Transcripts For CSPAN2 Discussion On National Debt With Sens

In one of my earliest conversation with him i said who among your or my colleagues should we go about trying to get involved . And he gave us three names, and two of those three names are joni ernst and ron johnson. We are grateful, but i also want you, your honor the legacy of dr. Coburn on your participation today. Joni, senator ernst, but start with you. Open comments. Senator johnson will then go to you and opened up for questions if this time are many. Thanks for joining us. [inaudible] a great champion and a wonderful college to work on these issues. Just starting of course you mentioned senator coburn because you really did pave the way when it came to waste cutting efforts within our federal government. He was great support of the commissioner and so we do want to honor him for that. Hes been an inspiration for so many of us. But i know several of you will remember that when i first ran for office i did that make a squeal sound. This is not easy. [inaudible] in the swamp. For example, i have a bill that would cut wasteful advertising spending which would include a lot of the flag and government mascots that are out there, and it would make it an easy left but i have gone so much pushback on that particular bill, and immediately democrats started hammering me on all my goodness, she is going to smokey the bear. So we back off on smokey the bear and a lot of other public mascots, federal government mascots that exist out there. We spent a quarter Million Dollars on a mascot and nobody knows who they are. So thats a pushback from the democrats. Within would also get pushback from our republican members as well, and so many of them will come to me and to look at the efforts that i have, the bills that i have come at you like, joni, thats just a drop in the bucket. Why are you even bothering . But folks, that drop in the bucket adds up. And if we cant come together and eliminate those small areas of waste, how can we be expected then to cut significantly across the board when it comes to waste and duplication within our federal government . So we have got to find a path forward on that. And whenever theres drip drip, drip a little bit here and a little bit there but we really have climbed into a position now where we have recordbreaking deficits which continues to add to our overall debt and where very concerned about that. So when folks like senator johnson and others and i try to come together to make a difference, the namecalling just starts. Weve got, got to do something to fix that. During covid19 just been a heavy left i think for all of us trying to work through the pandemic in the right way in support from the federal government level. Were trying to reopen america safely and a fake that is very important. I do support the large package. I think all of us did support the cares act. We knew that we had to get out the door immediately but we certainly have been able to identify areas that if we had known we couldve done things differently. Those are the things that were trying to correct and im sure ron will talk about a number of those efforts. We do have a moral obligation to get our house in order, folks, i truly believe that. I was on the budget reform, budget appropriation process reform committee, the joint select committee that was established several years ago, and i really appreciated the opportunity to be on that committee and work in a bipartisan way towards solutions, we yield meaningful solutions. And at the end of the day we couldnt come together on legislation. We could not do anything more than just simple which didnt take care of of our problems at all. There are so many people stuck in a way that weve always done things, thats the way were going to continue and we really just a movie on that. Trying to see if theres anything else that we should touch on. I think i will leave it there because i think ron will have a lot of really great information to share with anyone for everyone, but i do want to make sure that were taking great ideas away from your commission and being able to put that into meaningful legislation. I really want to see us move forward as the federal government and embracing ideas that fiscal responsibility, we just need support in getting that done. Weston, i will stop there and welcome ron johnson into the platform. Senator, thank you. Senator johnson, you have been, with everybody on the call that you got your start in business and, frankly, one of the only very successful Business People in the u. S. Senate. So give us your thoughts on the subject and then we will open the floor for a couple of questions. Im assuming this is weston on the call, write . It is. Nice to meet you over the phone. I need to first provide a a caution are not the most uplifting character because im going to tell you the truth about these things. My background is as a plastics manufacturer, my educational background is as an accountant. I actually stepped up the plate and brent part of the tea party to be an ally to people at jim demint and tom coburn in their efforts to try to limit the growth of government. I remember those parades that i would participate in 2010 2010g the summer of that campaign but i but i would be screaming at the top of my lungs we are creating intergenerational theft, its wrong, and, its got to stop. And i won. At the appointed time it seemed to resonate. We had a big fight in 2011, actually produce a budget control act. I voted against it because i didnt think sequester would work. Im also kind of big on National Defense, but we did find it hard spending caps work, that they are hard for congress to weasel out of, although we finally did, they contain actually reduced discretion spending by about 135 billion over two or three years. Thats about the only fiscal control weve seen work am using structural issue. I have two quick say whoever was speaking before joan and i came on i do from a standpoint in term limits. You want to make sure that the electorate has representatives here to represent them. You have term limits that are too short, the inmates who run the asylum and they will give so much power to unelected bureaucrats. I also agree with the joni, this is a good article in the wall street journal about the broken window system as it, the results it has in terms of fighting crime and cleaning up the city like new york. The same thing is to you. If you dont sweat little stuffed you will not sweat the big stuff. So just quick in terms of what we need to do to do something structural. First and foremost, i think everything should be on budget. Every dollar of federal spending should be voted on every year. The fact that with more than 77 of budget on complete automatic pilot is one of the big problems. Im not saying thats going to be the cure all but if members have devote on over 4 trillion for spending every year, it just might make an impact. Im a big supporter of a twoyear budget cycles. Again this massive government, it would be nice to have a twoyear budget cycle we could pass enough half the appropriation bills in one year while youre doing oversight over the other half, you past the previous year. That would be a good structural change and i guess my last point, we are 25 trillion in debt. We are in this grand experiment now because of covid and i agree with the joni we had to do something fast, where did you something massive. When it will be far from perfect but we have some time now. Its incredibly encouraging that we added 2. 5 2. 5 million jobs y rather than lose five, six, seven, 8 million as people were predicting. The American Economy wants to take off. Thats good news. We passed in total relief 2. 9 trillion. Its hard to spend 2. 9 trillion. As a result we spent probably no more than half. Its hard to give an exact number on that figure. So my first suggestion if youre concerned about debt and deficits, lets not automatically go into a phase four were people talk about spending one or two or 3 trillion additional dollars which we dont have. Thats just going to be added to that intergenerational theft that mortgages are kids future. Why do we look at the 1. 5 trillion, the 2. 9 weve already passed, lets find out what worked, what didnt work, what isnt being used, how can we directed that towards encouraging employees to get back in the workforce here part of the damaging thing we did as you past 600 flat plusup to unemployment, theyre making more on unemployment and they were making at their job. Thats a huge disincentive to reenter the workforce and most employers i am talking to that are opened up the biggest problem is finding people to work. So lets not appropriate or authorize more spending. Lets take a look at the 1. 5 trillion that is not spent through the cares act and other relief. Lets redirect, lets repurpose and what we can lets repeal what we really dont need. Again, weston, i want to thank all of you, everybody involved in this. You want that generation, and your kids, your grandkids that we are mortgaging your future, and the price you will pay is probably in less opportunity. The Number One Solution for fixing all these problems is Economic Growth. Thats what we ought to be focusing on two, of the covid crisis, what can we do to unshackle the economy, that the animal spirits set of those free, reignite entrepreneurism, restore capital. That may require government grants here everything we have to do has to be focused towards reigniting our economy and Economic Growth. Enter only chance of getting ourselves out of 27 trillion hole. Thank you, send it. Jane from charlotte, north carolina, is a present of panorama holdings. Do you have a question . President of panorama holdings. We can see you but we cant hear you. We will straighten that out. A quick followup. There are members of this commission, senators, from wisconsin and iowa, jim and kimberly from des moines and rachel from madison. The commission is nonpartisan. I think if you study these issues you realize quickly that country has a a spending problm for some foremost. But i dont anybody doubts if were going to make significant headway in deficit reduction. There has to be some bipartisan consensus bill. Just speak about colleagues who your work in a productive manner with across the aisle, who you in u. S. Senate in the democratic party, both of you are members of the republican party, who you think might have a real interest in engaging in meaningful deficit reduction conversations. Let me first start out by saying i love the word nonpartisan. Its what i use all the time. As chairman of homeland Government Security affairs its very nonpartisan bipartisan committee. We Work Together because we focus on areas of agreement. Theres plenty of things in the partisan times you can disagree on but theres also plenty of areas of agreement. Thats where you start. One thing i notice from the Business World to politics, in the Business World and hopefully this will resonate with you, the only way you succeed is to pursue an agreement. Either party, you want to buy. We agree on that. Now we just haggle over the price. Focusing on those areas of agreement rt and a think theres a number of members, people like angus king, my Ranking Member gary peters, we work well together. I think more often than not the people who come to serve whether its in the house or the senate are coming here for the right reason. There are ideological differences but they do want to solve problems. This is a very intractable one and thats why think some of these outside groups like you are for me here, particularly young people, can instill a lot of guilt in the older generations say, would you guys stop doing this to us . We will help you clean up this mess but lets first start with the area of agreement we admit we have a problem here, lets focus on a root cause analysis. General problemsolving process but there are plenty of members with the proper leadership would be willing to lend a hand. And im going you just do a deep dive with those. It doesnt matter who they are, what party they represent, if they have a similar thought train, we absolutely need to do together. Ill give an example, Maggie Hassan from new hampshire. So there is a bill, my perks bill, and she just dated hey, joni, taxpayer dollars going to support of former president s were making millions and millions of dollars on speeches and book deals, and you name it. We shouldnt have to pay those expenses. And she said i know iowans dont want to do that. My folks back home to want to do that either. She was willing to work with on the bill and its funny those Commonsense Solutions to start somewhere and develop those relationships with others in our body the want to achieve the same goals. We just have to find those with shared passion. It doesnt matter who they are. I have worked bills with people on the exact opposite and end up the ideological spectrum. But again if there is a shared passion, we have got to get over the labels and focus on doing the right things for future generations. So we have been blessed to find a number of those members vote in the republican and the democratic party, and our independence, too. We just have to have that common goal. I think your audio is on so well go back to jane, try again to see if she can get her question in. Well, we thought we had it. What would be instructive as we go to wrap up this panel, senators, is for you to give the members of the commission from all across the country some insight into, and both the represent competitive states, republicans and democrats win races in iowa and wisconsin. To give members of commission some insight into what it means to you as federal legislators when Business Leaders you organize behind a cause. I said at the opening of the skull virtually every significant policy change in our countrys history started with citizen action and elected officials then responded. Ron, go ahead. One thing i always talk to, when lobbyists come here, i dont think that is a majority turned by the way. Its a First Amendment right to go to petition to government. But always to people dont beat yourself as a lobbyist. View yourself as a teacher, as an educator, what you were need to do when you come to washington and you talk to your member of congress or their staff is you are here educating them. You need to understand, again smart and hardworking and bright as congressional staff, and quite honestly many members of congress, they dont have experience in the private sector so they have little knowledge of it, no experience in it, and, unfortunately, not a whole lot of sympathy for it. Its incredibly important for Business People to get engaged in that effort to educate, to inform members of congress and their staff in terms of the challenges you face with overregulation, with over taxation so they understand what the burdens that government places on them try to operate their business is taking your attention away from creating that breakthrough product or service or improving your quality or reducing the cost so the price to consumers are going to be that much more reasonable and add to economic progress. Its a huge blind spot in d. C. That you have again smart, well intentioned people, but theres just not enough that truly participate in the private sector and fully understand and sympathize with it. So thats my primary sense or primary piece of advice is utilize your private sector background, bring that to washington, d. C. To the staff and the members and make sure you convey that knowledge, get them to understand where your challenges are so as they craft legislation they can take that into effect so they first do no harm with legislation, hopefully do an awful lot of help in jones of your ability to employ and produce products and services we all value. I agree wholeheartedly with what ron just said, and that education process is so important and i will add onto that. I started my position as an elected official many years ago at the county government level. I worked as the county auditor and i managed my counties budget. So i think the budget was really important to me, and it was a really small, rural county that he worked in. Our farmers, our Business Owners would come in and they were lean on the counter in the Auditors Office and they would say hey, joni, tell me about this line item. It may impact how i am doing business, i want to know what the county is spending on this stuff. So they would give me their stories and that was really helpful for me to communicate to our county supervisors why or why not this was the right thing to do. What can taking that example at local government level and eliciting to those constituents and their stories, now in the federal government i always ask the iowans that a new with, tell me your story. What is the federal government regulation of what is this activity by the federal government doing to your business, positively or negatively. Share that story with me. Because all of our states are so very different. And if i go to, say, Kirsten Gillibrand from new york and say hey, did you know that 93 of iowans xyz, she will say what do i care about 93 of iowans . But if i share a story that is passed along from a Small Business owner in iowa, she can see that same Small Business owner in new york and the challenges that they have. So i think that part of the education process is not just in the blackandwhite details of legislation or the impact statistically to businesses out there, but also the impact to those families, to those businesses in a way that we can explain to others why its the right or the wrong thing to do. That would be my plea to all of you as well is just simply put it into a story so that we can better understand whats going on in your own community. Thank you for your time. We have got until 1120 tunick. Senator ernst, we have a little more of your time. When the world is more normal we hope this group can convene a washington possible next pregnancy both of you in person. What we are grateful for your time and your input. Well, thanks to your efforts and keep up the good work. Dont get discouraged. This is way too important. Thank you, senator. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much for your concern and your effort on this level, and i look forward to working with all of you very much, thank you. Thank you, senator. Guys, while we looks like senator rubio has just popped in here so we will transition straight into the second single panel senate panel and it will take a fiveminute break. Senator rubio really needs to introduction pickiest chairman of the Million Dollars<\/a> on a mascot and nobody knows who they are. So thats a pushback from the democrats. Within would also get pushback from our republican members as well, and so many of them will come to me and to look at the efforts that i have, the bills that i have come at you like, joni, thats just a drop in the bucket. Why are you even bothering . But folks, that drop in the bucket adds up. And if we cant come together and eliminate those small areas of waste, how can we be expected then to cut significantly across the board when it comes to waste and duplication within our federal government . So we have got to find a path forward on that. And whenever theres drip drip, drip a little bit here and a little bit there but we really have climbed into a position now where we have recordbreaking deficits which continues to add to our overall debt and where very concerned about that. So when folks like senator johnson and others and i try to come together to make a difference, the namecalling just starts. Weve got, got to do something to fix that. During covid19 just been a heavy left i think for all of us trying to work through the pandemic in the right way in support from the federal government level. Were trying to reopen america safely and a fake that is very important. I do support the large package. I think all of us did support the cares act. We knew that we had to get out the door immediately but we certainly have been able to identify areas that if we had known we couldve done things differently. Those are the things that were trying to correct and im sure ron will talk about a number of those efforts. We do have a moral obligation to get our house in order, folks, i truly believe that. I was on the budget reform, budget appropriation process reform committee, the joint select committee that was established several years ago, and i really appreciated the opportunity to be on that committee and work in a bipartisan way towards solutions, we yield meaningful solutions. And at the end of the day we couldnt come together on legislation. We could not do anything more than just simple which didnt take care of of our problems at all. There are so many people stuck in a way that weve always done things, thats the way were going to continue and we really just a movie on that. Trying to see if theres anything else that we should touch on. I think i will leave it there because i think ron will have a lot of really great information to share with anyone for everyone, but i do want to make sure that were taking great ideas away from your commission and being able to put that into meaningful legislation. I really want to see us move forward as the federal government and embracing ideas that fiscal responsibility, we just need support in getting that done. Weston, i will stop there and welcome ron johnson into the platform. Senator, thank you. Senator johnson, you have been, with everybody on the call that you got your start in business and, frankly, one of the only very successful Business People<\/a> in the u. S. Senate. So give us your thoughts on the subject and then we will open the floor for a couple of questions. Im assuming this is weston on the call, write . It is. Nice to meet you over the phone. I need to first provide a a caution are not the most uplifting character because im going to tell you the truth about these things. My background is as a plastics manufacturer, my educational background is as an accountant. I actually stepped up the plate and brent part of the tea party to be an ally to people at jim demint and tom coburn in their efforts to try to limit the growth of government. I remember those parades that i would participate in 2010 2010g the summer of that campaign but i but i would be screaming at the top of my lungs we are creating intergenerational theft, its wrong, and, its got to stop. And i won. At the appointed time it seemed to resonate. We had a big fight in 2011, actually produce a budget control act. I voted against it because i didnt think sequester would work. Im also kind of big on National Defense<\/a>, but we did find it hard spending caps work, that they are hard for congress to weasel out of, although we finally did, they contain actually reduced discretion spending by about 135 billion over two or three years. Thats about the only fiscal control weve seen work am using structural issue. I have two quick say whoever was speaking before joan and i came on i do from a standpoint in term limits. You want to make sure that the electorate has representatives here to represent them. You have term limits that are too short, the inmates who run the asylum and they will give so much power to unelected bureaucrats. I also agree with the joni, this is a good article in the wall street journal about the broken window system as it, the results it has in terms of fighting crime and cleaning up the city like new york. The same thing is to you. If you dont sweat little stuffed you will not sweat the big stuff. So just quick in terms of what we need to do to do something structural. First and foremost, i think everything should be on budget. Every dollar of federal spending should be voted on every year. The fact that with more than 77 of budget on complete automatic pilot is one of the big problems. Im not saying thats going to be the cure all but if members have devote on over 4 trillion for spending every year, it just might make an impact. Im a big supporter of a twoyear budget cycles. Again this massive government, it would be nice to have a twoyear budget cycle we could pass enough half the appropriation bills in one year while youre doing oversight over the other half, you past the previous year. That would be a good structural change and i guess my last point, we are 25 trillion in debt. We are in this grand experiment now because of covid and i agree with the joni we had to do something fast, where did you something massive. When it will be far from perfect but we have some time now. Its incredibly encouraging that we added 2. 5 2. 5 million jobs y rather than lose five, six, seven, 8 million as people were predicting. The American Economy<\/a> wants to take off. Thats good news. We passed in total relief 2. 9 trillion. Its hard to spend 2. 9 trillion. As a result we spent probably no more than half. Its hard to give an exact number on that figure. So my first suggestion if youre concerned about debt and deficits, lets not automatically go into a phase four were people talk about spending one or two or 3 trillion additional dollars which we dont have. Thats just going to be added to that intergenerational theft that mortgages are kids future. Why do we look at the 1. 5 trillion, the 2. 9 weve already passed, lets find out what worked, what didnt work, what isnt being used, how can we directed that towards encouraging employees to get back in the workforce here part of the damaging thing we did as you past 600 flat plusup to unemployment, theyre making more on unemployment and they were making at their job. Thats a huge disincentive to reenter the workforce and most employers i am talking to that are opened up the biggest problem is finding people to work. So lets not appropriate or authorize more spending. Lets take a look at the 1. 5 trillion that is not spent through the cares act and other relief. Lets redirect, lets repurpose and what we can lets repeal what we really dont need. Again, weston, i want to thank all of you, everybody involved in this. You want that generation, and your kids, your grandkids that we are mortgaging your future, and the price you will pay is probably in less opportunity. The Number One Solution<\/a> for fixing all these problems is Economic Growth<\/a>. Thats what we ought to be focusing on two, of the covid crisis, what can we do to unshackle the economy, that the animal spirits set of those free, reignite entrepreneurism, restore capital. That may require government grants here everything we have to do has to be focused towards reigniting our economy and Economic Growth<\/a>. Enter only chance of getting ourselves out of 27 trillion hole. Thank you, send it. Jane from charlotte, north carolina, is a present of panorama holdings. Do you have a question . President of panorama holdings. We can see you but we cant hear you. We will straighten that out. A quick followup. There are members of this commission, senators, from wisconsin and iowa, jim and kimberly from des moines and rachel from madison. The commission is nonpartisan. I think if you study these issues you realize quickly that country has a a spending problm for some foremost. But i dont anybody doubts if were going to make significant headway in deficit reduction. There has to be some bipartisan consensus bill. Just speak about colleagues who your work in a productive manner with across the aisle, who you in u. S. Senate in the democratic party, both of you are members of the republican party, who you think might have a real interest in engaging in meaningful deficit reduction conversations. Let me first start out by saying i love the word nonpartisan. Its what i use all the time. As chairman of homeland Government Security<\/a> affairs its very nonpartisan bipartisan committee. We Work Together<\/a> because we focus on areas of agreement. Theres plenty of things in the partisan times you can disagree on but theres also plenty of areas of agreement. Thats where you start. One thing i notice from the Business World<\/a> to politics, in the Business World<\/a> and hopefully this will resonate with you, the only way you succeed is to pursue an agreement. Either party, you want to buy. We agree on that. Now we just haggle over the price. Focusing on those areas of agreement rt and a think theres a number of members, people like angus king, my Ranking Member<\/a> gary peters, we work well together. I think more often than not the people who come to serve whether its in the house or the senate are coming here for the right reason. There are ideological differences but they do want to solve problems. This is a very intractable one and thats why think some of these outside groups like you are for me here, particularly young people, can instill a lot of guilt in the older generations say, would you guys stop doing this to us . We will help you clean up this mess but lets first start with the area of agreement we admit we have a problem here, lets focus on a root cause analysis. General problemsolving process but there are plenty of members with the proper leadership would be willing to lend a hand. And im going you just do a deep dive with those. It doesnt matter who they are, what party they represent, if they have a similar thought train, we absolutely need to do together. Ill give an example, Maggie Hassan<\/a> from new hampshire. So there is a bill, my perks bill, and she just dated hey, joni, taxpayer dollars going to support of former president s were making millions and millions of dollars on speeches and book deals, and you name it. We shouldnt have to pay those expenses. And she said i know iowans dont want to do that. My folks back home to want to do that either. She was willing to work with on the bill and its funny those Commonsense Solutions<\/a> to start somewhere and develop those relationships with others in our body the want to achieve the same goals. We just have to find those with shared passion. It doesnt matter who they are. I have worked bills with people on the exact opposite and end up the ideological spectrum. But again if there is a shared passion, we have got to get over the labels and focus on doing the right things for future generations. So we have been blessed to find a number of those members vote in the republican and the democratic party, and our independence, too. We just have to have that common goal. I think your audio is on so well go back to jane, try again to see if she can get her question in. Well, we thought we had it. What would be instructive as we go to wrap up this panel, senators, is for you to give the members of the commission from all across the country some insight into, and both the represent competitive states, republicans and democrats win races in iowa and wisconsin. To give members of commission some insight into what it means to you as federal legislators when Business Leaders<\/a> you organize behind a cause. I said at the opening of the skull virtually every significant policy change in our countrys history started with citizen action and elected officials then responded. Ron, go ahead. One thing i always talk to, when lobbyists come here, i dont think that is a majority turned by the way. Its a First Amendment<\/a> right to go to petition to government. But always to people dont beat yourself as a lobbyist. View yourself as a teacher, as an educator, what you were need to do when you come to washington and you talk to your member of congress or their staff is you are here educating them. You need to understand, again smart and hardworking and bright as congressional staff, and quite honestly many members of congress, they dont have experience in the private sector so they have little knowledge of it, no experience in it, and, unfortunately, not a whole lot of sympathy for it. Its incredibly important for Business People<\/a> to get engaged in that effort to educate, to inform members of congress and their staff in terms of the challenges you face with overregulation, with over taxation so they understand what the burdens that government places on them try to operate their business is taking your attention away from creating that breakthrough product or service or improving your quality or reducing the cost so the price to consumers are going to be that much more reasonable and add to economic progress. Its a huge blind spot in d. C. That you have again smart, well intentioned people, but theres just not enough that truly participate in the private sector and fully understand and sympathize with it. So thats my primary sense or primary piece of advice is utilize your private sector background, bring that to washington, d. C. To the staff and the members and make sure you convey that knowledge, get them to understand where your challenges are so as they craft legislation they can take that into effect so they first do no harm with legislation, hopefully do an awful lot of help in jones of your ability to employ and produce products and services we all value. I agree wholeheartedly with what ron just said, and that education process is so important and i will add onto that. I started my position as an elected official many years ago at the county government level. I worked as the county auditor and i managed my counties budget. So i think the budget was really important to me, and it was a really small, rural county that he worked in. Our farmers, our Business Owners<\/a> would come in and they were lean on the counter in the Auditors Office<\/a> and they would say hey, joni, tell me about this line item. It may impact how i am doing business, i want to know what the county is spending on this stuff. So they would give me their stories and that was really helpful for me to communicate to our county supervisors why or why not this was the right thing to do. What can taking that example at local government level and eliciting to those constituents and their stories, now in the federal government i always ask the iowans that a new with, tell me your story. What is the federal government regulation of what is this activity by the federal government doing to your business, positively or negatively. Share that story with me. Because all of our states are so very different. And if i go to, say, Kirsten Gillibrand<\/a> from new york and say hey, did you know that 93 of iowans xyz, she will say what do i care about 93 of iowans . But if i share a story that is passed along from a Small Business<\/a> owner in iowa, she can see that same Small Business<\/a> owner in new york and the challenges that they have. So i think that part of the education process is not just in the blackandwhite details of legislation or the impact statistically to businesses out there, but also the impact to those families, to those businesses in a way that we can explain to others why its the right or the wrong thing to do. That would be my plea to all of you as well is just simply put it into a story so that we can better understand whats going on in your own community. Thank you for your time. We have got until 1120 tunick. Senator ernst, we have a little more of your time. When the world is more normal we hope this group can convene a washington possible next pregnancy both of you in person. What we are grateful for your time and your input. Well, thanks to your efforts and keep up the good work. Dont get discouraged. This is way too important. Thank you, senator. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much for your concern and your effort on this level, and i look forward to working with all of you very much, thank you. Thank you, senator. Guys, while we looks like senator rubio has just popped in here so we will transition straight into the second single panel senate panel and it will take a fiveminute break. Senator rubio really needs to introduction pickiest chairman of the Senate Intelligence<\/a> committee, has been chairman of the Small Business<\/a> committee for some time and to my knowledge use only come he and his colleague senator cardin are the only u. S. Legislators who ever crafted 650 billion bill on their own as the architect of the ppp legislation. Senator rubio, your opening remarks and then blew open it up for a few questions. Thanks for joining us for thanks for having me. Thanks are doing this and for the attention you guys paid issues like the National Debt<\/a>. Its a very unusual time. These are not normal times. One of the challenges we faced over the last month is how to do all this and governments role in it and directed to issue to the debt. In our country the government has a right to take, the government has the power to take your private property for public use. But it has to compensate you for. If you need your home to build a highway they can do it through Eminent Domain<\/a> but have to pay you for it. In many ways thats what we get over the last couple of months. We told businesses in america they can operate and, becausef health concerns. As a result we put a lot of people out of work, a lot of potentially out of business, out of business for a long time. The question was, what is our responsibility . If government is warning people to close down, what is our responsibility to get people fighting chance to survive . How do we keep people off unemployment and a low is to survive, particularly Small Business<\/a>es do not have the cash capital to survive the extended economic downturn. That is relevant to the debt question because it only way in a country such as ours, given the structural problems we have in our spending, feel chance you will ever have to bring our debt under control is through a combination of reforming those mandatory spending programs that will require us to spend money every single year, combined with robust Economic Growth<\/a> that without higher tax rates is generating more revenue that then you have the discipline to dedicate to bringing the debt under control. You are not connected robust Economic Growth<\/a> if you have a picnic of prolonged and implement a recession and youre going to have a read of prolonged an opponent and recession if you wipe out a significant percentage of Small Business<\/a> which employs over half the people in the United States<\/a>. So it was sort of a dramatic move that we had to undertake, but the goal was to tie to employment, that tied to work, to try to give employers attached to the workers and workers attach to their employers, not simply because of the belly of the dignity of work which is very important also because we believe and i think we have proven now rightly so for a lot of businesses one of the biggest impediments they would have to restarting when you are allowed to do so is the ability to bring the workers back. And not talk lost touch for connection within. Time and again would hang examples of employers saying to us that had it not been for this program it would not have been able to keep connected to their employees and it wouldve made it very difficult instead of opening now they would be interviewing and trying to hire new people and trained them and that wouldve been impossible for them do so. This an important dynamic and one that we thought was important. That said, our government has pumped a bunch of money into the economy at huge cost and now moving forward as we hopefully emerge from this pandemic at some point will have the difficult task at hand of how to get our economy going again and the same issues that we been confirmed in the past confront us once again, and that is how do we bring the National Debt<\/a> to a level that is sustainable and doesnt threaten our ability to do other things that we need to do as a nation down the road . And where i began my opening statement, and that is that we need to focus on the mandatory spending programs that i am a huge supporter of an think they are very important that are currently structured in a way that is not sustainable in the long term. I think about medicare which is a program that both my parents used especially in the last years of their lives and i cant imagine what their quality of life wouldve been without it. I also recognize those programs are structured in a way that may have to look different for future generations if you want them to survive because eventually the amount of money flowing out of them will outstrip our ability to continue to fund it so we want to avoid that crisis down the road. Its an enormous issue and one that generations will face for decades after the people who are making these decisions are long gone. They will have to confront those challenges. Many of you are on the call right now as i think your focus and very important topic that i think requires your immediate attention. Senator, the capstone of this groups work over the next year will be a framework generationally a potential solutions. If you were to put yourself in the shoes of these extraordinarily successful people have committed themselves to this cause, some would say this is an unusual time to start this conversation but if youre capstone moment if youre for now i think 2021 could be a time of the energy about getting our fiscal house in order. What specific policy solutions to see enough bipartisan interest in that if there was a clamoring among millennial Business Leaders<\/a> you might actually see some action in 2021, 2020 of . So . So first and foremost we have to think about what the economy is going to look like, not just already in the world of rapid changes but given the fact that this pandemic will require our economy to reinvent itself. There are things that are going to happen that we dont control. I think youll see a growing amount of economic nationalism especially surrounding Industries Like<\/a> medical care. Many countries who came facetoface with shortages, pharmaceuticals and medical supplies and so forth, are going to begin to define their Homegrown Industries<\/a> as vital industries, worthy of protection. I think that something will need to examine and think about ourselves. I think will have to consider what it means for certain Critical Industries<\/a> for the 21st century that are going to define the 21st century. The economy, the world, the modern history of mankind can largely be broken up into dramatic Technological Innovations<\/a> that didnt lead to 20 or 30 years down the road dramatic political and social changes as a result of it. If you go to the first two and actual periods, when this nation declared independence from england, we were largely supplier. We had very manufacturing capacity. We supplied raw goods to the empire and they would manufacture and sell it to the world, including back to the colonies. So when the United States<\/a> was founded and educate on the task of industrialization so we could have an economy that grew, and then the additional innovations which we expanded out west, the steam engine and railroad, and then again in the nationalization played a major role in our growth as the most dominant economy beginning in the late 1800s that allowed us to win the Second World War<\/a> because we had the industrial capacity to defend ourselves. Many places will be dictating with the future economy will look like. So the government to incentivize and focus on these industries without breaking the bank. The flip side of it is if we dont do that, then our economy will not be able to generate the growth in revenue that we need to sustain our National Defense<\/a> or anything else. These are big challenges that i help that they have partisan lines on them. They should be the things that we can start thinking and talking about in the years and months ahead. Feel free to interrupt me here. We have about tenants here and laugh and senator rubio. You are a student of the world, admiral mullen, former joint chief is described this issue being National Security<\/a> threat. They look around the world earlier we were refining on this too is pointing out that many of the countries with a high quality of life, budget very differently use a different process but also have a completely different deficit reality than one we have gotten ourselves in. Youre going to be around for a while. But at least in terms of your own age. And a Senior Member<\/a> of the u. S. Senate. What concerns you most about 26 trillion but more relevantly youre entering it era of trillion dollar deficits. There is no concrete plans to change. Sen. Joni ernstsen. Marco rubiot there isnt waste are things that we should carefully expend but really the debt is largely driven would be the exception of the shortterm issues that we have seen with a massive spending as a result of the virus pretty but that is really driven by mandatory spending programs. The longer we put off that in the way that is politically sustainable and also important to bring the debt under control, the more painful that those changes will be. At some point a sale of debt or that the yields what the world is demanding as a return on buying our debt, gets it so expensive that we end up basically spending more money servicing that debt than in any other priorities. So when you hear about fred on the National Security<\/a>, some point we will not able to be able to borrow and spend our way out of any shortterm crisis. We simply wont have the capacity to do it. And we been cursed by the fact that they cite in some ways that the u. S. Still remains the most safest in the world. Even in the times of crisis, were basically borrowing money has not going to be able to be the way it is a forever. There are new challenges in the world will begin to tax both are Global Status<\/a> and ultimately be able to question our ability and willingness to pay this back. Theres a tremendous amount of confidence in america because we have always paid her debts and ignores count us in terms of stability. Vanessa becomes unreliable, then that is my big despair. That we will reach a point where we can no longer borrow it low rates. And the debt were going to need a particular case, and what we will are doing now, will become so high it will take away our ability to do anything else or requires to raise taxes in a way that are unsustainable and damaging to the economy. So this is an issue that cannot be ignored. You need to begin to Pay Attention<\/a> to it and the key here is not reached zero debt to bring it into a sustainable art that you can see it that this government can bring that debt to sustainable it level. We need to begin to focus on that. There is right time do it. As always politics come into play or something. But is one of those decisions were the longer he put it off, the harder it will be to do and frankly less options you have to do it. We have three questions. Westonn robert have a question. Can you hear me. Thank you senator rubio. And by putting this discussion together it has been great. Very briefly, you mention the an aggressive economy. Its one of the tools and was we have. Maybe it is a History Lesson<\/a> for us. We went through the longest economic expansion u. S. History. Up until march or february of this year. And we had a time in which all three branches were controlled by one party. What was was there any attempt made to any goodfaith efforts effort or some movement that happened during that time. Rohan feel like it would be an opportunity for real change on this issue that was made that failed. Lessons learned or was it at a time when we choose and it will take us basically a catastrophic event to eventually face this problem. I imagine you mean the debt. It. Correct. So i think, the debt is in such a big issue because it requires you to make changes. And today to prevent something down the road that nobody can see. We keep hearing about it never happens. So it is a lot like in some ways an analogy of the virus. Before this fires became why describe thing, that was affecting a lot of people is very difficult to go back in february and say were going to have to start shutting things down. Know we dont have a lot of cases but we will have to do this to prevent it. People are just saying what youre talking about. And is happening around the world and has nothing to do with us. It would not have gone over well at the time. And now we say we wish we couldve done some of these things that we couldve avoided some of these wide spread shutdowns in the economic pain. Its very much the case of the debt. There was a missed opportunity. Not really because its a difficult issue that requires auto hundred level leadership on it. Its hard to do that the white house on board. The obama in ministration was not very interested in doing it. Trump is really not early focus on debt is not been a main issue that they want to prioritize. Some administrations in the road will have to pretty and my biggest fear is they will have to do so not as a forward thinking move but as a crisis move. And crisis is always more destructive and forward thinking. My hope is that we will continue to talk about it at some point it will become a priority. Weston we have five minutes left. John has question. John. Guest can you guys hear me. Senator rubio, thank you for your time taking part in this conversation. You mentioned the fact that this huge Economic Future<\/a> but also comes some potential for falls and challenges. Present my work with automation. And is it reality is not too far away. 3. 5 million things alone out of work. Is there a conversation right now in congress and the highest levels, addressing these pitfalls of our exponentially things coming up. Sen. Marco rubio the answer is no and but there should be. Theoretically you do want to be in the leading edge of the high in value of whatever is happening. The changes you discuss are going to happen. There is no example really of a Successful Society<\/a> thats been able to read act the future and somehow prevent it from happening and protect themselves in the process. We may not like it, we may in many ways, time but these changes are happening. Question really becomes are we going to ignore them and left behind by them and left the left behind in part of shaping them is recognizing that when ever there is a technological advance, and displaces people and creates a problem. But it also creates opportunity. Several of the question becomes what new jobs are being created to replace the jobs that are being lost in what can we do from a Public Policy<\/a> perspective make sure the many of those jobs as possible are available to americans. I dont know all of the details about that but what i do know is about automated trucking and support as the district workers because no matter what, at some point they have to stop somewhere. And unload the cargo for the last mile of the connection between the end user and the distribution point. So to the extent that it was people out of driving them, what is an open up opportunities on the logistical side not just the last mile but the centers where that product arrives. The begin to enter the week have in place, with the reduced training or whatever it may be necessary to help as many people as possible make that transition when that day comes. What we cant do is pretend its not going to heaven because then i think we are caught and will will lose an entire generation of people who got caught in that displacement. Much happened with unanswered sing of american men factoring and kept arguing that those jobs would be replaced with new jobs. But that is like telling the manufacturer work that you need to move to Silicon Valley<\/a> become Something Else<\/a> pretty is not realistic. So we had to figure out a way to deal with those displacement. Rather than getting rid of it altogether, will replace old manufacturing with new many cases those are better read. Weston quickly will go to an Ecommerce Company<\/a> founder. Guest inc. You senator. My question is if that was a nation that could replace the United States<\/a> thats sort of the world currency. Would that be and what is that look like. Sen. Marco rubio obviously the chinese would like to become a competitor. In about replace. Generally speaking, not trespass enough for a moment of history for the rest of the world to simply fall into the currency. I do think you can see threats, and the electronic currency. Non national currency. It would eventually emerge with enough participation to be a challenge to our global reserve status. We benefit greatly directly and indirectly and in many ways, from our global reserve status. A lot of it is based on the tremendous amount of confidence and goodwill built over hundred and 40 years of economic performance. Especially in the evolving oral. It will be convincing when people begin to scott this that the mortgage will eventually figure out. And make it work. Make it work better than everybody else. That threat our Federal Reserve<\/a> satisfied so i would argue right now, still big hill to climb but at the end of the day, the safest place for you to put it in dollars, the recent case but that wont be the case on its own unless you take steps to show people that continues to be a good best. My sense is that perhaps the biggest threat in the longterm is not national currency, but the non national currency. Big coin cut type of deal that could eventually threaten our reserve. But we are long ways from it. But at the end of the day we are moving in the time of rapid and unexpected change. I think we should be taking any of these things for granted. If. Weston thank you for your time getting you right out of here on the rated. Sen. Marco rubio think of having me pretty. Health officials testify about efforts to repurpose therapeutic drugs to treat covid19 patients. It is how Science Committee<\/a> gets underway under 130 eastern blame on cspan2. Mens watch look to beat this summer. Every saturday evening at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Someone and wash several hours of your favorite authors, saturday we are featuring New York Times<\/a> bestselling author david manus, author of a dozen books including once in a great city. In detroit story. Barack obama, the story in his most recent a Good American<\/a> family. Watch saturday june 27th elite feature prizewinning historian david, bench watch book tv all summer on cspan2. The revolutionary king, he starts talking about using non violence as early as 1985 after the rebellion. To paralyze cities to leverage non violent civil disobedience. In transform their democracy. In the call for the same thing which malcolm criticized. He wanted a display of civil disobedience. In the racial status quo of the United States<\/a> of america. University professor neil just love, on his book, stored in the shield. About the activism and conversion ideologies of malcolm x and Martin Luther<\/a> king jr. The importance of the thinking on the fight for civil rights in","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia803202.us.archive.org\/14\/items\/CSPAN2_20200619_162900_Discussion_on_National_Debt_with_Sens._Ernst_Johnson__Rubio\/CSPAN2_20200619_162900_Discussion_on_National_Debt_with_Sens._Ernst_Johnson__Rubio.thumbs\/CSPAN2_20200619_162900_Discussion_on_National_Debt_with_Sens._Ernst_Johnson__Rubio_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240716T12:35:10+00:00"}