Senator Marshall: Republicans Want the Government Opened
Senator Marshall Joins Bloomberg’s Balance of Power
Washington – On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), joined Balance of Power on Bloomberg to discuss day 21 of the Schumer shutdown and Senate Republicans’ unified stance on Democrats’ political theater, as well as the latest on American beef.
Click HERE or on the image above to watch Senator Marshall’s full interview.
On Republicans’ unified stance on the Schumer shutdown:
“You know, absolutely, I think the President is very clear. The Republican Party is unified here at this moment. The way we look at this is Chuck Schumer and the Democrats have taken the federal government hostage, and their ransom is $1.5 trillion that’s what they’re wanting, an additional $1.5 trillion added to our debt. And what we believe is if you pay that ransom, they’ll just be back. They’ll keep committing that crime, and crime over it again. The Republicans want to open the government, but we also want some level of responsible spending, continuing a budget where we’re going to spend $7 trillion but only take in $5 trillion this year. This is unsustainable, so we need to work towards that balanced budget. I think we’re pretty dug in here.”
On a potential vote on ACA subsidies:
“I would be in favor of having the vote. But what I’d be in favor of is fixing the real problem here. So, my friends across the aisle have to be committed to fixing three major problems within the ACA. Number one is there’s about $25 billion of fraud. Number two, premiums that went have doubled in the last five years are going to go up 20% this year. And finally, the average deductible is 500 is about $5,000 the average deductible $5,000 for a family making $60,000, that’s not access to health care. We can’t keep doing good money after bad money. So, I want to fix the plan, but we need to open the government first.”
On whether we are close to a solution:
“You know, I don’t think either. The Democrats, to your point, 11 times they voted against opening the government. I think most significantly, they recently voted against military spending. That’s what has people wound up a lot back home. People back home are concerned about the paying the military. They’re concerned about the national debt as well. I don’t think it’s either or. I think we’re going to try to turn to maybe some other different ways to ask the Democrats to pay for government employees, the Capitol, police, the military, some of those types of things as well. Maybe that’s the compromise we could get to right now.”
On whether the shutdown will affect the election in November:
“Most importantly, next November it will be the economy. This will probably be something people seldom even remember that the government was shut down. By then, they’re going to think about their economy. They’re going to think, do I have a good job? Do I have a roof over my head? Is my family safer? That’s what they’ll be focused on next November, and I think that our one big, beautiful bill is going to lead to those opportunities. We’re cutting taxes, we’re cutting federal spending, that’s going to lead to lower interest rates. So, I’m very optimistic about the future. I still think the next election will be about the economy, and this will be in the in the rear-view mirror by then.”
On the latest on American beef:
“Well, first of all, I still think the price of beef is one of the greatest values out there in the world. To go out and enjoy a good steak for less than $100, what else can you do for $100 this in this world right now, but look, if we imported all the beef that Argentina made, it would make up less than 1% of what we make here. They have a very small market. We have a shortage of hamburgers right now. We’re not able to import beef from Mexico because of a screw worm issue. That’s another topic as well. So, this will come close to replacing what we were importing from Mexico. What’s going to bring the prices of beef down is that it needs to rain. We had the smallest cattle herd that we’ve had in my professional lifetime because of the lack of rain. So, we need to grow that cow herd. It’s going to take two or three years to do that.”
“…This is the best cattle market we’ve ever had in our in our lifetime, the markets are overreacting to what the President said the other day. Certainly, the big picture is groceries; I just saw a slide up 2.7% over the past year. That’s a shadow of the 22% we saw under Joe Biden right now. So, the President is focused on bringing groceries down. That’s where that comment came from. The problems that the farmers are having right now are high interest rates, the cost of fertilizers, the cost of seeds, those types of things. They’re glad that diesel fuel is coming down. Gasoline back home now is about two and a half bucks a gallon, if you can believe that or not, as well. So, it’s the input costs and then, and then we want E15 year-round. If we went to E15 ethanol, 15% it would more than double what we are exporting to all the rest of the world. So, their focus right now is on getting year-round E15.”
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Contact: Payton Fuller
