ICYMI—Hagerty Joins Balance of Power to Discuss Looming Government Shutdown, Trump Tax Policy, Potential Fed Rate Cut, Attack on Hezbollah

WASHINGTON-United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Appropriations, Banking, and Foreign Relations Committees, today joined Balance of Power on BloombergTV to discuss a possible government shutdown, President Donald Trump's tax policy proposals, a potential rate cut by the Federal Reserve, and the most recent attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon.

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Partial Transcript

Hagerty on the potential for a Continuing Resolution:"We're going to see what we come down to. It's so frustrating here, Kailey. I'm on the Appropriations Committee. We've had our Appropriations bills ready to go. Rather than deal with this, [Senator] Chuck Schumer keeps bringing forward 'show votes'. Today, it was an IVF vote we'd already taken two months earlier that had really not that much to do with IVF and a lot to do with cloning and gene editing that he knew would fail. These are just messaging votes to distract the public. We need to be doing our job. Back to the duration, it's hard to say what's going to come out next week, but we should have been focused on this weeks ago, and it really is legislative malpractice to find ourselves in this situation."

Hagerty on the chances ofagovernment shutdown:"Well, Joe, that is the conventional wisdom that people need to get home. People need to campaign. This election could not be more critical right now, certainly at the presidential level, and I think with the Senate, we've got a tremendous opportunity before us to change the gavel. It's going to require a lot of work and taking nothing for granted. We'd certainly like to get home and do that, but we need to get this done right."

Hagerty on President Trump's tax proposals:"I haven't had an opportunity to discuss this directly with President Trump, but I think this was happening in the context of a huge rally that will be underway there in New York. I know it's going to be very popular in New York. Tax cuts in general in this environment, given the inflation that we've all experienced, are very appealing to the American public. One thing we've got to do, though, is address inflation head on, and President Trump has laid out an incredible plan to put us back into the business of producing energy like never before. That will have a direct and immediate impact on inflation. Everybody will feel that. He's also put forward proposals on taxes for tips and taxes on Social Security. All of these are aimed at getting the middle class into a far better position. And all of these come from a person that is actually quite credible because under his watch, under his previous Administration, we saw everyone prosper. Particularly, the blue-collar class prospered more than white collars and every demographic group [prospered], whether they'd be Hispanic, black, female, you name it. Everybody did better under President Trump on a real basis."

Hagerty on the ballooning deficit:"I think the question that President Trump needs to put to the American public is actually even simpler than that. He needs to ask them very simply and very straightforward: Were you better off when I was President or are you better off when Biden and Harris were in office? […] We've got to bring the deficit under control. We need to get the economy growing again. We need to bring the regulatory regime back under control as well. All of these have dampening pressures on the economy. We're running massive deficits like we've never seen before. We've got to bring that in control, and the Biden Administration just wants to continue to spend through the roof. We've got a spending problem, not so much a revenue problem as we do a spending problem, and that has to be held in check."

Hagerty on a potential rate cut by the Federal Reserve: "You know, the market's got it about 50/50 divided between whether it's going to be a 25-basis points cut or a 50-basis points cut. I've said all along: It needs to be data driven. I'm going to be very interested to see what Chairman [Jay] Powell has to say as he makes his announcement tomorrow. One thing I'm also very interested to hear him talk about is the size of the Fed's balance sheet. We've not heard enough about that, but a $7 trillion balance sheet is inherently stimulative as well. That cuts against the rate increases that have been put in place. I know this is beyond the Chairman's control, but also Treasury. It [the Treasury Department] continues to shorten the maturities of its bond issuances. You know, we need to talk about all of this in the context of the true desire to get the Fed's focus, which is bringing inflation down below its 2 percent target, to get that into the sights. So there's going to be a lot to listen for tomorrow with the Chairman. Hard to say, but the market certainly seems to be in between a 25 or a 50-basis point cut."

Hagerty on the attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon: "It certainly amazes me that our State Department spokesman will only name Israel and says 'other parties.' They won't talk about the fact that Iran is behind all of this. He didn't mention Hezbollah that has basically displaced 50,000 Israelis right now in Northern Israel. This is in retaliation for actions that have been taken by Hezbollah, if indeed it is Israel that's behind it, and I think what it does demonstrate is the resourcefulness of whoever put this in place because they've been able to get into the supply chain and get directly into the minds, I think, of the people that are there. This should have an incredible deterrent effect if indeed Israel is behind it."

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