WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) joined Larry Kudlow on Fox Business to discuss the latest government spending negotiations and how Republicans can best help President Trump accomplish his tax cuts and border security agenda in the 119th Congress.
Excerpts from Senator Tuberville’s interview can be found below and his full interview can be watched on YouTube or Rumble.
ON SOCIAL SECURITY FAIRNESS ACT THAT PASSED SENATE
KUDLOW: “Great to welcome back Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, great friend of the show. Senator Tuberville, just one small thing. I mean, nothing is small. The Senate voted on cloture for this $200 billion gift to state and local workers who don’t need Social Security benefits because they already have very lucrative retirement benefits and healthcare benefits—in fact, probably three times in the private sector. But I know you voted against it. But the Senate voted, I don’t know, seventy votes in favor of it. Why is it? Why do we wanna spend $200 billion? These public service workers—I don’t wanna denigrate them—I’m just saying they’re already getting three times what private sector workers get. Why do we wanna heap more money at [them], particularly at a time like this?”
TUBERVILLE: “Well, most [of their] jobs are secure too, Larry. Most of them are unionized. But they’re supplementing. It’s a supplement, and I don’t understand it either. I don’t understand. We haven’t in my four years here even looked at Social Security to try to make it solvent more than ten years down the road because we’re running out of money fast. All this is gonna do is just fast track [Social Security] to bankruptcy. And we’re gonna get closer and closer—and we better talk about saving it instead of spending more money that we don’t have.”
KUDLOW: “I mean, it’s kind of a sad tale when Republicans join Democrats and vote these big spending bills at a time when, you know, the Federal Reserve Chairman today in all of his glory or goofiness, whatever you prefer, said inflation is higher than they thought. It’s gonna last longer. The stock market went down 1,100 points. We don’t have a tax cut strategy yet. We’ll talk about that in a minute. You would think somebody down there would stop spending, maybe just for twelve minutes, Senator Tuberville.”
ON THE NEED FOR ECONOMIC ASSISTANCE FOR FARMERS
TUBERVILLE: “Now I am for the farmers. I tell you the farmers [are hurting]. I mean, we’re gonna lose 100,000 farms this year, Larry. We lost 150,000 in the first three years of President Biden. We’re gonna lose 100,000 this year. The input costs are sky high. I feel bad for them and the people with the hurricane stuff, but all this other trash that they put in [the CR isn’t good]. The Democrats never miss a trick now. They know how to spend money. Wouldn’t it be great to be a Democrat? Don’t worry about paying anything back. Just spend, spend, spend.”
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF PASSING TAX CUTS AND BORDER SECURITY NEXT CONGRESS
KUDLOW: “What are we gonna do? Now more than ever. You know, stock market’s down ten straight days, the worst performance since 1974. I don’t think it’s 1974, but it’s the worst performance since 1974. What was, you know, a very great honeymoon for Mr. Trump and the stock market’s gone away. You know, can we get a deal with tax cuts and border security into one reconciliation package and just get it out the door and finish it in three months or four months? I don’t see why that’s so difficult, honestly. Border plus tax cuts. Because Senator, don’t you want a blue-collar boom? This year, I’m just saying, I don’t wanna wait till ’26 or ‘27 or risk that we’re gonna have a tax hike. I mean, why can’t that get done?”
TUBERVILLE: “Well, first of all, I’ve heard you say, let’s put them both into one [reconciliation bill] and I’m all for it. I’m all for it. But we have to do tax reform. I keep hearing we need to do border first, I’m fine with that, but we better do tax reform early. We gotta get this country growing again. Because four years goes by quick—it’s really two years. President Trump is gonna run out of time, and we’ve gotta do it immediately. So, we gotta start on tax reform […] and all the growth plans that President Trump has had in there. We’ve gotta get it put in, and we gotta do it early. And we can get it all done, but President Trump’s gonna have to come in and get the Senate on board, know that he can count on ‘em and then work with the House to get that done. I think we can do that, but we gotta push it hard.”
KUDLOW: “Alright. Well, I have the feeling he just may. He just may come back down there and do that. Senator Tuberville, thank you, sir. Happy Christmas to you, and thanks for everything you do for this country. We appreciate it so much.”
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, and HELP Committees.
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