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Scalise: Budget Reconciliation Will Unlock Economic Growth

Washington, April 15, 2025
  • 4.15.25
Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) appeared on Fox Business Network's Mornings with Maria to discuss how President Trump is unleashing economic growth by working to avoid tax hikes and make tax cuts permanent, secure fair trade and private investments in the United States, and root out waste in federal agencies. Leader Scalise emphasized Congress' need to pass budget reconciliation without delay to secure this America First agenda. Leader Scalise also highlighted how, by refusing to support reconciliation, Democrats are advocating for major tax hikes on small businesses.
 
Click here or the image above to view Leader Scalise's full interview. 
 
On securing tax cut permanency:

“Yeah, [making tax cuts permanent is] our goal, and we can do both of those things you just mentioned. Number one, make sure we keep tax rates low and get control over spending, which both are things that people want all across this country. Unfortunately, Democrats in Washington are adamantly opposed to. We're going to continue fighting to get that done.”

On House and Senate Republicans unifying around budget reconciliation:

“Right. This whole reconciliation process is a two-step process. You first have to pass the budget. We've now done that. The House and Senate had some minor differences. We got an agreement on those two and some really important commitments from the Senate so that now we're both talking the same language, in essence, when we start the reconciliation process when we return from Easter. So we have a very aggressive time frame. We have 11 committees in the House that have been working for months, Maria, to be ready for this moment. We've been talking with President Trump, going back over a year ago, where we've been laying out the foundation for how to keep tax rates low, how to produce more energy in America, which will be in this bill, how to fund the President's border security measures, which will also be in this bill. Some other important things all in this one big, beautiful bill. 

“We're going to move it quickly because the economy is waiting for this to happen. You've heard numbers like trillions of dollars sitting on the sidelines until they see what the tax code looks like. So let's lock it in. Let's get permanency on the tax rates. Let's get real energy production and economic growth so that we can get the economy moving, get more wages in people's pockets, and lower costs at the grocery store, at the gas pump. All that's going to happen when we get this bill passed.”

On Democrats working to increase taxes on small businesses and hardworking Americans:

“Well, I don't support that initiative [to create a new tax bracket of 40% for the highest earners]. Look, everything's on the table, and that's why you hear all kinds of ideas being bounced around. But frankly, you need to start, Maria, with what current policy is. And if we take no action, then you'd have over 90% of Americans see a tax increase. And again, every Democrat is against this. So if you have a Democrat Member of Congress representing you, call them and ask them why they want your taxes to go up because every family will see a tax hike, and every small business in America will see a tax hike if the Democrats get their way. We're going to make sure that we're able to lock in those lower rates for everybody so we can get that economic growth, low taxes, produce more revenue, and more competitiveness for America, Maria. That's what we want to see.”

On President Trump maximizing fair trade and private investment in the United States:

“Yeah, and of course, you just talked about that NVIDIA announcement, hundreds of billions of dollars coming into America. We've got a multibillion-dollar Hyundai plant in my home state of Louisiana. You're seeing announcements. We've totaled it up, almost $4 trillion, Maria, in private investment that has come into America to manufacture, to make things here at home because of President Trump's actions. I think the real question is, where does this end? I think Japan is going to be the canary in the coal mine. Japan was the first country to call and say, look, we want to meet. You heard Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent say there's about 75 countries who have reached out to the United States and said, hey, we want to talk about tariffs. A lot of these are countries that have had high tariffs against us, and we had nothing against them. Let's have at least a fairness where we can lower, ideally to zero, tariffs. Look at what happens with Japan. I think that's going to tell you a lot about so many other countries. China is going to be a unique situation because they don't play by anybody's rules. They manipulate currency, they steal IP. But all these other countries that want to get new deals, hopefully want to go to zero on tariffs against us and allow our products to be sold in their countries. If we get fair trade out of this, I think that's going to be great for all countries, but especially the United States.”

On rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in federal agencies:

“Maria, this is an example of the waste, fraud, and abuse you see at so many agencies. These are not line items in the appropriations bills that we vote on. It's little slush funds that agencies have, even things like USAID. There's no line item in the budget for that. That's something the Secretary of State was taking pots of money and spending on. Look, I call the $9 billion a good start. There is a lot more, but thank goodness, DOGE and Elon have I've been identifying so much waste, fraud, and abuse. I think the American people are disgusted by the waste they're seeing of their tax dollars, especially on a day like today, April 15th, when they're writing those checks to the federal treasury to know that that money is not all going to help keep our country strong with a national defense, but it's going to waste money in these other countries, Sesame Street, transvestite operas in Guatemala. This is lunacy, and it's got to end. We're going to start with that 9 billion, and I think that's just the beginning. We're going to go further.”

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