Good afternoon everyone. Um, we all wanna thank the, the President and his team for hosting us down here. We had a very positive discussion about the path forward on the Big Beautiful Bill and the reconciliation bill. And I think it was a reminder that, uh, we are all in this together. This is a team effort and everybody is gonna be rolling in the same direction to get this across the finish line.
Failure is not an option and, uh, we then intend to deliver along with the President for the American people on the things that he committed to do and that we committed to do in terms of the agenda. And so, the reco- -- reconciliation bill will be positive for growth. It'll be good for the economy. It'll create better paying jobs.
And, uh, and we intend on energy, on national security, on spending reductions, on tax policy, on border security, all of those areas to address the issues the American people care about, to make them more safe, more secure, and more prosperous in the future. Senator Barrasso.
Sorry.
He screwed it up. [Laughs] Well, Republicans are committed to a safe and prosperous America, and that's what this bill does. It provides for safety as well as prosperity for the American people. We shared with the President the fact that the American people trust Republicans much more on the economy than they do the Democrats.
And this bill does what the American people want us to do. And the number one and most important thing is that this bill prevents a $4 trillion tax increase, which would be the largest tax increase in the history of the country. Democrats want that tax increase to come into place, republicans are gonna stop it. Additionally, I'm a doctor, took care of patients for a long, long time, took care of many, many patients on Medicaid.
We need to strengthen Medicaid for the people that it's designed to take care of. And that means we have to, to stop paying, the taxpayers need to stop paying for Medicaid for illegal immigrants. We're gonna unleash American energy. All of these things are going to lower costs, increase wages, and put more money into people's pockets.
As it has been said, we had a very, very robust and helpful discussion with the President today. Everyone was able to get their concerns voi- -- voiced and their hopes, uh, identified. Uh, we have very strong support and we have very strong unity in moving forward to make sure that we don't give America the biggest tax increase in the history of the country.
A $4.3 trillion tax increase, there's a lot of talk about this as a, a tax cut for the wealthy. This is a $2.6 trillion tax increase on people making less than $400,000. And the vast majority of that is for the middle and lower middle income categories. And small businesses and large businesses alike, are looking to invest capital in America and increase the growth rate of our economy.
You're seeing that kind of an investment already happening in anticipation of this bill. So, all the talk about how this bill is gonna generate a reduction or an increase in our deficit is absolutely wrong. The fact is we're gonna see the same dynamic develop after this bill is passed that we saw in '27 when we passed the bill.
And that is the economy is going to explode in capital formation, jobs will increase, wages will increase, benefits will increase, uh, and unemployment will go down, as will inflation. And we're gonna see the kind of, of growth and strength that this country wants to be delivered from this legislation.
Senator Thune.
Senator Thune. Thank you so much for coming out here.
Could I ask you, Senator Thune, did SALT, did SALT come up, Senator Thune? I mean, this is a big issue. You gave that interview.
Yeah.
And is the President with you on re-opening up the SALT conversation?
SALT always comes up. Um, it's an issue that there's a lot of passion for and about among Republican senators. Obviously, the House has different equities when it comes to that issue, but we'll work it out. I mean, we, we obviously realize in anything we do, it also has to pass the House of Representatives.
It's gotta be something that the President's willing to sign into law. And I think the President understands the dynamic in both the House and the Senate, and why it was necessary to do something on SALT, uh, in the House. And we also understand that, um, we're gonna have to probably, uh, do something there.
But we also start from a position that there really isn't a single Republican senator, uh, who cares much about the SALT issue. It's just not an issue that plays. Most of our states, we're, we're states that are low-tax states and, uh, we don't think that low-tax states ought to be subsidizing high-tax states.
So, as a matter of policy, in my view, I think we would all agree in 2017, that was one of the best reforms we had in the bill. But as, uh, we understand that it's a, it's about 51 and 218. So, we will work with our House counterparts and with the White House to try and get that issue in a place where, uh, we can deliver the votes and get the bill across the finish line.
What is the AI provision of the bill, Senator?
Senator, do you think Elon Musk trying to kill this bill? Why do you think Elon Musk is trying to kill this bill?
Well, I can't speak to, you know, uh, his, uh, reasons other than what he stated. And I think that what he stated was that he thought it was something that would add to the deficit. And we, we believe the opposite. We believe that if you don't, if you take the CBO assumptions, which were dramatically off when it came to 2017 tax bill, but if you, if you take pretty much everybody else's economic modeling and you realize there's gonna be growth as a result of passing this bill, that growth generates additional government revenue, and over time, you end up not increasing the deficit but reducing the deficit.
Are you worried about -- [Inaudible]
Well, I think, I think our members understand, kind of, the whole CBO scoring model game here in Washington. So, uh, I think at the end of the day, most of our members, uh, want to pass a bill that they believe is gonna be stimulative, that's gonna create growth in the economy, create, create better paying jobs, and therefore generate more government revenue, not less.
[Inaudible] Senator, did you talk about Rescissions package with President Trump and -- [Inaudible]
To follow up on that, Elon Musk said today that the bill should be killed and that you should start all over. Are you saying that that's not gonna happen?
No, I mean, we're, we're a long ways down this track and we realized that, um, this is a bill that the House spent a lot of time analyzing. We spent, I think, we've said, we've had like 18 different meetings now with the Senate Finance Committee, and, um, we're committed to making a law that will make the lives of the American people better.
And so we're, we are, we are moving forward and, um, I'm hopeful that at the end we'll have 51 votes in the Senate and whenever the bill goes back to the house, they'll have the requisite number to put it on the President's desk. So this is a, the, the wheels are in motion on this. As I said before, failure's not an option.
Uh, we will get this done one way or the other and, um, it's not gonna be easy, it's complicated.
Senator [Inaudible]
Last question, Senator, did you talk about the Rescissions package at all with the President?
Well, I think there's interest, as you know, in a Rescissions package, and so it was, I think it was touched upon that that also would be a piece of, um, the overall, uh, effort to try and to rein in the, the, uh, size, the cost of government and to get our country on a more sustainable fiscal path. So, uh, rescissions is a, is a, is an issue there.
Obviously the White House has sent a package forward. I assume there may be others to come. Most of the Rescissions bills deal with discretionary spending, which is also subject to the annual appropriations process in the Congress. Um, but what we're talking about here obviously is reconciliation, which deals with mandatory spending and with tax policy and healthcare policy and a whole range of other things.
So, um, we feel good about where we are. Um, we think the House gave us a good product to work with, but we think we can refine it, improve it, strengthen it, and uh, be prepared to put something on [Inaudible]
What about the AI --
Thanks everybody. Thank you. Thank you.
What about AI provision of the bill?