“Our Passion for Spending Reductions Must be Equal to our Passion for Keeping Tax Rates Low”
U.S. SENATE – U.S. Senator Steve Daines today joined Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria and emphasized the need for tax permanency. He also praised President Trump’s energy policies, his strong leadership on the world stage and previewed his upcoming State of the Union address.
Watch Daines’ interview HERE.
Daines discussed why he’s pushing to make President Trump’s tax cuts permanent:
I had a great meeting Monday in the Oval Office with President Trump. In fact, Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick joined by speaker phone and we talked with the President about the importance of making his tax cuts from 2017 permanent. Failure for Congress to act, as Speaker Johnson just pointed out, will result in the largest tax increase in American history. It’s a $4.5 trillion dollar tax increase if Congress doesn’t act by the end of the year. So what’s going to happen is first, is we’re cheering what the House just did. That’s good news. It’s moving forward. And now the House and the Senate will get together. We will get on one page. We’ll make sure these tax cuts are permanent so we remove this looming $4.5 trillion tax increase coming somewhere down the road, [and] come together on one bill…look, this is the most important thing we can do to ensure the economy keeps growing, wages keep growing, ensure that America remains globally competitive is to make the Trump tax cuts from 2017 permanent. Remove the uncertainty Washington D.C. presents to businesses and the American people. Take that off the table. Make it permanent…Our passion for spending reductions must be equal to our passion for keeping tax rates low. You look back at 2019- the federal budget was spending about $4.5 trillion. Now we’re at $7.3 trillion, an increase of nearly 60 percent just since 2019. We need to find ways to make real, not phony, spending decreases. It’s going to be necessary, by the way, to get buy-in from Republicans. I will not support phony spending reductions. I support permanence in the tax rates, making sure the Trump tax cuts stay permanent. But I’m going to have to see significant spending reductions as well, as well as most Republicans here, if we’re going to get this passed.
Daines on President Trump standing up to Venezuela:
I applaud what President Trump did and what Secretary Rubio is doing, as it relates to Venezuela. Basically, what this administration is doing is reversing the Biden-era policies that put America last and dictators first. Think about what Joe Biden did. He stopped the Keystone pipeline. He put a pause on LNG exports. He impeded the ability for us to drill more in America. At the same time, he removed the sanctions from Iran. He enabled Venezuela to export more oil. What President Trump is doing, he’s restoring world order. He knows who the good guys are and the bad guys. The good guys are America. We need more American energy production, and we need to stop depending on Venezuela and Iran for oil.
Daines applauded the Senate’s record fast cabinet confirmations:
John Thune, kudos to John. He’s a great friend of mine, I’m a big supporter of John Thune, thrilled that he is now the Majority [Leader] of the United States Senate. We’re at the fastest pace of moving forward with cabinet nominations for president in 25 years. I remember when I met with President Trump back in February of 2023, and I took over chairmanship at the NRSC to make sure we got the Republican majority in this last election. I said, “President Trump, the most important thing we can give you is a Republican majority in the Senate because you don’t want to talk to Chuck Schumer about getting your cabinet appointments through someday.” And thankfully, we had four pickup seats at 53 Republicans supporting President Trump, and thanks to John Thune’s great leadership.
Daines on the Ukraine minerals deal:
Well, first of all, on the Ukraine minerals deal, this is an idea that Lindsey Graham and I pitched to President Trump about a year ago. A way to kind of collateralize the aid that was being provided to Ukraine and make sure Ukraine has skin in the game with America in terms of the resources going there. So I think it’s a great outcome. I’m really glad to see President Trump close this deal on critical minerals. I think what’s also important is that China controls about 70 percent of the critical minerals in the world right now. This is a way for us to reduce dependencies on China and make sure we’ve got other supply chains on critical minerals.
Daines on President Trump’s upcoming State of the Union Address:
Relating to President Trump’s speech, get ready for a raucous night. You’re going to have Republicans cheering. You’re going to have them standing up and applauding. I got to believe when you watch the Democrats, they’ll be sitting on their hands. They’ll be scowling and staring down at their feet as we celebrate this moment of President Trump restoring American greatness…it’s going to be a circus. No doubt about it. Sometimes you go to the State of the Union Addresses, you feel like you’re in two different countries, like there’s two different flags flying or something, but I can tell you what, the red, white, and blue will be flying with President Trump. You’ll have Republicans cheering. We’re after a great start in this first 30 days.
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Contact: Matt Lloyd, Rachel Dumke