House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) joined me this morning:

Audio:

12-12hhs-scalise

Transcript:

HH: Merry Christmas to you all tuning in, including the Majority Leader of the House Republican Caucus, Steve Scalise, Congressman extraordinaire from Louisiana. Good morning, Congressman. Great to have you back.

SS: Good morning, Hugh. Great to be back with you. Merry Christmas. I love the holiday season.

HH: Thank you, Leader. I’ve got a lot to talk to you about – the CR, the AM radio in every vehicle act, and especially reconciliation. But I want to start by getting your reaction. Seven years ago, a madman tried to kill you and every Republican in Congress. And you survived. You’re an inspiration to every victim of crime out there. What do you think when people glorify the assassin of Brian Thompson? When you hear that on air, what do you think?

SS: It’s disgusting, Hugh. I mean, you know, when you try to justify or equivocate what somebody did to take another life, I mean, here’s a man with a family. You know, you have an issue with what happens at a company or a government, you have a right to go petition, to make your case, to vote people out of office, to run for office. But violence is never an answer. Violence should never be condoned, and it surely shouldn’t be glorified. And to see this, you know, and it just shows you how there’s such a leftist tilt that the value of life just seems to be diminished by so many people. And it’s important for us to push back. We can never allow that to become a norm where here in America that is something that somebody can act like is an acceptable behavior.

HH: I know you’re a busy guy. I just wish you were available to cable when people like Elizabeth Warren go with Joy Reid and they talk about, “Sometimes you pass the breaking point.” Well, that’s what that killer wanted to do seven years ago, and what the killer did in Manhattan. And it’s just simply disgusting for people to indulge that. All right, Majority Leader Scalise, I want to start with my industry. The AM In Every Vehicle Act, it could be attached to the Congressional, to the continuing resolution. I hope it is. I’ve been doing this since 1990. The country depends on radio, especially in emergencies. What do you think? Is it going to make it into the CR?

SS: Well, there’s a real chance. You know, as you know, I’m from New Orleans. We’ve seen more than our fair share of disasters, hurricanes. And people always turn to AM radio. We usually, the main broadcasting goes down for a little while, and AM radio is always there giving information to people in the communities. So I’m not sure if it’s going to make the final cut, but it’s definitely one of those contenders.

HH: It’s one of those things I don’t think, I think if it doesn’t make the final cut, it’s going to be very difficult to resurrect in the new Congress when reconciliation gets in the way. So I sure, I know you’re a great friend of conservative talk radio and of the emergency broadcast system, and of urban radio, and of every other kind of radio station. It’s the broadest coalition I’ve seen. John Thune tells me it’s an easy walk in the Senate. Do you have any idea why anyone would oppose it?

SS: Not really. I mean, even the auto manufacturers I think acknowledge that it’s something whose time has come.

HH: Amen. Well, I hope that is the case, because I’ve been doing this since 1990. I’d hate for the idea of my public to buy a new car and suddenly lose access to this or the emergency broadcast system. Second, I came on Larry Kudlow midway into his studio yesterday, and Larry was talking to you. And I instantly recognized your voice. I love that when I can recognize a voice. And so I leaned in to hear you talk about reconciliation. And you did not tell him one bill or two. What I thought you were saying is the President-Elect has to tell us one bill or two, and what he wants in one bill. Is that the right message, that the President-Elect has got to give very firm guidance here?

SS: Yes, and look, I’m sharing a lot of input on what is the pros, what are the pros and cons of one versus two reconciliation bills, because I do think there’s some pitfalls with the two bill approach. But I’ve laid out what those are. Ultimately, the President is going to decide. So you know, I made it clear with the people who are going to be involved in making this decision what I think, but also what are the pros and cons of that. Ultimately, the President makes the best decision, because look, Hugh, at the end of the day, we’re all in agreement on what will be in the package. One package, two packages, we’re going to do border security. We’re going to do energy security. We’re going to do tax reform. We’re going to do rules and regulatory reform. So it’s going to be things that are great for the American people, great for working families, to lower costs, to get our country back on track, to give the President the tools he needs to secure the border, and to prevent a $4.5 trillion dollar tax increase. I’m committed to doing all of those things. What is the best method for Congress to get it all done? For most Americans, they don’t care. Just go get it done. So our focus needs to be on making this decision. You know, we’re going to start in January. We’re going to hit the ground running. We’re already working on the policy, the legislation to get some of this stuff done starting in January. But we’ve got to have this final call made. The President himself has been, you know, of course, lobbied so to speak on both approaches. But he’s kept his powder dry. But I think pretty soon, he’s going to make a decision. And once he makes a decision, let’s all go in that direction. But the policy is something we don’t disagree on. We’re all in sync on the same page of what needs to be done to get our country back on track when we finally get President Trump in office.

HH: I really cannot wait for January 21, and you do have the majority from January 3rd to 21. I want to make the best argument for putting the tax cuts in bill one, and see if there’s a counter to it, because you’ve been there a long time. You’ve seen a lot of presidents arrive for their first month or two. They have a honeymoon. Their power is at its zenith, the maximum.

SS: Yeah.

HH: So you get what you want in the first two months or the first 100 days. And if the taxes aren’t in there, uncertainty builds. Here’s my best argument. I am a small business. This radio and television show is my business. And I have employees, and I have CapEx, and I have all these different considerations. I can’t really act on my 2026 business plan until I know what Congress is going to do about the tax cuts. And Senator Thune told me yesterday we’re going to get it done. And you know what? Businesses can’t go to the bank on that. My best argument, Larry Kudlow made it yesterday as well, is certainty for small businesses, certainty that they can move forward. Does that persuade you to put taxes, or at least whatever you can agree on, I know that SALT is difficult to negotiate, but I mean, the passthrough is widely praised as a necessary thing.

SS: Yeah, and I’ve been making that argument as well that the certainty of getting this done is just as important. I mean, you can go back to 2017, and I was the Majority Whip back then. I was involved in those negotiations, and helped, was proud to help President Trump get that bill done. But we had difficulties. You know, the first approach, that was back when they said okay, let’s do health care first, and then we’ll do taxes. And you know, health care fell by that one vote in the Senate, and it was still, and I shared this with some of the President’s team, when we started the second reconciliation bill, we had to deal with the budget first to get there. There were over 20 Republicans, 20 Republicans that voted no on the budget to create that tax cuts and jobs act. We can’t lose two votes this time around, because the margin’s so tight. So you know, you don’t want to take a risk that the bill fails, and you can’t even start the process. And there are some members posturing, saying they’ll vote against it if it doesn’t include their version of what SALT restoration would mean, or certain other things. And you know, we’ve got to get this done. But with a narrow majority, every single member on the Republican side, because unfortunately, all the Democrat Party has made a decision that they will not vote with us to secure the border or to cut taxes. And it’s one of the reasons they lost the election. They still don’t understand why they lost. But they’re still going to keep voting for kind of Marxist policies. So we’ve got to do it on our own. And we will, but you don’t want to risk it.

HH: Does the political argument matter? Now the political argument for the AM Radio in Every Vehicle is that conservative talk radio needs it. That’s a political argument. That’s not the emergency broadcast. The political argument for the tax cuts is if you want to hold the majority in 2026, the Trump boom 2.0 had better get started quickly or people won’t believe it’s real by the time we get to voting in November, 2026. So tax cuts three months earlier means all the data changes three months earlier in 2026. Do any members buy that argument, Leader Scalise?

SS: Not yet, but there is, I think, a growing understanding that if you take the risk and go with two bills, the later you get in the year after, okay, we put some wins on the board, President Trump was able to get some border funding, we got energy production, but you still don’t have the tax cuts, if the economy really does start to tank because there’s uncertainty, you lose your momentum. We’ve got a lot of momentum right now. People are excited about Donald Trump coming into office. I think that first bill, everybody’s going to want to be a part of. So put all of it in there.

HH: Amen.

SS: You know, that’s an argument for one bill.

HH: Leader Scalise, amen. I hope you take that to Mar-A-Lago, or you take it over to Speaker Johnson and your colleagues in the caucus and say let’s win big, big, big. I always like to score 8 runs in the first inning, not come back in the 9th.

SS: And then never get tired of winning.

HH: Leader Scalise, yeah, and never get tired of winning. We can come back in the 9th later, but let’s get 9 runs in the first inning. Leader Scalise, thank you. Merry Christmas. I hope I see you before the Christmas break, and God bless you…

SS: God bless you.

HH: …and the AM Radio in Every Vehicle Act. Good luck. Thank you.

End of interview.