WASHINGTON, D.C.—House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox Business Network’s Mornings with Maria with special host Dagen McDowell to highlight the historic economic growth in America because of pro-growth Republican policies. In President Trump’s first 500 days in office, unemployment has reached an 18-year low, job openings are at a historic high, and consumer confidence is near an 18-year high. As a result of policies like the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, American families are seeing more money in their paychecks and feeling more secure about their finances and confident about the future. Whip Scalise also discussed how the President’s efforts to stand up for America in negotiations on trade deals and with North Korea will benefit the country.
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“I think it is important that President Trump is finally standing up for America. When you look at trade practices around the world, everybody around the world knows that China has been dumping and that China goes around and violates the rules of trade agreements. The fact that he is actually saying we’re not going to take this anymore is a good sign. Ultimately, you don’t want to see a trade war. If you see that the President is standing up for our country, I think that is going to help us in other trade deals.”
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“Most of what I hear from my constituents around Southeast Louisiana is that they are really excited that the economy is doing well for once. We went through eight years where growth was less than 2% every single quarter and people felt it with stagnant wages—people’s wages weren’t going up. Now, they are seeing more money in their paycheck, seeing companies hiring more people. I think we are going to get through the repercussions of the President saying ‘Okay, we are going to stand up for America again.’ I think you have already seen China recognize, ‘Okay, we can’t take advantage of the United States anymore.’ Other countries will follow suit as well.”
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“Again, you don’t want to see a trade war. Some countries have been making threats and some have backed away from those threats. Let’s continue to work through it… Hopefully, we get a policy where you have the President say, ‘We are not going to allow a country to go around the rules, but everybody else, let’s get better agreements.'”
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“What we want to do is continue to see trade deals get signed. I am encouraged that the President is negotiating with Mexico and Canada to try to get a better NAFTA deal. The President was clear during the campaign, as you pointed out, that he didn’t like NAFTA. He said he was going to get out of NAFTA, but he hasn’t. He has actually been engaging in negotiations with Canada and with Mexico. Let’s see him negotiate with other countries, too. I think it would be helpful for us to go and get trade deals. President Obama did not get trade deals with those European countries.”
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“The economy is moving for the first time in 10 years really. We don’t want to see anything get in the way of that, but the President has been clear on the other side of this that he was going to get tougher and stand up for America and he is doing that. I think ultimately the countries that have been taking advantage of us are taking notice and are recognizing they are not going to be able to get away with it.”
On denuclearizing North Korea:
“I think first of all, having a relationship where the two sit down—you’ve never had that for years. He was just going off, continuing to build this nuclear program completely unchecked. The fact that the president is saying we want denuclearization. we want it to be verifiable. Something we can go check on. Not like in the Iran deal, where Iran could self-verify some of things they were doing. That’s not an acceptable solution. The fact that he is standing up and saying we want North and South Korea to get a relationship. Now, you see that, you actually see the two of them talking and now you have a possibility of denuclearization. I don’t think he has to walk away with all of the nukes in a cargo plane, but let’s at least see some movement towards denuclearization and a way for us to verify that.”