Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Tariffs, Lawfare & Waste: Inside the White House-A New Era of Teamwork & Strategy

Transcript

Tariffs, Lawfare & Waste: Inside the White House-A New Era of Teamwork & Strategy · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Everyone's going to do well in this country because of tariffs.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: We have seven trillion dollars of investment already and that's
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: coming in. I think for two reasons. It's coming because
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: of an election that people liked, and it's coming in
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: because of tariffs. I could name eight right now already
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: auto plants that are either starting or about ready to
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: start construction. The non union workers in the automobile industry,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: they love Trump.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Good Wednesday morning. Ben Ferguson with you, and it's so
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: nice to have you on the forty seven Morning Up day.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: When we started this podcast, the goal was to take
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: you behind the scenes of what's happening at the White House,
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: giving you the three big stories of the day. But
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: we also told you we're going to give you access
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: directly the White House. Well, today's show is a perfect
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: example of that. I spent the day at the White
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: House talking to different cabinet secretaries and advisors to the
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: President of United States of America about the first one
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: hundred days at the White House.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: We're going to tell you that for you now.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: First you're gonna hear from the woman who's in charge
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: of education, Lenna McMahon, is talking about why she's shutting
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: down the Department of Education at the Presence Directive and
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: how important it could be to changing education all over
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: the country. And then we're going to talk with one
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: of the advisors at the White House about what's happening
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: with tariffs as well and some other big issues with
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: one hundred day mark. So it's the forty seven Morning
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: Update from the White House and it starts right now
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: story number one sitting in front of me as a
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: woman that has taken on an almost impossible task. I
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: was so excited when I heard this name, Linda McMahon.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: And if you don't know the history of Linda, you
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: need to google it because she has done some amazing
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: things in her career. And you get this job, You
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: get a phone call to become the United States Secretary
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: of Education. How did this even come about? How is
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: the phone call that you received from the presid I
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: got to know the backstory real quick because I think
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: it's so fascinating.
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: Well, good morning, and thank you very much for having
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: me ben it. Well, you may or may not recall,
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: but I was the co chair of the transition committee
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: for the President. So we were putting in place all
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: of the different cabinet secretaries, etc. And you know, I'm
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: working on everybody else's department. And the President talks to
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: me and he says, look, he says, I've got the
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: perfect place for you. And I said, oh, okay, what
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: are you thinking? He said, Department of Education. I said, well,
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: you realize that my background is not, you know, in
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: the world of education. Although I got my certificate to
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: teach and I was prepared to teach French. I also
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: served on the Connecticut State Board of Education, and then
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: I've been on the board of trustees at Sacred Heart
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: University for sixteen years. I said, so I do have
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: education background. And he said, look, here's what I want
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: to do with the Department of Education. I want to
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: shut it down. And so I laughed. I laughed, and
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: I said, so in other words, excuse me, I said, so,
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: in other words, you want me to preside over my
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: own demise. And he laughed out loud and he said yep.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: He said, I do want you to do that. He said,
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: and here's what I need, he said, Rather than have
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: an educator in place to do this, what I really
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: need is a business person. I need an executive. I
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: need a leader who knows how to manage and can
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: handle this. He said, we need to return education to
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: the States. He said, I want to take the bureaucracy
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: out of education and as much money as worth saving
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: and doing that, I want to make sure that the
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: states can maximize that money and have the programs that
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: they need in place. So he said, so I need
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: you to come on board and do that, and I
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: do that. Yes, II Captain, I'm ready to go.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: So you get here and you get this new job,
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: and it's an incredible job, and you're putting yourself out
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: of business, which is also like a weird mentality to have.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: What was the biggest waste of tax dollars that you've
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: uncovered at DOGE And let's start there.
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: Well, I can tell you know they First of all,
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: let me say I welcomed the DOGE group that came
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: in and has been looking at a lot of the
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: wasteful spending that has been going on. I think one
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: of the things that jumped out at me was that
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: we had about six hundred million dollars that we were
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: spending on teacher training programs. Now that's so. Now that sounds,
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: you know, incredibly like a good amount of money to
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: be spending or on a good thing to train our teachers.
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: But what we really were finding was that most of
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: the programs at that point were really focused on DEI training, yeah,
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: and not on what you would typically be looking at,
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: you know, for teacher training. And so we took back
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: that money and we shut down that kind of training program.
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: So that was one that just jumped out at me.
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: So is it fair to say the Department of Education?
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: And I have a sister, she's in an innercy school
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: and she's doing the best that she can. My mom
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: was a teacher, my aunt was a prince. Like I
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: come from that world. But what is sad to me
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: is it seems like the Department of Education has basically
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: decided we're going to indoctrinate kids instead of educate kids,
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: and we're going to do it in a way with
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: your using taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate them and what we
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: believe in instead of reading, writing, and arithmetic. How far
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: off am I on that from a national standpoint?
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: You know, far off on that at all? And what
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: we have really seen, I mean, think about this ben
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: The Department of Education was established in nineteen eighty and
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: since that time, we have spent over three trillion dollars
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: in education, and our performance scores have continued to go down.
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: And you know, I don't I don't say there haven't
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: been things that have been tried. I mean, the Bush
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: administration tried no child life behind. Yeah, Barack Obama tried
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: race to the top. But we're failing in the mission
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: of teaching our our students. And I think the reason
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: for that is we have gotten away from basics. We've
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: gotten away from teaching reading and teaching arithmetic. And so
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: what we're finding in schools that are showing improvement in
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: scores is that they have returned to the science of reading,
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: teaching phonics, teaching repetitive you know, just memorization like in
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: mathematics for your times table and things like that, and
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: then building upon that base. You know, up through third
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: grade you are learning to read, and after third grade
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: you're reading to learn. And if you can't read, you're
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: not going to be able to learn. So we found
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: that a lot of the fall off, if you will,
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: in education is because we're not teaching the basics, and
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: so a little return to that basics is great Now
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: a lot of other things that can be introduced that
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: can be helpful, like AI yes, because they're at how far.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: Behind are we own technology? Oh my gosh, because it
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: seems like we're back twenty years ago and all of
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: a sudden, now are thirty years ago in technology and
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: we're having these kids go out in the world. I
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: laughed the other day I was talking to a group
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: of students and the students said that it their high school,
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: they were still teaching them to do photography and develop film.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: And You're like, for what reason that doesn't happen anymore?
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: You're not going to use Is that going to be
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: Is that going to be their major when they go
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: off right a career path that they want to be on.
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: If it's a career path they want to be on
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: them all for that However.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: It's digital now, pictures are digital. They like the teacher
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: has been there and said, well, this is how we've
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: always done it. That was a response to students. I'm like,
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: we're paying that salary to someone who's literally saying I
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: refuse to move forward.
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And I just think that just goes to the
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: bigger problem of how I think education is not in
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: touch with the communities. It's not in touch with the
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: industries that we need. And that's what we need to
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: make sure of that we are educating our students for
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: you know, for their for their livelihood. What you know,
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: what what does industry need? What does the community need?
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: You'll hear most universities say that we want to make
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: sure we can keep students in the community when we're
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: when we're training them. But if you don't understand what
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: the community, what industry, what business needs, or what technology needs,
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: et cetera, you can't construct the proper curriculum to fill
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: that need, and you'll find we won't be successful.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: Next story number two, we're live here at the White House,
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: and I guess with me now is May Melman, senior
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: policy strategist at the White House and a unique perspective
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: because she was in forty five in that administration, you're
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: now in forty seven. We were talking before the show
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: and I just let's just start with this because I
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: think it's so cool. This White House is running at
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: a different pace than it did with the first time around.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: Part of that was learning government. I think part of
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: it's having a team. This time that seems to be
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: working as a team and just seems like everyone wants
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: to win and is getting along. The leaks were not
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: seeing like we did last time. It seems like everybody's
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: a team player. This is really fun to watch on
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: the outside. I was the Bush administration and it was
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: in the second and from four to oho eight, and
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: it was just a different type of team than we
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: had in the first part. You got to enjoy watching
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: the past and now the president. How cool was that
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: for you?
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: I used to be jealous of what the Bush people
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: had in the sense that they still did reunions and
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: they all hung out with each other and they you know,
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: we had our criticisms, certainly, but it felt like they
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: were all very unified. And I think during Trump one
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: point zero people very much got along. It was friendly.
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: But people had come from different places. So you had
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: people who were campaign people, you had people who were
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: RNC people, You had people who were either longtime friends
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: of the family, these sort you know, everyone kind of
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: had their own different background. But now there is such
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: a thing as Trump World, and there are people who
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: have been here and those they've had relationships and they've
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: had ups and downs, with each other, and so it
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: is easier to have everybody rowing in the same direction.
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: And I've had strange experiences that I never had during
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: the first time. So during the first time, I was
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: also writing a lot of executive orders, helping push a
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: lot of policies, and I would have to follow up
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: and follow up and follow up, and nothing would happen
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: at the speed and the pace and the level that
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: I wanted it to. Now, if I write something that's
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: very nuanced, I'm careful, Okay, we're not trying to do this.
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: People will just do it at the one hundred out
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: of ten, even though we just needed ten out of ten.
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: That's okay. So the excitement people have been planning, people
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: are ready to go, and it does feel very different,
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: even though it is actually a lot of the same people.
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: I'm working with a lot of the same people, but
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: it's just different this time.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: So let's talk about where we are one hundred days in.
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: You're here, your senior pology strategists. I think one of
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: the big things that people we are witnessing right now
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: they're concerned about is the law fare. There is very
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: clear a movement by the left, by the Democrats to
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: use the court system, and activist judges their allies, they know,
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: are quickly on their team, making sure they're filing things
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: in certain courts where they know it'll give them a
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: favorable opinion, which is against this White House and trying
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: to stop the president. Fie law Fair. You guys are
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: fighting back. You work with Jason Miller. You guys are
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: out there hardcore going against this. Where are we now
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: and how big of a roadblock is this going to
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: be for Trump's agenda getting actually done?
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Well?
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: The Democrats have no political strategy, they have no political leader,
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: they have no north star. So all they have is
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: know and the place you go for no is the courts.
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: And so that's where all the money has been. That's
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: where the excitement is, that's where the investment is. Is
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: just no, there's some protests, there's blowing up tesla's, but
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: mostly it's in the courts. And I think the judges
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: are very excited. These are activists, these are longtime Democrat donors, partisans,
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: you know, they're part of the movement. They're excited to
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: actually be the leaders of the left right now. And so, yeah,
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: it is a problem. I'm a lawyer for four years
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: when I was not in the White House, I was
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: bringing lawsuits and the judges that we would get, even
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: if we were in conservative areas of the country with
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: very conservative judges, these were measured approaches. I'll just take
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: Title nine for example. Twenty six states brought lawsuits and
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: I think eight different jurisdictions to challenge Biden's rewrite of
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: Title nine. Each one of those judges, every single one,
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: issued an injunction that was just narrowed to the parties
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: that had brought the suits. So there never was a
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: nationwide injunction, even with twenty six states in eight different lawsuits.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: Compare that to here, where you just have any sort
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: of group. It's not states bringing these is just random people,
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: random activists, bringing these lawsuits and getting nationwide injunctions at
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: the tro stage, the temporary restraining order stage, which is
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: not even assessment of the merits of whether you're right
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: or wrong. It's just, Hey, I'm the judge, and I
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: feel like doing this nationwide thing based not even on
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: the merits. I want to freeze the Trump administration from
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: doing anything. So this law fair is a serious, serious problem.
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: In my opinion, I think that it violates the job
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: of the judiciary, which is to say what the law is,
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: not to become the policymaker. So I think there's been
• 13:11
  Speaker 5: some calls for impeachment and things like that. You know,
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: Congress should absolutely impeach judges who are not doing their jobs. However,
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: that's just not going to be the solution. The solution,
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: I think is going to be a reshaping of what
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: it means to have judicial power, whether that's coming from
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: the Supreme Court, whether that's coming from Congress, or whether
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: that's coming from the administration, just saying you know what,
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: if you are actually stepping into the executive branch's power,
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: we're not going to abide by it. And so I
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: think these judges are really playing with fire. But they
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: know it, and they want it, and they want to
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: pick this fight because they feel the leadership of the
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: Democratic Party right now.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: Let's talk about trade, and that is a big issue
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: that is I think top of mind for virtually every American.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: I have dear friends that knew I was going to
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: be here today and I was like, they're dealing with this,
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: and they've got companies that are American companies, startups from
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: their garage that are now being affected because of this
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: trade war with China. They're very concerned about what they've built.
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: Where are we with this master plan from the President?
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: It seems to me saying, Hey, I want to get
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: great deals done with a lot of countries so that
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: we have much less dependence on China. This is about
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: reducing China's influence in the world, especially when it comes
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: to trade. Are we moving forward and when are we
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: going to start getting deals announced to calm the markets
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: but also the people that have businesses and how long
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: are they going to have to deal with this? Because
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: we saw yesterday this is a good sign. President was
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: meeting with top companies. They're meeting with Lows and Home
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: Depot and Walmart and Target about this trade war. That
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: could be good news, but also could be bad news
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: depending on who you read and what you're being told.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: We know the media wants us to be miserable. They
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: want to be fear mongering. They want this inflation issues
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: to happen. They want this to be a Trump disaster.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: I don't see it that way though.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: I think the President's heart is where actually a lot
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: of Americans' hearts are, which is that we want to
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: be supply chain independent, we want to be able to
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: make our pharmaceuticals at home. We don't want to be
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: reliant on a country who is threatening to us. And
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: yet I think the President also is a very practical person.
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: He's a business person, he is a listener, and you
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: can see even from the changes to the original announcement
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: of reciprocal tariffs, that he wants to be in it
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: with allies to shore up our manufacturing against people who
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: do not have our best interests, including China. So while
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: I can't give a timeline for when you would see
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: an exact announcement, I can say that the White House
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: is in listening mode and we have been hearing from
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: people changes and those changes have already been implemented, whether
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: whether it has to do with lower tariffs on certain
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: electronics that we simply can't make we can't on shore quickly.
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: And then I think also part of the national security.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: Right, This is when I've asked, and I've had leaders
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: call me and they're like, Ben, what is he doing?
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: Why is he doing this? And say, look, you got
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: to look at this from two views. One is national security,
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: and if you bring enough of that back to the US,
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: you don't have to be the leader in the world,
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: but you need to have enough from a national security
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: standpoint that if something happens somewhere else in the world,
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: you're still good. And that's part of what the president,
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: I think learn from COVID.
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and so from a national security standpoint, I think
• 16:35
  Speaker 5: the nation is pretty strong and we feel good there.
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: And so really it is focusing on small businesses and
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: the impact, and it is alarming actually how tightly our
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: supply chains and how quickly they are connected to China, which,
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: of course, you know something that we all know, which
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: is why the whole action exists to begin with. But
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: nobody wants to harm American small businesses. What we want
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: is is for China and the United States to find
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: a resolution and then of course to eventually work toward
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: a trade policy that is going to be best for
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: our national security, best for our economy. And you know,
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: as President Trump is going to be income tax replacement.
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: And it's a complicated thing, but no president has really
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: taken this on seriously. And year by year by year
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: by year, we become more reliant, less safe, less secure,
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: less independent, And it almost doesn't matter whether you have
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: a southern border or what the if the threat is
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: coming in from your nation's dependence. That said, I think,
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: as you noted, the President is in complete listening mode,
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: so there is a need to make sure that our
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: small businesses and our large businesses, and our supply chains
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: and our consumers are all accounted for.
• 17:59
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• 18:01
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• 18:05
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