, a president goes for a trip and he loses money.
After this speech --
We have a very, very unified party. Remember we had one and now we have seven. We won elections. Won elections. We're going to win a lot of elections. The economy is good. I just had my highest poll numbers ever, ever. And we had a big trip to the Middle East. We took in $5.1 trillion. We brought it back to our country.
In other words, he gives money. We went for a trip and we took out $5.1 trillion. Nobody has ever seen anything like it, and that's just the beginning. So I think we're a very unified party. The Senate's doing great. John Thune is doing fantastic. He's a great guy and we're going to have a bill, the one big, beautiful bill.
Yeah. Well, why don't we see how the vote is? I think it was a great, great talk, wasn't a speech, we talked about [Inaudible] Who do you work for?
180 Boeing aircraft are being built now because of that trip and many other things. That's the least of it. The economy is, you know, doing great. The stock market is higher now than when I came to office. And we've taken in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariff money. And we've had no inflation. You know, they kept saying inflation.
I think it's going to be -- it's the biggest bill ever passed and we got to get it done, tremendous tax cuts for people, tremendous incentives, tremendous regulation cuts, all these regulations that are so horrible. And now you found out and find out what happened, because Biden -- look, it's a very sad thing what happened.
[Inaudible]
There's no inflation, groceries are down, gasoline is way down, way down. Everything is down. All energy costs are down. The -- I'll tell you, to me, maybe the most respected thing, you saw the way they respected me between Qatar and Saudi Arabia and UAE, the -- probably the richest, certainly the richest of their type nation.
But I really -- we're going to start looking into this whole thing with who signed this legislation, who signed legislation opening our border. I don't think he knew. I said, there's nobody that could want an open border, nobody. And now I find out that it wasn't him, he autopenned it. Who was operating the autopen?
I don't even know what that is. Get yourself a real job. Let me tell you, let me tell you, I think we have unbelievable unity. I think we're going to get everything we want. And I think we're going to have a great victory, and this man has done a great job. And I think this was a tremendous session. You may want to say something, yeah.
Great places. Unbelievable amounts of money. They respect our country again. They were going to go to China. China was going to take over those countries 100 percent. They were dealing with China because they weren't treated right by the last administration. And they have tremendous economic power. They have more money than anybody.
This is a very serious thing. We had a president that didn't sign anything. He autopened almost everything. He opened the borders of the United States of America and I kept saying, who would do such a thing, allowing criminals to pour in from all over the world, not just South America, all over the world.
It was a great meeting. The party is unified; the House Republican Conference is excited, multiple standing ovations. They love this president; the people back home love what he's doing. It's historic and everybody understands the scope and the meaning of this. If we do not accomplish this mission, every one of you, all the American people are going to have the highest tax increase that you've ever had.
We probably have more money, but we have other things -- that they are very, very -- uh, they are very cash rich to put it mildly. And they're spending $5.1 trillion, probably it's going to be $7 trillion by the time we stop. And you know, somebody said every other president goes and leaves and spends money gives other countries money.
They came in from Africa. They came in from Asia. They came from the Congo, the prisons in the Congo in Africa. These are rough people. The prisons from the Congo are empty. You know where they are, they are in this country. Who would sign this? Nobody would sign it. No sane person would sign it. You know who signed it, radical left lunatics that were running our country and the autopen signed it and they didn't want him.
Among the debt ceiling cliff that's approaching and all the other problems, this is the bill to do it. I think we'll get it done, Mr. President --
I'm the only one that goes and takes money back. [Laughter] You know, when you think of it, I said that's an interesting statement. I never thought of it that way. But uh, we have a good -- this is really just a pep talk. We have a very unified House, and we have a very unified Senate. And Mike is doing a phenomenal job as speaker.
And they were disappointed in getting him because they wanted Bernie Sanders. And then after about two weeks, they said, wait a minute, this is a gift. He'll do anything. We're going to use the autopen. And they use the autopen in on everything. He didn't approve this stuff because when Joe Biden was with it, he would never have approved that.
The Democrats want to raise your taxes. If this doesn't work, this doesn't get the numbers that the Republicans want, and I think it does, I think all Republican votes. The Democrats are going to be raising your taxes by 68 percent. And they will not do the -- we're going to have an 85 percent cut in drug costs, 85 percent cut in drug costs.
He's going to be there a long time. And we have a man in the Senate, our Leader Thune. Mr. Thune is doing a great job. I've gotten to like him a lot. And he's doing a fantastic job. Between the two guys, uh, very different personalities actually in certain ways, but uh, they are doing a fantastic job. Uh, I don't think the Republican Party has ever been so unified.
You take a look, he would have never approved open borders. Go ahead, another one.
The Democrats, the drug prices are going to go up. I can't imagine a Democrat not voting for this. I think the Democrats, if they don't vote for it, that means they're voting for an increase in drug prices. Think of that, versus an 80 to an 85, maybe 75, but could be 85 percent cut in drug costs, OK?
It's become a much bigger party. You know, we're winning the labor vote, we're winning -- we won the Teamsters. We won votes that nobody -- look how well we did with the automakers. And by the way, the president of the automakers is now my biggest fan. He said he did tariffs. Do you know how many auto plants are being built now in this country because of the tariffs?
Are Republicans still grandstanding in your view?
Mr. President, will you have someone reach out to individual members? Will you need to make a pitch to individual members?
Three, just announced yesterday that they're building. There is a revolution going on, a positive one, in our country and I love it. And we're -- we're doing really well.
Oh, yeah, sure. You have a couple that will grandstand. But I think even the grandstand issue, look, the alternative is a 68 percent tax increase, and you can blame the Democrats for that, and one or two Grandstanders. We only have one or two, but we have tremendous support. But you'll have a 68 percent tax increase or you'll get a massive tax decrease.
I don't think so, no, that's what I did. That's really what we did today. I think it was a really great -- that was a meeting of love. Let me tell you. That was love in that room. There was no shouting. There was -- I think it was a meeting of love. There were a couple of things that we talked about specifically where some people felt a little bit one way or the other, not a big deal.
Mr. President -- Mr. President --
You'll get a tax cut, the likes of which we've never had before. This is bigger than any Ronald Reagan tax cut. It's even bigger than the tax cut that I gave, because as you know, that's being extended and increased. So this is the biggest tax cut in the history of our country, or you'll get a 68 percent tax increase.
And I covered them; it wasn't so much a speech I covered certain points. And I think there was -- I'd be very surprised --
And we'll --
And if that happens, I mean, what Republican could vote for that to happen because there wouldn't be a Republican much longer. They would be knocked out so fast. But we're going up the details. I'm a cheerleader for this party and I'm a cheerleader for the country. Much more importantly, for the country, but I'm a cheerleader for the party and we're going to go up and I think we're going to have a very good discussion.
You told them [Inaudible]
Do you want the negotiations to stop, Mr. President? Mr. President? Do you want the negotiations to be over now?
There are one or two points that some people feel strongly about, but maybe not so strong.
No, I didn't tell them. Who told you I said I'm losing?
Which negotiation?
On one of those points, do you consider some of the proposals on the table like [Inaudible] provider tax as a benefit cut? How are you viewing this?
That's what we heard inside the room --
Over this bill?
No, we are looking at one thing. We're not doing any cutting of anything meaningful. The only thing we're cutting is waste, fraud and abuse. With Medicaid, waste, fraud and abuse. There's tremendous waste, fraud and abuse. There's incompetent things. We have illegal aliens that are multiple killers with multiple murder records getting Medicaid.
But that's a lie. Wait a minute, wait, wait, who told you that?
Oh, yeah, well, it's going to be. We're going to be putting it in soon. And I think we're going to have great support.
I don't think anybody minds if we cut that. The Democrats on the other hand, they're going to destroy it because they're going to leave these people on. We're cutting three things, waste, fraud and abuse. We're not changing Medicaid and we're not changing Medicare and we're not changing Social Security. And if I wanted to do those things, I would have done it during my four years that we were there.
We heard from people inside the room. It's not true?
Are you going to --
Mr. President, what's your message to your fellow New Yorker Republicans who are hung up on the salt issue?
Oh, it's totally true, I never used the term. I didn't say losing -- I didn't even talk about it. In fact, it's the opposite. I think we're going to get it done. I'm not losing patience. We're ahead of schedule. Anybody that told you that is a liar. I never meant -- wait a minute, wait a minute. I never mentioned the word losing patience because I'm not losing patience.
We are going to -- we're going to make a couple of tweaks. I mean, we don't want to benefit Democrat governors, although I would do that if it made it better, but they don't know what they're doing. And you know, the radical left --
Well, salt is a very interesting thing because the governors of New York and Illinois, the big JB who's going nowhere, I'm probably right now, he could be the worst governor in the country. But Illinois and Gavin Newsom [misprounounced "Newscum"], those are the people that want this and they're Democrat states. They're all Democrat states.
We're ahead of --
[Crosstalk]
You know, Ronald Reagan tried very hard to get this passed. He was unable to do it the way we have it, where we're basically everybody is treated equally. He tried it so hard and he never got it done. He was always disappointed. He never got it done. We got it done. Now people want to change it, so we're going to be talking about that.
-- why don't you go back to your source and tell them they're liars, if the source even exists.
And we don't want to -- we don't want to -- we don't want to do any damage to a state.
But the biggest beneficiary if we do that, are governors from New York, Illinois and California, and those governors are the ones that blew it because they weren't able to get it. So I think we're going to be explaining that these are all very blue states, that I don't really believe -- if we had honest elections, I don't actually believe -- I think I would have won California, I would have won New York.
[Crosstalk]
We want to help all the states. But we have governors that are from the Democrat Party, let's say New York, and Illinois, big ones. And let's say Gavin Newsom who's done a horrible job in California. Um, you know, we want to benefit the company -- we want to benefit Republicans because they -- they are the ones that are going to make America great again.
I even think I would have won Illinois. I think -- we're going to start this after. I was talking to Mike and again, I'm his biggest fan. I love this guy. He's the only guy who could have walked in with a one -- think of it, you can't be a guy like me and have a one majority. You have to be a guy like him, a nice person.
If the bill passes the House, Senators are already talking about making a number of changes [Inaudible]
The Democrats are destroying our country. And you see that with the past administration with an open borders policy that allowed 21 million people into our country. And many of those people are stone cold murderers, killers and trouble. Yeah?
He's very religious. He prays. He's a man of God and so am I, but he's really to a new level, I will tell you. He is a great guy. They love him in Louisiana and they love him in -- that's the only kind of guy. Somebody said, oh, well, we want somebody to -- if you put a certain personality in there, you would have never -- look at what he got passed, what he's gotten past.
Sure, always have.
[Crosstalk]
And just so you understand, he's gotten this passed too. And I don't think there's anybody -- I could give you guys that are so tough you guys would run if you ever looked at him. If you ever saw some of these guys, you would not ask them questions, you'd be afraid to. This guy did something that I don't think there's anybody that's more well suited to be speaker of the House, especially in a case like this.
Is that OK? Do you want them to swallow this bill?
What are you planning to tell the fiscal hawks who wanted to --
Remember, we had a majority of one for six months and that was a very frightening thing because the Democrats have really hurt our country and we are going to go into very much -- remember what I said, the autopen. This government was illegally run for four years. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
Yeah, in some cases, they have things that I like even better. No, it always happens. There'll be some -- there'll be some changes. John Thune and Mike have been very closely aligned on this. They've been moving it up together.
Say it --
[Crosstalk]
What are you planning to tell the fiscal hawks that wanted to --
Apparently, you said don't [Inaudible] with Medicaid apparently. You did say in the room there is some concern among some Republicans, including Senator Josh Hawley, that this could impact benefits and they could amount to hidden tax on the --
I'm a fiscal hawk.
[Crosstalk]
[Inaudible]
Here's what I said, here's what I say. Do you want to hear what I said? I said waste, fraud and abuse for Medicaid. If you find waste or fraud or abuse, we want to strengthen Medicaid. We want to strengthen Medicare. Waste, fraud and abuse. The Democrats will let illegals be armed, they'll destroy it, it will be destroyed.
I'm a bigger fiscal hawk. There's nobody like me as a fiscal hawk.
They want to have illegal immigrants be armed, and if you do that, because that's not -- it wasn't designed for that. Waste, fraud and abuse.
Thomas Massie said -- Mr. -- More deficit than Biden did. And this bill kind of --
Do you guarantee that your voters who supported your election, particularly working-class voters, will not lose health insurance under this bill?
Because we have to fix the country.
Oh, they won't lose health insurance. Not only that, remember I'm cutting drug prices by 85 percent. And right now I'm saving it, I'm saving the whole thing because I did something that nobody was willing to do. Other countries pay a tiny fraction of what we do, and I instituted favored nations. We're now going to pay the lowest in the world.
Do you think that Thomas Massie is correct in saying that this is adding --
We're going to be the equivalent of the lowest country in the world. People go to London, they go to Canada, they go to other countries, many other countries because they want to buy their pharmaceutical products, their drugs at a fraction of the cost. Now we're going to have the lowest cost anywhere in the world and nobody else will do that, but me. And that might be an election by itself, might be election winning.
No, I don't think Thomas Massie understands government. I think he's a grandstander, frankly. Uh, he'll probably vote. We don't even talk to him much. I think he should be voted out of office. And I just don't think he understands government. If you ask him a couple of questions, he never gives you an answer.
Now when you add that in, when you put that into Medicaid and Medicare, we've just strengthened Medicare, Medicaid and the Democrats won't do that. You know why? Because they're taken care of by the drug companies. And the ones that are taken care of are hard line. Some Republicans get money from drug companies and that's OK because they're OK with it. I talked about it. The drug companies take care of everybody.
He just says I'm a no. He thinks he's going to get publicity. And you have that, you have that. They've got some, too. Go ahead.
It's the biggest lobby, most powerful lobby in the world. There's no lobby like that. But the Republicans are okay with it, not only okay with it, they love it, it was time. So, we're going to cut drug prices by from 75 to 85, in some cases even more than that. You know, I was telling the story that -- and some of you were at that news conference.
Mr. President, on Medicaid, do you want work requirements phased in next year? Do you think --
I gave a news conference where I was the first one in 18 years to cut drug costs for the year. And they were like a quarter of a point to half a point less. And I was very proud of that. Now I'm cutting them by 80, 85 percent because I stopped the scam. This was a scam between the middlemen and the drug companies.
Here's what I want on Medicaid, we're not touching anything. All I want is one thing, three words. We don't want any waste, fraud or abuse. Very simple. Waste, fraud abuse. Other than that, we're leaving it. Medicare we're leaving it. All were, after, and this is for the good of it, there's a lot of waste, fraud and abuse.
This was a giant scam. And by the way, and other countries, because other countries fought for this, this was a giant scam and we're not going to have it. So, remember this, go back and tell your people, if you'd like to, that the Republican Party is cutting the cost of drugs by as much as 85 percent. Not 8 percent, not 5 percent, not 1 percent -- 85 percent.
That's all we're doing. We're not touching it. The Democrats are going to destroy it. Thank you very much. We'll see later.
And you're going to have the lowest drug prices anywhere in the world because I'm doing favored nations. And it's all done, I signed it. And the Democrats will unsign it and the drug prices are going to go up. And I think on that issue alone, you can't lose an election.
[Crosstalk]
Mr. President, you say that your DOJ is weaponizing with the arrest of a Congresswoman -- Democratic Congresswoman.
What?
Oh, give me a break, did you see her? She was out of control. You know, those days are over. The days of woke -- the days of woke --
There are conservatives in this room who want to go further --
Did you tell her to do that?
Waste, fraud and abuse. That's all the cuts we're doing. Thank you very much.
No, I didn't. The days of woke are over. That woman, I don't -- I have no idea who she is. That woman was out of control. She was shoving federal agents, she was out of control. The days of that crap are over in this country. We're going to have law and order.
Mr. President, thank you very much. You campaigned on lowering the price of groceries. How can you justify cutting food assistance in this bill?
Let me -- let me just tell you, the cut is going to give everybody much more food because prices are coming way down, groceries are down. Eggs, you told me about eggs, you asked me a question about eggs my first week. You said eggs, I said I just got here, tell me about eggs, and it was going through the roof.
You know that eggs now -- way down, everybody's buying eggs. Groceries down, energy is down. Gasoline is now -- they're buying gasoline now for $1.99. When I -- if you look back you'll see $3.50, $4.00. This country, we're going to lose this country. Our country now is respected all over the world. All over the world we're respected.
We were a laughingstock. The entire world was -- we were a laughingstock. I went to the Middle East and those rulers of those three countries are very powerful people, very big people, very rich people. They respect our country again. China was going to take them over. You know, China was going to get all -- they were going to get into the -- if you look, Saudi Arabia, you take a take a little look what was happening with Qatar, UAE, great people, unbelievable people, unbelievable leaders.
But they were abandoned by this country and they're not going to China anymore. They love us, we love them. We're going to take care of them and they're going to take care of us. We came back with $5.1 trillion -- trillion. Every other president would have come back having spent $5.1 trillion as usual. And remember this, we were losing $5 billion a day under the past administration.
I have to be a little careful the way I talk because there's a lot of anger about that administration. And by the way, the real question -- who ran the autopen, OK? Who ran the autopen? Because the things that were signed were signed illegally, in my opinion, I think we've just proved that. But our country is respected again.
All over the world were respected. We were laughed at seven months ago, then you had November 5th, and our country is respected again. Thank you very much.