Thank you very much. We have some executive orders that we're going to be signing right now that are very important. They're really redos from some horrible mistakes made by Biden and his group, and we're changing them back so that we can lead a normal life, a good life and they're actually very important.
And from the standpoint of lifestyle, they're very important. So, I'd ask Will to maybe explain them, and we'll ask some of our Congressmen and Senators to say a few words, please.
Yes, Mr. President, as you said, we have four bills for your attention today. These are bills that have been passed by Congress. In the closing days of the Biden administration, they pushed through a large number of rules and regulations that really hurt ordinary Americans including in their own homes. So, the first of these is HJR20. This is a bill that repeals Biden era regulations relating to consumer water heaters, consumer gas fired water heaters.
Who was in charge of this one?
This is Gary and myself, sir. Gary Palmer sponsored it, but this bill specifically saves a factory in my district. 300 Georgians will continue to have their jobs as soon as you sign that.
Mr. President, this rule was issued on Christmas Eve, thinking that we wouldn't be keeping up with what the Biden administration was doing, but we moved quickly to get it [Inaudible]
And this was on gas heaters.
Banning natural gas --
[Crosstalk]
Isn't that ridiculous? And how were you supposed to get your heat then, through electric? That's electric, yeah. Was that basically electric heat, which isn't as good. Crazy. Here Gary, hold that up. Brian, hold that up. You guys were great.
Thank you, Mr. President.
No sense, just no sense. But in addition to that you have a lot of workers that lose their job, right?
Yes, sir, 300 workers saved because of you.
Good, thank you. It's an honor. Here's the Golden Dome, by the way, if you're interested. It is the Golden Dome. It'll save all your lives someday, maybe. OK, good. Thanks, Brian. You hold it up.
Yes, sir.
Next, Mr. President, we have House Joint Resolution 24. This is the same basic idea, but this relates to walk-in coolers and freezers and other refrigeration devices. Again, last minute Biden era regulation that hits ordinary Americans hard.
And what do they do?
They put in --
Increase the energy efficiency requirements for walk-ins, coolers and freezers and therefore putting an undue burden on businesses across the country, everything from restaurants to pharmacies, hospitals were all going to be impacted.
To a point where it didn't work. In other words, they made the restrictions so strong that it didn't work.
And it was going to cost them so much money to actually meet the energy efficiency standards, which didn't really save much money. So, this is going to actually help our small businesses across the country, Mr. President.
Good.
Many manufacturers would have had to close, stop lines, shut down entire lines of businesses. And I just want to say, rescinding these -- this was done days before -- days before you took office they pushed through these regulations. They didn't think about the cost to businesses. They didn't put American interests first.
They didn't put American businesses first. I am so grateful we finally have a president who's not only walking back these insane burdensome regulations that are ultimately going to cost us Americans and American businesses. But that you are thinking about the next generation. And as we're leading into Mother's Day, some of us are trying to parent and serve this country at the same time.
Thank you for welcoming my son, who's 15, with his mother serving, watching what we're doing for him and generations to come. You are making this country stronger for them. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Good luck, right. Take care of your mom. You want to hold that up too.
Thank you Mr. President. Thank you.
That's a big one, isn't it, huh? Common sense? It's all about common sense, right? OK. Will, go ahead.
Next, sir, this is House Joint Resolution 42. Again, this is a rescission of a Biden era regulation, in this case relating to energy conservation standards for household appliances and certain consumer products.
That's a good one. I know who's over there. I know who did this. Explain it, please?
Sure, look, this is helping fight inflation because the cost of your -- the burden on appliance manufacturers is going to drive up the cost of them producing household products, which means that when you go buy a washer or dryer, any appliance, it was going to drive up the cost for consumers. It reduces consumer choice.
But in the bottom line, we've been trying to fight inflation, this fights inflation. This helps -- takes the cost out of producing these products that Americans need every day. And when you think, when you add all this up, it's one regulation here, one regulation there, they always say it's de minimis, but when you add it all up, it costs a lot to American consumers.
And this is fighting back.
And it's not as good.
And it's not as good.
Not nearly as good, not nearly as efficient and it's more costly. Other than that, it's wonderful. [Laughter]
Thank you, Mr. President.
Great job. Thank you very much. Great, fantastic. OK.
And lastly, sir, we have House Joint Resolution 75. Again, this is a rescission of a Biden era regulation. Uh, in this case, relating to energy standards for commercial refrigerators, freezers and refrigerators freezers.
Do you have the sink one in here? The sinks and uh --
That's --
Showerheads?
That -- we -- we have an executive order on that coming for you later, sir. Yes, sir.
And that's coming when?
Uh, later this afternoon.
OK. Good. Are you going to be around later this afternoon? [Laughter] Good. Sinks and showerheads where you buy a home and you have a new showerhead and you don't get any water out of it. The water doesn't come out of the sink. The water comes out of nowhere. What a shame. What a ridiculous waste. OK, let me do this.
Come here. Who's -- who's responsible for this, Will?
This is mine, Mr. President.
Oh, good, man here.
Yes, sir.
OK.
Thank you.
Do you want to discuss that?
Yes, sir. This would have -- this was a government regulation that we have now repealed. Thank you very much, Mr. President. That now saves the American taxpayer. I was getting ready to say the Texas taxpayer, them, too. [Laughter] Uh, but the American taxpayer. Because who would have ultimately paid the price on a government -- government mandate and a government regulation?
The people of America. See, you just said the American taxpayer money, so thank you very much.
That's fantastic. Thank you. It's a great job. OK, any questions?
Mr. President? Mr. President? Mr. President? Airlines said today that the 10 percent baseline tariff on all countries is here to stay.
Yeah.
Even after the deals are done. Does that mean that countries offering zero tariffs won't get reciprocity?
You are going to always have a baseline. I mean, there could be an exception, at some point. We'll see. You know, somebody does something exceptional for us. It's always possible. But basically, you have a baseline of a minimum of 10 percent. And some of them will be much higher, 40 percent, 50 percent, 60 percent.
As they've been doing to us over the years. We had a wonderful deal yesterday. We have four or five other deals coming immediately. We have many deals coming down the line. Ultimately, we're just signing the rest of them in, but we always have a baseline of 10 percent.
And then, specifically on the possibility of an increase in taxes on wealthier Americans, what do you say to conservative Republicans who argue that this is an increase on small business owners?
Well, what we're doing is we're actually -- if we ever did that, it would only be -- and from what I hear, people would love to do it. Rich people -- I would love to do it frankly. But what we'll do is that, you know, they'll go around saying, oh, this is so terrible. What you do is you're giving up something up top in order to make people in the middle income and the lower income brackets save more.
So it's really a redistribution. And I'm willing to do it if they want. I would love to be able to give people in a lower bracket a big break by giving up some of what I have. But I'll tell you a lot of people say don't do it because of the fact that you have the Bush statement about -- read my lips, but he lost because of Ross Perot.
He didn't lose because of that statement.
And then on the salt --
But I -- I don't think they're going to be doing it. But I actually think it's good politics to do it where richer people give up, and it's a very small -- it's like a point, but they give it up to benefit people in a lower income. And then on the salt tax credits, Mr. President, there are some Republicans who say why is it that these 45 other states should be paying taxes to alleviate the tax burden of New York or -- It's only because those states are behind.
Very badly behind. And those people were affected very badly. And you know, the sad part is oftentimes, they were affected badly because you had bad management in those states. Like, in California with Newsom and you know, people. So you had some bad management. But that's being worked on now. And they may do a piece one way or the other.
It's a very complex issue. But I think -- I think it's being worked out. I think it's going to be -- it has not been settled yet, but they'll settle it up pretty quickly.
Are you considering -- Mr. President, can we ask the question -- Mr. President, what parameters have you given Scott Bessent on negotiating with China this weekend?
Uh, we have to make a great deal for America.
Are you going to be disappointed if he comes back without a deal?
No, not at all. Because we already made a great deal. We're not doing business with China right now.
Mr. President? Given your relationship with prime minister --
We lost -- we lost $1 trillion last year with China. $1 trillion. So if you're not going to do business with them, you're not going to lose $1 trillion. But we lost. I just want -- I want China to do great. You know, I'm very friendly with President Xi. I have great respect for him and for China. But we can't continue to allow them to do what they did.
When I was president, they paid hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs and taxes and then Biden screwed it all up. He -- he -- what he did to this country between the border and between all of the other problems, the wars, everything, what he did to this country should never be forgotten. But one of the things he did is the trade was so bad and so unbalanced.
So uh, I think we're going to come back with a fair deal for both China and us.
Have you -- Mr. President? Have you given Bessent a number of how low you're willing to go?
Yeah, I have.
What's the number? Are you willing to share that number? [Laughter]
No. [Laughter]
80 percent?
But I put out a number today, 80 percent, so we'll see how that all works out.
Mr. President, the US Embassy in Kyiv is warning right now about possible Russian significant attack on Kyiv. What's your message for Putin?
I have a message for both parties. Get this war ended. We're losing 5000 soldiers a week. Russian and Ukrainian soldiers. And other people also, by the way. And I say get this stupid war finished. That's my message for both of them. Thank you very much. We'll see you in a little while.
Thank you press, thank you.
[Crosstalk]
[Inaudible, about Eric Adams being seen in the White House]
He just came in to say hello.