Senator Schmitt Discusses President Trump’s Successful America First Trade Agenda, Rescissions Package on CNN
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) appeared on CNN’s The Source to discuss President Trump’s America First economic plan and the rescissions package he is leading in the Senate.
Click HERE to watch the full interview.
Senator Schmitt on President Trump’s Trade Policy:
“No, I think what was excluded from the numbers is that fuel prices are down, gas prices are down…commodities prices are down, and transportation costs are down. If you take the core inflation numbers, which is the more steady indicator of the trajectory, core inflation was actually down from month to month. President Trump inherited an economy that was dominated by two issues, high inflation and mass migration. President Trump is tackling both of those issues. Look at the record investments that you see in this country right now, over $5 trillion. Apple just made another $500 million investment in critical minerals. We’re getting manufacturing back. President Trump is tackling these bad trade deals that have saddled this country for at least a couple of generations now – since the end of the cold war. And now you have the One Big Beautiful Bill. You’ve got certainty on tax policy. You’re not going to have a $4 trillion tax increase. You’re also going to have no tax on tips, no tax on overtime. I think when you’ve got that kind of runway for President Trump’s agenda, you’re going to see growth like you saw in the first term.”
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“Well, it just didn’t happen when we had tariffs in President Trump’s first term. There was a lot of conjecture about whether or not those tariffs were going to cause inflation. It just didn’t happen. You’ve actually seen record dollars flow into the Treasury. We saw a surplus this month and are anticipating $300 billion a year in revenue from, essentially, the 10 percent tariff. I think that this is about rebalancing the trade imbalance that we’ve had for such a long time in this country – getting countries to the table to drop not just their tariffs, but all these other trade barriers that exist. And with China as a whole, is a different category with their Intellectual Property theft and a lot of the dumping that they do. But you’re seeing our allies come to the table now. They want to negotiate with President Trump. And I think when we do that, we’re going to be much better off. All this is happening at one time. We’re in the first seven months of the administration. You’ve got the One Big Beautiful Bill. You’ve got rescissions, you’ve got the trade deals, and you’ve got the investment. There’s enough runway for that to play out.”
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Well, the President has that authority. Absolutely. I think President Trump has been very adept at bringing people to the table on a whole host of issues, because nobody has been willing to wield trade policy the way that President Trump has. The fact of the matter is, we have been ripped off for a very long time. I think rebalancing this equation is very important. In my home state of Missouri, we saw the loss of manufacturing jobs. You saw people imported into this country who were undercutting wages for the first time. Now, we’ve got a President that cares about that. America isn’t some strip mall with an airport. It’s our home. President Trump is fighting for working class families. I think this negotiation happens with a bunch of countries on a bunch of different landscapes. We’re going to be better off for it.
Senator Schmitt on the Must-Pass Rescissions Package:
“I think that our Conference is very well united on this. This is $9 billion rescissions package that really gets at some of the worst of the worst. I mean DEI trainings in Burma, sex change operations in Guatemala. $1 million for voter I.D. in Haiti. All of that crazy stuff is in this. Then including the $1.1 billion for NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. NPR is an ideologically captured institution that is spewing out venom against Republicans at every turn. They don’t deserve taxpayer dollars. I think when you put all that stuff in this one package, the $9 billion, which is $90 billion in a ten-year window, we need to get that done to deliver on behalf of the American people and restore some trust that this stuff isn’t going to be wasted.
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