Senator David Perdue (R-GA) was on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” this morning to preview President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. You can watch the video below or read the talking points below the fold.
Job One Is Getting Economy Going: “Job one is getting the economy going again and getting people back to work. You’ll see all this work on Obamacare first. Then there will be the tax package that will follow that. Following both of those will be the work to get the economy going.”
Border Tariff Hammers Consumers: “I’m concerned about it…In my view, it’s regressive. It just hammers low-income and middle-income consumers, and it really doesn’t foster growth. Frankly, it’s a Schumer Tax, it’s what he talked about in the early 2000s.”
Business Perspective On Tax Plan: “There’s only one Fortune 500 CEO in all of Congress. I’m trying to make that argument right now, to slow this down to where we can really look at it. We have past precedent around the world, and we know what happens. In Europe, for example, I lived there when they were putting the VAT in place. It caused bigger government. It’s a tax grab basically.”
Economy Anticipating Growth: “I worry about interest rates and our debt. If we’re successful, we’ll get the economy going. Right now, the bond market is already anticipating growth. Interest rates are bubbling up. What’s going to happen with this debt size, is we’ll be paying much more interest, and that really concerns me in the short-term.”
Success Is Getting People Back To Work: “Success is getting people back to work. I want to see 3% or 4% GDP growth, but it’s not going to happen in year one…This is a heavy lift. We have to undo a lot of regulatory things that are killing this economy.”
President Trump Wants Results: “This guy’s an outsider, he’s a business guy, and he wants results. When you break eggs in a place like this it’s not going to be pretty.”