Yesterday, House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) joined Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” to discuss trade and what’s next on tax reform.
On the possible effects of tariffs:
“The good news is our economy’s so strong; the investment and the growth, all of this because of the new tax cuts and in a new, fair way of regulating out of Washington. You know it’s already masked a lot of that but there’s no question it’s going to show up in the economy mainly because you’re seeing now, whether it’s local farmers, local manufacturers, local businesses spending their time not on investing in new growth but figuring out how do they handle these tariffs so at some point this year I think it will show up in the economy, that’s what we’re trying to avoid.”
On the need for a trade deal with China and the protection of fairly traded goods:
“…Both are generating retaliation and creating uncertainty where there wasn’t one before. I think there is a way for the President to be able to have time to allow his Chinese strategy to work. But right now, because, I think there’s no certainty about the direction [and] timetable with China, the exclusion process on steel and aluminum is just flat broken. The exemption process for countries isn’t working for fairly traded products because of, I think, some unforced errors in the Administration. More pain’s being felt by local farmers and businesses than need to be and that’s where we are continuing to work with the Administration to take that pain off the U.S. economy and make sure it’s targeted to the unfairly trading countries like China.”
“…President Trump is right to challenge China, they’ve been cheating a long time. It’s costing us U.S. jobs, so, look he’s the guy who keeps pulling the curtain back and is sort of exposing the problems in a number of ways whether it’s in NATO in trade agreements so he’s right to do this, but here’s what I think’s occurring. It’s becoming increasingly clear this trade dispute, which is escalating will go one of two ways: either we’re going to see a very long, retractive maybe multi-year trade war with China, the two largest economies in the world, it’s going to have economic casualties far beyond just our two countries or I think President Trump and President Xi can make a deliberate decision to meet and begin crafting a new set of fair and lasting trade rules that, frankly, work and level the playing field for American farmers, local businesses, and our economy. I’m urging the President to take the second approach because, I think, I’m confident this President meeting face-to-face with President Xi can level that playing field, can create a new set of trade rules for both of our countries.”
On working with President Trump on tax reform 2.0:
“…President Trump’s tax cuts and reforms [were] about changing the economic direction of the country for the better, 2.0 is about changing the culture in Washington where we don’t wait 30 years between fixing the tax code. We get better every year, we continue to lead the rest of the world here and so, you’re going to see, I think, permanence of the middle-class cuts and those small business cuts will be the centerpiece of this and people, I think, overlook the growth impact long term. That alone could help create a million and a half new jobs in America, continue to raise paychecks significantly in the long term so that will be the centerpiece of it. We’re working with the President on the rest of the elements of 2.0.”