Scalise Previews Trump’s Joint Address

Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined CNBC’s Squawk Box to discuss President Trump's Joint Address to Congress. Leader Scalise discussed how, working with House Republicans, President Trump is already getting our country back on the right track by ending the border crisis, stopping the flow of fentanyl into our country, restoring peace through strength around the world, unleashing American energy, cutting government waste, and working to renew tax cuts for families and small businesses to get our economy back on track.
  
On President Trump’s message of restoring the American Dream:

“It's going to be an exciting night. I'll be escorting the President into the House Chamber for what I think is going to be a real invigorated speech by the President. He always delivers when it comes to talking to the American people about laying out his vision, how we get our country back on track. The theme is actually renewing the American Dream, and it's been dormant for a few years. President Trump has brought back a lot of hope. He's going to bring back opportunity. We have an agenda that we're laying out that we're actually starting to pass through Congress, that once you see it implemented, it's going to work for those hardworking families who have been struggling. I think President Trump is going to get into a lot of those details that is going to excite the American people.”

On President Trump’s efforts to restore peace around the world:

“Yeah, and I don't think people are fearful. I think they're excited. But as you pointed out, there's been a lot that's happened in just two months, and it's a contrast. Think about this. We went through four years of a President where you wouldn't even see him for days at a time. The press – you folks couldn't even talk to the President for months at a time because he wouldn't even do press conferences. Donald Trump has free-wheeling press conferences all the time. 

“The moment you saw in the Oval Office with Zelenskyy came because not only did they invite the press in for a few pictures, they actually took questions, and frankly, it exposed that Donald Trump has been trying to get peace, and he's trying to bring both sides together. Clearly, Zelenskyy didn't want a peace deal that day. Maybe Zelenskyy will. I hope he does for the people of Ukraine. But Donald Trump had a deal on the table, and Zelenskyy didn't want to reach it. You see that because the President's open and transparent.”

On economic success through renewing tax cuts and cutting waste:

“What I think you're going to see tonight is more of an opportunity to sit back and look at the full vision over the next six months to a year. What are the things we're going to do to help those struggling families? President Trump ran saying, we're going to make the tax cuts permanent, but also do things like no tax on tips, stop a massive multi-trillion dollar tax increase that's coming if Congress takes no action. We're now taking action working with President Trump so that you can actually get more certainty in the economy. Small businesses are sitting back waiting right now because after Joe Biden attacked every small business in America with rules, regulations that made it hard to create jobs, pushed more jobs overseas. President Trump has already taken action to reverse some of those things to start bringing jobs back. But until we get a stable tax code, which we're going to do in these next few months, a lot of that money is still sitting on the sidelines. 

“I think President Trump can give real certainty and calm by laying out what he expects Congress to do to deliver and what he's going to continue to do with things like DOGE to root out waste, fraud, and abuse. As much as the Washington elite classes seem to be having a tantrum over the idea that people actually have to show up for their jobs, everybody in America that's going to be watching tonight, they've been showing up for their jobs for the last three years. It's only in Washington where this parallel universe goes on. Finally, Washington has to do their job like everybody else.”

On ending the flow of fentanyl:

“Well, I think the more President Trump can lay out the vision to most Americans who really maybe are getting their news sources from one or two places to really understand just what the long-term range plan is and also how it's going to work for families across this country. I've seen it. I've talked to the President about this, and he articulates things like reciprocal tariffs in a way that I don't think he's explained to the full country yet, where you've got a lot of countries that take advantage of the United States, and they have tariffs against us, and we don't have any against them. And he's going to put, let's say, a reciprocal tariff on a country equal to what they have on us. And then the minute that that country drops their tariff on us, we drop theirs on them. And so your ultimate goal is to have no tariffs by anybody, against anybody. If you have zero tariffs worldwide, that's where President Trump really wants to go. Unfortunately, a lot of countries take advantage of us with tariffs on us, and we don't have any on them. That's what he's, I think, going to lay out in terms of the reciprocal tariffs, which most countries will face.

“What you're seeing with China, Canada, and Mexico, specifically, is dealing with the fentanyl trade. And look, President Trump was very transparent about this during the campaign, talking about border security, talking about the drugs. China makes the fentanyl. They bring them into our country through Mexico and Canada's open borders, and it kills over 150 young Americans every single day. Biden didn't do anything about that for four years. We're losing hundreds of thousands of great young people, and nobody was doing anything. Trump's doing something about it and telling these other countries, ‘Help us stop this flow of poison into America, or else there's a price to pay.’ If they help us, those tariffs will probably go away as well. But I think these countries now have to take a look inside and go, ‘You know what? We have to stop dealing in drugs.’ Mexico is finally having a reckoning with the cartels, where the cartels seem to be running the country. That can't happen anymore. China has got to stop producing fentanyl to poison Americans. Imagine if we were making a product in America that was poisoning people in other countries, and they finally said, America, stop doing it. We should stop doing it anyway, but this is going to get their attention.

“Yeah, I think this is all about the fentanyl. And again, with other countries, it's about fairness. Reciprocal tariffs, meaning if they've got a 12 or 15 % tariff on America and we're at zero, why are they treating us unfairly when President Trump is saying he would put a 10 or 15 % tariff on them until they dropped to zero, and then we would drop to zero. So it's on those countries at that point to say, okay, we've been taking advantage of America for a long time, but Trump's finally saying the game's over, and now we've got to actually treat America like they treat us. We're treating a lot of our friends really well, and they're not doing the same to us when it comes to trading around the globe. Let's get back to truly fair trade. Everybody says they want fair trade until you look at the rules and you realize we're the only ones treating other countries fair, and they're not returning the favor. Let's get back to that.”

On the Senate needing to act quickly on the House’s budget resolution:

“The House finally passed our budget last week, which lays the foundation for that one big, beautiful bill. Again, think about this. This is the really big Trump agenda that's going to kickstart the economy. It's making sure, number one, we secure the border, we produce more energy in America. That will lower costs for families when you go to the grocery store, when you go to the gas pump. We also make sure that we don't have a tax increase on American families because every Democrat voted no on that bill. What they did, they voted to put a four-and-a-half trillion dollar tax on every American, not the millionaires and billionaires, by the way. Over 90% of Americans at the end of this year, if Congress takes no action, over 90% of Americans will pay more in taxes to the tune of thousands of dollars a year, and we're trying to stave that off. President Trump, I think, will talk about that tonight. The bill is now over in the Senate. They need to move quickly on it, by the way. They can't sit on this thing for weeks because the entire Trump agenda rides on getting that bill moved quickly, not at a slow pace, the normal pace of Congress. We moved the House bill expeditiously. The Senate needs to do the same. The country is waiting. I mean, this was what the election was all about.”

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