NEW YORK CITY—Today, United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Appropriations, Banking, and Foreign Relations Committees and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, joined Mornings With Maria on Fox Business live in-studio to discuss the budget reconciliation package, President Donald Trump’s negotiations with Iran, and the GENIUS Act.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on the budget reconciliation package: “[Senator] Ron [Johnson] has been focused very much on reducing our debt, reducing our deficit on an annual basis. And I agree with him in principle of what we need to do. But I also would say this: there are many things that don’t get calculated here. If you think about the massive deregulatory thrust that is underway right now, that’s not being captured, the CBO completely missed it. Back in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, they were looking for a $1 trillion revenue decrease. We had actually a massive revenue increase from a tax revenue standpoint. So, I think there’s a lot more to be done. Look, it’s coming to the Senate. I don’t think it’s going to look exactly like it came to us from the House. In fact, there are a lot of people working at pace right now to look for deeper cuts. I’m optimistic. When you add together the deregulatory thrust, the tariff reconciliation that’s going on around the world, and the actual growth components of this bill that are real, they will actually incentivize capital investment. The dynamic aspects of this, again, get missed in the calculations […] At a broad and principle level, the Senate is going to continue to look at means to actually reduce the deficit. Everything that we can accelerate in terms of reductions, we’re going to do that as well. And I think our viewpoint is we have to be responsible. We have to get on the right track here. We’re not going to solve it all in one swoop.”
Hagerty on urgency to pass the budget reconciliation package: “I actually called up the CEOs of the companies that I had invested in. I served on their boards for years. And I asked them, what are they doing in terms of capital investment, capital planning for 2026? They said, they’re waiting. Everybody’s on hold right now. We need to deliver certainty. And my goal is, without putting a specific date on this, and I called Leader [John] Thune on this as well. I said, look, we’ve got to move this as quickly as we possibly can. I’d love to see it by the 4th of July. Certainly, we need to get it done this summer, because if we don’t, I think capital plans are going to be delayed. We’re not going to see the capital investment we want to see happen so that 2026 is the best year ever. We got to move quickly on that.”
Hagerty on Trump’s negotiations with Iran: “I think President Trump is absolutely right. Look, I was in his administration. We put maximum pressure on Iran. We had a miss close to a deal in the previous administration. And [Former President] Joe Biden backed off, completely allowed the funds to flow again, and terrorism flowed around the Middle East. We need to maintain maximum pressure. President Trump is doing this, enrichment to the point that they could obtain nuclear grade weapons is absolutely off the table, in my view. This is going to be a tough set of negotiations. The Iranian regime, that theocracy there, has never been easy to deal with. I think the people of Iran seriously need to see change. And these negotiations, I hope, will be very fruitful.”
Hagerty on Trump’s Middle East trip: “I think he demonstrated that America is back. We’re looking for economic ties. Economic security actually equates to national security these days. That’s a thing of the past to separate the two, and more economic prosperity is going to link our economies together. It’s going to make our security interest aligned. I thought it was a wonderful trip.”
Hagerty on the GENIUS Act: “This is going to take us into the 21st century. We have a payment system today that was designed in the 1970s and the 1980s. It takes five to ten days to clear a payment here. With the technology available on the chain to actually do this on an almost instantaneous basis, what this will also do is provide regulatory clarity to an industry that’s been seeping offshore. Americans need to lead here. The innovation that we are capable of delivery here is enormous. And also, the benefits of this will be to extend dollar dominance, our reserve currency around the world, because it’ll be used much more in the new digital environment. Additionally, it will stimulate demand for U.S. treasuries because these digital dollars have to be backed up by cash or U.S. treasuries […] A key reason that we’ve brought stablecoin policy to the fore first [is] because this is something that my colleagues do understand. This is simply taking our payment system into the 21st century. It’s stable. It’s dollar denominated. It’s simply that these dollars have to be backed completely by cash or by U.S. treasuries. That’s safe and secure in putting these, sort of, guardrails in place. I think all my colleagues get this, but as you animated, we’re going to move into market structure. This is a complex market. This is a new market that’s evolving rapidly, that’s going to take a great deal more education. It’s going to take a great deal more time. But I’m optimistic as we embrace this piece of legislation, and I’m delighted that we’ve gotten strong, bipartisan support here, that we’re moving in the right direction. And I think that America has got to be, and will continue to be, the leader in this innovative field.”
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