Fox News host Maria Bartiromo challenged Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) for supporting a massive bill that would cut taxes and fund President-elect Donald Trump’s plan for mass deportations and tax cuts.
“The idea is to obviously keep the promises that President Trump made,” Bartiromo told Donalds in a Sunday interview. “But there’s all these new complexities now to the tax policy plans, because Trump has said he wants no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security and all the rest.”
“That takes time to write a new tax bill,” she continued. “And I’ve already spoken with a couple of senators who say there’s absolutely no way they are voting yes to eliminate or raise the debt ceiling. President Trump wants that in this major bill. I know you guys don’t usually like big bills.”
“Can this really, I mean, is this really realistic that you can get this done?” the Fox News host asked.
For his part, Donalds suggested many of Trump’s promises could be filled with one large bill.
“Most of it is actually going to be reauthorizing the Trump tax cuts, which, by the way, is the best tax policy our nation’s ever had,” the lawmaker argued. “We already know what it is. So putting that into this vehicle is not going to be overly complex.”
“Now, if you want to talk about the additives to that, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, yes, you have to write that language,” he added. “We’ll have to ruminate it with colleagues, get that piece through.”
Donalds said the debt ceiling should be raised in the same bill.
“I would prefer we do that deal with Donald Trump as Republicans have the necessary spending cuts associated with raising a debt ceiling, because we have to begin a fiscal responsibility on our watch,” he explained. “The Democrats have lied to the American people, Maria, saying that you could just spend whatever and just raise taxes.”
“We have to be honest about where reforms are needed and where cuts are needed. You can deliver that with debt ceiling increases.”
