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Continue our conversation about the jobs report. Of course, the economy loom large in the speech last night, the President talking about how Americans are preparing to tell the greatest comeback story of all time, referring to the recovery from COVID and what he of course refers to as the expansion of the middle class. You have the jobs data today and it's interesting. Two hundred and seventy five thousand
blows the doors off from last month. We did get some downward revisions from prior months though, and we have the jobless rate at a two year high. So, as we talked about with my this push pull exists, and that's where we want to go with Heather Bouchet, as we now get the view directly from the White House. Of course, one of the President's nearest economic advisors. Heather Bouche is on the President's Council of Economic Advisors and it's great to see you live from the North Lawn, Heather.
Thank you for joining us as always today on Bloomberg. It looks like you've got two sides of the coin on this. Do you worry about the jobless rate at a two year high if it's caused by increased participation?
Do you see that as a good thing?
Well, here's the thing. Let's remember that the unemployment rate has now been below four percent for a wopping twenty five months. It's a record going back half a century. Yes, it did tick up this month, but we know that
there's volatility in this data. And we know that when you look at the payroll survey, which is where we get that overall job gain number, we did see the two hundred and seventy five thousand jobs far out pacing expectations and far higher than the pace that we need to sustain new entrants into the labor force, according to
our analysis, Council of Economic Advisors. So I think when you look at this report, it is it continues to be a strong report for American workers and American families and showing these strong, steady job gains month after month after month. Let me add that. One of the things in that report that I think is important to note is that the job gains were very widespread. You know, sixty three percent of firms added jobs last month, and that's higher than the pace, slightly higher than the pace
that we were seeing pre pandemic. So that is a good, healthy pace and a widespread dispersion of jobs being created across the economy. So I think that there's a lot to like in this report today.
I thought you would point to participation, and maybe you do want to talk about that yet, but this is something that we've been asking for and hoping for, increased labor participation. If it comes at the expense of a couple points on the unemployment rate, that's a good trade in your view, is it not.
Well, Certainly we saw that uptick, and particularly for prime age workers, so that is unequivocal good news. It means that people are seeing that opportunity, they're coming back into the labor force, they're seeing that opportunity to get a job,
and they're searching for that work. And again, you know, what we saw on the payroll survey is that there was strong, steady hiring and there aren't indications from other reports out there from the Job Opening Survey or from the Unemployment Insurance data to indicate that there are real challenges in terms of people being you know, being able
to find work. So I think that we continue to see that this is a good report, and of course that higher labor force participation number, especially among women, is something that we like to see.
Well, tell me more about women.
It's International Women's Day, and it's something that we're talking about throughout the day here on Bloomberg. We talked previously Heather about a potential problem at the beginning of this year that became known as the child's care Cliff, and I wonder if we're getting to the point now where we can actually see whether that has been realized.
Well, here's the thing. There's a few things that we now. First of all, we know that families need access to care services, to childcare and care for the aging and disabled in order to participate fully in the labor force. This is a known issue, and we saw that really bubbling up during the pandemic for so many families across
the country. And of course, you know, part of what the President did and Congress did was you know, put in supports for childcare centers and for home and community based care so that those services could be available for families. Now we have seen that money pairing back, and we haven't seen Congress extend it yet. And you know, we have been watching these numbers carefully to see what that does to especially caregivers who are disproportually women, does to
their labor force participation rates. So far, you know, things are looking like women continue to participate in the labor force. But as the President said last night, this care agenda remains at top of mind for him. He talked last night about needing to make sure that everyone has access to safe and enriching and affordable childcare. He talked about making sure that folks have access to home and community
based services as well. So this remains a priority for him, and one of the core reasons is, you know, the care itself is important, but it also, as you noted, Joe, it has these really important labor market implications.
Well, there's a lot to talk about here as we spend time with Heather Bouchet live from White House here on Bloomberg our analysis from Bloomberg Economics. Heather did point to some concern about the number of layoffs in this report. I'm just wondering if you're hearing from your contacts in the private sector, if companies are starting to take a second look at headcounts.
Well, we are now fully into this economic recovery. As you know, you know, it was challenging to come out of the pandemic. Businesses got up and running. I think there's been questions germinating about how fast firms were hiring, were they hoarding any workers given the challenges of you know,
just this re entry of so many firms. But you know, I think what we continue to see, and I mean I think that you know, when you look at this full when you look at the report in its full scope today, what you continue to see is a strong labor market and again an unemployment rate below four percent.
This is this is low.
It does mean that if you are out there and you're searching for a job, or you're on the sidelines and you want to get work, there's a lot of jobs that are that remain open and available to you, and we continue to create those jobs, making sure that as we pull out of you know, as we continue to see this recovery and we see that shifting from the production of goods to services. You know, we are going to see some shifting across you know, where people
are working. But I think that these numbers really do indicate the strength and the ongoing foundational strength in this job market recovery.
Heather of the President coming off as State of the Union address, of course, and he talked about the need for higher taxes on the wealthy and on corporation, specific to the idea of a higher corporate tax rate, which I know is something that he has been pushing for for some time and we have seen some movement. I just wonder what impact that might have on hiring, if any at all. Is that something that you're able to model.
Well, here's the thing. We need to make sure that the federal government has the resources that it needs to be able to do the things that it needs to do. And one of the priorities that the President has focused on is making sure that the Internal Revenue Service has the resources they need to literally enforce the laws on the books, let alone the new ideas that the President
is bringing to the table. We are already seeing the success of that as the IRS has been able to get back on money from taxpayers who owed it and these are taxpayers at the very top end of the income ladder. So, you know, I think that what we have seen in the economic research, what we've seen in our lived experience over the past couple of years, is that businesses have a lot of resources. We've also given them a lot of subsidies and supports to go out
there and invest. So we're seeing this investment boom at the same time that we've been focusing on making sure that we're enforcing the laws and raising tax on as
the President likes to say, wealth and not work. So I remain convinced that, you know, if government has the resources that they need to do their job and businesses focus on investing in those industries that are so important to American competitiveness and American jobs and workers, we will continue to see that kind of economic growth.
Did you help write that portion of the speech?
Heather?
You know this is a we all work on these on the president's issues and support him in every way we can.
Was there a watch party last night? I need to know.
I know Jared Bernstein, I saw him walk in, But were the economic advisors huddled together in the OEO B watching the address?
There was a team of US. I believe I tweeted a photo about this. We were there watching together, cheering the President on, and also so excited for all of our colleagues. It was amazing last night to see the diversity of the President's cabinet there supporting him, who are every day implementing his Investing in America agenda, and quite wonderful to see Chair Prinstein out there as well.
Well.
I'm remiss, I need to get to Twitter here obviously. Lastly, Heather Bouchet, always generous with your time. When you step back, you look at this. You have to answer questions from people like me once a month when the job's.
Data is released are released, I should.
Say, But when you step back, you look back a couple of years here, and you consider the historic series of interest take interest rate hikes by this Federal Reserve. Are you perplexed by the strength of this job market? They've tried to smash it with everything they have. Heather, and I don't want you to comment on the FED. Just the pure strength of the job market right now it seems historic.
I think what the lesson I take from it is that fiscal policy needs to play its role. The President came out with a bold, decisive agenda to make sure that the fiscal side, not just the monetary side, did its job to get people back to work and make those investments that would create jobs all across the country.
I think what this recovery is shown is that we need to focus more on making sure that those automatic stabilizers are ready to go, that we are making those investments when we need the most, when you have those economic downturns, so that communities aren't left behind, because that provides the foundational strength upon which new businesses can start.
The President talked about it last night. Three years of record breaking numbers of new business startups, allowing people to upgrade their jobs over the past couple of years, allowing people to find work. And then on top of that, the Investing in America agenda that is crowding in all of these private sector investments. That's where the strength of this recovery is. The smart fiscal policy, the strategic investments, and making sure throughout all of this that we're empowering
workers and that markets are fair and competitive. So the answer is to the question quite clear.
Yeah.
Connecting the dots here when it comes to polling is another matter that We've talked about Heather, and we'll continue that conversation. You're always kind of join us here on Bloomberg Heather Bouchet with the White House Council of Economic Advisors. It is true, although we have seen some uptick in the numbers. The Wall Street Journal survey for Joe Biden and Donald Trump that came out about a week ago
showed a near fifty percent number. I have to go back and find that what was the highest we had seen up ten points from the month earlier on those who were feeling better about their economic prospects. But boy, there's a long way to go there, and it's still a big question about whether they can pull off a soft landing.
I'm Joe, Matthew and Washington.
Glad you're with us here on Balance of Power here on Bloomberg Radio, on the satellite and on YouTube. You can find us right now if you get to YouTube search Bloomberg Global News. As we continue to unpack the big speech from last night, we brought it to you live from Statuary Hall. Of course President was in the chamber with the members, but we had a lot of great conversations with lawmakers in the hall as they emerged, and we're still trying to gauge the impact of a
lot of what we heard. I was fascinated, as a lot folks were by the order in which the President tackled topics last night. You would have thought he'd come out swinging on the economy or the border first, right, both of them waited. Presidents started on Ukraine as the Swedish Prime Minister looked down from the First Lady's box. And that's where we want to start our conversation with Jenny Welch, of course advising Bloomberg Economics on all things geopolitics.
Great to see you, formerly, of course of the Biden administration, and you have a good sense of what went into that speech last night. Were you amazed that he started with geopolitics with such a raging debate over domestic policy.
Yeah?
No, I think it was a really interesting move, and I think it underscores the amount of urgency that the administration feels on Ukraine. The last shipment of US military aid was back in December. Funding since has run out. Ukraine now entering the third year of the war, is low on ammunition. Russia seems to have gained the initiative and I think that's part of the reason why he
raised it first. But yes, in a speech that is normally mostly about domestic and especially economic policy, I think it was an interesting move and again underscores the priority administration's attaching to this issue.
So the National security team have been high fiving. They got their priorities into that speech pretty well.
In your experience, how much.
Time and how many people go into whatever package you delivered to the speech writers to say, look, this is the message from our wing of the administration.
So much time, so many people, so many rounds of coordination, and I think that the point to really underscore there is again this is really usually a bulk of it is a domestic policy speech, and so that's where a lot of the attention goes, and that's where a lot of the hands involved in writing it are. But it is literally getting edited right up until the moment for
the President of Coerson. I think President Biden mentioned that he was still going to be making some tweaks to it, and we saw him almost improving or appliving parts of it when he diverted from I think what we're his prepared remarks to for example, have a little bit of engagement with the audience with Congress.
So this doesn't move the needle. I'm guessing in terms of one speech. But if the State of the Union doesn't the Super Bowl of POI what does I saw Mike Johnson walk out of the chamber last night with his head down. He did a couple of interviews, maybe one on Fox, and then he was out. I saw him take his jacket on a hangar and walk out of the building. Does he come back to work today with any different feeling about Ukraine?
I think there's two different audiences that the President was trying to reach last night, and the most important audience for him was actually American voters and in particular undecided or folks who aren't quite sure if Biden's their candidate in November. That's really who he was reaching out to. Congress was, of course the direct audience for the speech.
But I think the President recognizes the odds of Congress passing major legislation on issues, especially like immigration border security, when we are already effectively in an election season, are pretty low. So I think what he was trying to do is actually more reach out to voters, convince them that his policies are working for them, and the odds of actually getting Congress to move on and needed things that he mentioned beyond the necessary government funding I think are actually.
Quite low, So this is kind of a slow burn.
Then he spends the next six months traveling the country getting people to call their members. I guess is the potential outcome that he's hoping for here. But boy, Ukraine doesn't have that kind of time.
Is it, And Ukraine might be somewhat of a separate issue, there might be more room to move on that. Although again House Republicans are saying they want to take up border and immigration, it seems unlikely they'll want to do that when it's seen as a political victory for Biden. Perhaps they will eventually get to the point where they'd be willing to separate the two. Again, I just think that the odds that they'll move with any major way on border and immigration security are low. I'd love to
be surprised on that. That, though still leaves room for the executive branch to take its own actions. There's things in particular in Ukraine that could be done, it would just be costly. For example, there's some reporting to suggest the Bid administration might consider moving additional arms out of US stocks even though it doesn't have the ability to replenish them.
Right now.
Wow, Well, we've talked a lot about the defense industrial base, with the and the lack of manufacturing bandwidth, that we have to not only make our own weapons but help others. That's what this sixty billion dollars would have gone for in the supplemental request for Ukraine.
A lot of it at least, you.
Know, it strikes me the President has called out oil companies to produce more, Go do more?
Is the message? Can he not say that to defense contractors?
Why does that have to involve tens of billions of dollars on Capitol Hill? It's the same argument, right, The patriotic move is to crank up the factory. We need more stuff.
It's a fair question because that's how it operates in most industries. But with the defense industry, they actually don't usually start production or investment in a production line until there's an existing contract, including with the US military that's their biggest customer. But even with foreign partners.
So that they need a buyer.
They need a buyer in order to actually start the world oil company. You're not just going to have like stuff on the shelf today.
Then again, oil we're asking oil companies to drill produce more and they just watch prices go down as right, that's kind of a double standard, isn't it.
I think it's just about.
The contracting process and really the historic relationship between the US government and our defense industry. Right, the defense industry really exists and revolves around the US military. Yes, they sell to other foreign buyers, but really most of their focus is on what the US military needs. This is what President Eisenhower was worried about when it comes to
the military industrial complex. And we can have many conversations about all the inefficiencies in it, including this issue of they don't start production or investment in production line until contract, so we need it, and it can take years for something to get on contract.
It's amazing.
I'm fascinated by the whole thing, and I know you've spent a career on this, which is why I have to ask you about it when you come see us. There's more here, of course, with Israel and Taiwan, but I want to ask you specifically with regard to the Middle East. The President did confirm Bloomberg reporting at this port or what he referred to as a temporary peace would be put in place to deliver aid to Gaza. How do we make that work, he says, US troops will not be on the ground.
How do you do it?
Then?
I think there's a lot of questions and details that still remain to be fleshed out, at least publicly about what this will involve, because certainly someone needs to be on the other side of that pier operating the aid deliveries. The European Union said this morning that they're already working on sending a package of relief to Gaza that it seems like will be part of this Aid quarter, and
that UAE is part of this project as well. I think one of the other things that really underscores is a Biden administration recognizing there is growing international concern about famine and Gaza, especially in the wake of last week's deadly incident where over one hundred people were killed trying to secure aid, and earlier today the news that five people were killed by a package that parachute didn't deploy.
So there's a real urgent need to get aid in there, and unfortunately ground convoys have been delayed, they get robbed and the aid doesn't get to the people who need it, so I think this is somewhat of a desperate or an act of desperation to get aid into a very desperate situation.
We'd love to talk to you more about that when we learn more. I must be punching today. I'm lacking sleep after last night, as I'm reminded constantly that I work with the smartest people in the business here at Bloomberg.
Thank you Jenny Welch for the great analysis.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast Ken Just Live weekdays at noon Eastern on Applecarplay and then royd Outo with the Bloomberg Business App. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station, Just Say Alexa Play Bloomberg eleven.
Thirty Welcome back live from Washington on Bloomberg TV and Radio, where, of course we are all in the aftermath of the State of the Union, and there was a question last night about what was going to happen after the president's speech, not just to his campaign, but also whether or not the Senate was going to be taking a vote to avert a government shutdown that could partially start it night tonight. They still got to do that to get out of town.
But it raises the question of spending. And it's worth pointing out, Joe, that we're still sorting out and trying to get across the finish line appropriation bills for this fiscal year, and on Monday the President is going to deliver to Congress his budget for the next fiscal year.
Weren't they marking up at twenty twenty five bill yesterday? And that was I don't get how I look. We're gonna talk to Mora Amaya rather. McGinnis must be rolling over this whole thing. Mara, of course, will be on our panel. She's rolling too. There's just no path it seems to land this second mini bus. But we'll get there. March twenty seconds the new date on the calendar that we're looking at.
Right.
We asked Dick Durbin after the speech last night, you're gonna vote on this tonight?
He said, no, tomorrow. That was the end.
Now tomorrow they have to get through.
Some rules and get some things done.
Networks, etcetera.
Right, all the while on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, I think it's fair to say they're popping corks after this each last night they huddled for the weekend, a long one at Camp David. And as you've been hearing over the course, and maybe you saw it or heard it here in our special coverage on Bloomberg, the president seemed to exceed expectations. We want to bring in Josh Wingrove, a Bloomberg White House reporter who's with us right now
on the North Lawn basking in the glow. I can only assume, Josh, what are you hearing from the administration, because it seemed like after the Chief of Staff, Jeff Science raised the bar, the president jumped over it.
Yeah, the Democrats were pretty happy with the president's performance last night, including members of Congress, and you know, this seems like it'll quell some of those really brewing questions nerves basically among Democrats about whether Joe Biden should be the standard bear. Of course, it wasn't really clear that that was ever going to make much of a difference anyway, because the process is pretty advanced right now, and there was just no sign that anyone would be looking to,
you know, mount a serious challenge to him. But the question for Biden all along has really been a question of energy, his energy, but also the energy of his party. His voter base is wider than Trump's, but just not as enthusiastic. And so the whole question of this election cycle is going to be like, can Joe Biden and
can Democrats get people to the polls? So, if anything, I think yesterday Biden gave Democratic voters as well as congress people who are going out to sort of, you know, drag people to the polls when they can, you know, an argument to try to do that. And that really is the whole ballgame for them. And so we'll see this sort of travel schedule key swing states Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin. You've talked about that as they go to try to
shore that up, you know. Might of course, we've remissed we didn't mention the latest Bloomberg Morning Console polls showing the Joe Biden right now as an underdog Donald Trump leading in all seven swing states we're tracking.
Yeah, and eight of ten voters in those swing states viewing Biden as too old, and I wonder if any of those minds changed based on the President's performance last night. But aside from the performance, Josh they're also so is the policy. And we did get some policy proposals from him that are relevant, especially to our Bloomberg television radio audiences in regard to taxes, higher taxes on billionaires on
stock buybacks, twenty eight percent corporate tax rate. Should we expect all of that and more to be showing up in what he's going to deliver to Congress on Monday.
Yeah, absolutely, we'll hear more about that on Monday. Also course, a note the increase in the corporate minimum tax. That was a new one from him as well. And there were some littler nuggets too, like getting rid of title insurance on federally backed mortgages. That sort of falls, I guess generally under the Biden junk fees effort, but you know, he sort of had the makings of his reelection platform there.
The big one of the big stakes of the twenty twenty four election is that twenty twenty five is going to be a year where Washington's going to be talking about tax reform. Some of the provisions of those Trump tax cuts expire. The question will be does anyone want to do anything about that or not? So Joe Biden is sort of staking out his lane on that, and that lane is consistent with where they've been before, right. Biden has always said no taxes on people making no
tax increases on people making under four hundred grand. Of course, then that if they want to raise more revenue, which this White House does, that means they're taxing corporations and higher earners and the wealthy instead to try to make up that gap and shrink the deficit. We'll be looking, of course at the projections in that budget as well.
We reported this week that there was been a wrangling in the White House so on this question about how to set the projections, in particular the interest rate projection and the lail brainer. The NEC director pressed for a lower rate in a meeting for those rates are typically set by a group that does not include the NEC directors, So a bit of palace intrigue on that. So we'll be watching for that on Monday as well. What those numbers look like.
What's the intrigue around the border right now, Josh, there was a lot of pressure for Joe Biden to do something or maybe announce it an executive action last night.
Did we get his answer passed? The bill that the Senate.
Passed we did. They've been batting away these questions of what you know, executive authority. Conservatives want him to use so called Section two twelve F powers. The administration says, basically, that's not a tree we want to bark up because if those powers do exist, and not a lot of people are really sure, it's sort of a surefire legal challenge.
So he's saying, essentially, I'm the one that wants to pass the bill, Republicans the one that don't want to pass the bill, and he's trying to sort of do that backflip, of course, because for the last couple of years Republicans have been the ones calling for something and Democrats haven't. But one of the gaffes from last night
also was on this question. It was interesting Marjorie Taylor Green was asking him to talk address the case of a woman killed by a migrant and Biden's Biden did talk about it, and then he referred to the migrant in question as an illegal. He's getting pushed back from Democratic members of Congress right now who don't like that word for describing people of undocumented status, even people who've been accused of murder.
He seemed to make use of that prop pretty well, even if the language caused people to bristle.
You look like Clark Kent on the North lawn. Josh growth a voice like, yeah, all.
Right, Josh, thanks for joining us after what was at a very long evening from the White House. We appreciate your time. And now we want to go to someone else who I'm sure was listening to the speech. Mayam Againnis the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. President is joining us now. My first and foremost happy International Women's Day. Thank you for joining us on this day of all days.
And it's worth pointing out that the President last night, when he was talking about some of his economic policy, he said he has been delivering real results in fiscally responsible ways. To what extent is that true?
Yeah?
He made a number of claims on fiscal policy, and I guess I'll start by saying it's good.
He was even talking about it.
Every time we go into a State of the Union, we're sitting there wondering is someone even going to mention the near record levels of debt we have. That said, he had quite a mixed bag of how how honest? The different claims he made were the first one he talked about is something he's done before. He took credit for reducing the deficit and said that he'd reduced the deficit by more than a trillion dollars between twenty twenty
one twenty twenty two when the deficit came down. That one is absolutely false in that the deficit did come down because our huge, huge amount of spending for COVID was running off, and if you look at actually the policies the President put in place, he overall made that situation worse.
So no, he doesn't get credit for reducing that deficit.
Second thing he said was that he had signed into law legislation that reduced the deficit by another trillion dollars.
That one's true.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act will bring the debt trajectory down by one to two trillion dollars if we stick with it. But it's fair to say that was really originated with Republicans and that the Bid administration kind of came along kicking and screaming. But we're seeing that that will generate real savings. Two other big things he said that the Trump administration had added huge amounts to the debt, absolutely eight point four trillion dollars. Signed into law during the
Trump administration. That is a record level. And the last thing was some big accusations of Republicans on Social Security wanted to cut benefits. I don't know a single politician who's talking about cutting benefits.
For current retirees.
I'll tell you two politicians who are not talking about fixing the program, which we absolutely must do, are both Biden and Trump. And unfortunately, this election is shaping up to be one where nobody's talking honestly about Social Security. And hopefully that will change, and that's going to leave the people who depend on it awfully vulnerable.
The lock box will stay locked for now. Maya.
I hate to sound like a Brokern record because I always feel like I have to ask you this, but revenue did come up last night, a new swing at a minimum corporate tax, higher taxes on the wealthy, a minimum of billionaire's.
Tax, as he called it. Is that music to the committee.
Absolutely, we are sort of policy neutral and deficit pro deficit reduction. So anybody from any end of the ideological spectrum who's putting four things that would reduce the deficit at a time when we're at near record levels interest payments are bigger than defense. I could go on and on about why we have to Absolutely that's the right thing to do. What I do worry about is pretending we can fix this whole problem by taxing millionaires and billionaires.
That's not how it's going to work.
We have to cut spending, we have to fix social scrating, medicare. They're going to be middle class revenue increases when we finally get serious about this.
So great to talk about.
Things that you would do to make the difference, but you can only tax millionaires and.
Billionaires so much.
And I worry when people it's like police fraud abuse, like we should do it, But it's not going to fix the problem on its own.
We're going to have to go a lot farther.
But I think that will be the big piece of their budget that will lead to deficit reduction because of the large taxes they will put in place in the budget.
Well, what else would you like to see in that budget, if not on the revenue raising side, on the actual spending side. Keeping in mind that it is today that we do expect the Senate is going to pass the first six bill megabus. We're going to megabus shoe.
Yes, But you, let's do it the first bus.
We're still waiting on the second bus by March twenty second, at which point will be what eight days shy of being halfway through this fiscal year, maya. So when we're thinking about spending and just a the dysfunction around getting spending bills done, but be the trajectory of spending. How dissatisfied are you with what you're seeing?
Yeah, well, I guess it's a kind of a medium bus and I'm totally dissatisfied with this process. We're still working on last year's budget. The House put out a budget. It's budget committee put out a budget yesterday. The Senate Budget Committee never even put out a budget last year, but the House did it before the president did, which is the wrong order. No one takes the budget seriously.
The process is a disaster. But you're asking me to lay out the hard things that our politicians aren't going to talk about.
What should we actually do? And so here we go.
You know, the physical responsibility at tight first step, we do have to put caps on discretionary spending. That is going to help keep the huge growth in that area the budget down. But it's really the least of our worries, so we quickly have to turn to mandatory spending so security goes insolvent in ten years. We need to look at whether we should slow the growth of benefits for people who don't need them so we can preserve them
for people who do. Should we for younger workers look at raising the retirement age, Yes, the answer is yes. And should we talk about lifting the payroll tax cap so you pay higher than the cap?
Right now, absolutely.
All of those things are going to need to be employed to fix those Security also probably changing the way we evaluate inflation and maybe bumping up a minimum benefit. We need massive cost savings in healthcare. There are a lot of ideas of ways we can do that that before they even have to affect beneficiaries. Ways to have savings in the system. We should look through that national security. There's so many things we can do that will lead
to more savings. That said, it's a rough time in the world right now, and my suspicion is that those any savements we can generate will ultimately have to be plowed back into all of the hot spots around the world, cybersecurity, all these things, and we're going to need more revenues Like I said, it's not just at the high end.
It's not just corporations. We're going to have to talk.
About broader taxes, whether it's a carbon tax or getting rid of the almost two trillion dollars in tax breaks we have every single year. That's a good one because you can raise a lot of revenues that actually wouldn't necessarily harm economic growth. But just my main point is with that laundry list that no politician will say. So, we've got to get real. We got to stop promising what we're not going to do. Our debt is growing
faster than our economy. It leaves us really vulnerable. And I just wish we could start this discussion in earnest, because none of these things are easy, and all of them are going to have to be looked at.
I can only imagine what lawmakers say when you're alone about this issue. I'm guessingly agree with everything you're saying, and then they show up for work and we kick the can again with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the President, of course, Maya McGuinness.
We always learn something when we spend time with you, Maya.
Thanks for being with us here on Bloomberg the Senate moves today, as you mentioned, Kaylee, then we do it all over again. We come back next week for the second half.
The twenty second. We technically have two weeks now to figure out that you'd like to think they might work on it next week, Well, one would think they typically run it right up to the deadline in this Congress. But yes, it's going to be a fun two weeks.
The medium bus, medium BUSDI so there's a minibus, medium bus, omnibus.
They're all buses.
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Junie Shanzano is with us Bloomberg Politics contributor Democratic Andalist joint today by Mara Gillespie Bluestack Strategies Republican strategists who spent time working for the Speaker of the House when John Bayner held the gavel.
It's great to have you both with us.
Here, Maura, your thoughts on that, because I think I know where Kaylee is going here, as the President used the word illegals illegal when he was talking about an undocumented immigrant after he was goaded in that direction by Marjorie Taylor Green. There were other moments as well last evening when he might not have sounded like a progressive, in fact upset some members of his own conference. I was talking about this earlier with Kaylee in the newsroom. Is that by design?
I do think so. I think that when I heard those words, you know, unity, I was wondering when he reached out to the Nikki Haley voters in that moment, but also harkening back to what he ran on was bringing the country together after chaos and you know, maybe
restore that kind of messaging, you know, last night. I don't know that it was as effective as maybe he had had hoped or his team had hoped, but he did hit on a couple of themes that would appeal to Nikki Haley voters, talking about and having you know, obviously Sweeden there after the news about them, Jordi Nato, having them there in the box next to the first Lady,
Jill Biden. So that was an effective tool reminding people of the important role we have in a foreign policy and having a strong foreign policy and standing up against Putin and against Russia. But also the IVF conversation I thought was definitely a nod to not only his party, but also to NICKI Haley voters. She has been pretty outspoken on the outdated ways that Republicans talk about abortion and just really women's health in general, talking about taking
you know, women's personal freedom away. So she really, you know, he really did hit on that, I think, and appealing to Nicky.
Voters for sure.
Well in Genie, he did so without actually saying the word abortion. He skipped over that. He was just talking about reproductive rights. And I guess this gets at the same question. Do you think that was by design and do you think it will prove effective?
Yeah, it definitely was by design. I mean, as we all know, Joe Biden is a Catholic. He has you know, said many times that he personally is opposed to abortion, but he supports a woman's right to choose. And even beyond that, I think politically, the reality is is that Americans, whether you're conservative, liberal, or anywhere in between, liberty is critically important. Freedom is critically important, and they are right to couch this as the freedom for a woman, a
person to make this decision with their doctor. And that decision doesn't just have to be about abortion. It can be about reproduction over reproductive rights overall. It can be about taking contraception, it could be about who you're going to marry. And that's the point he's trying to make about Dobbs, is that that decision opened a can of worms, according to many Americans, that the state have walked through in limiting our freedoms, and he is promising to restore those well.
Even in the Republican's response delivered by a senator from Alabama, where IVF has definitely come to the forefront of thought after the Supreme Court ruling there, Senator Katie Britt did talk about IVF and the importance of protecting that. She also, though, talked about a lot of other things, and as I'm sure we have all seen on social media, her speech in its entirety has been chopped up into some remarkable pieces.
But one thing she really did try to draw contrast with what President Biden said forty minutes into his speech finally getting to the issue of the border and immigration, was that very issue here is just a taste of what she had to say after the President's address.
President Biden's border policies are a disgrace.
This crisis is despicable, and the truth is it is almost entirely preventable.
Just you could hear there and even see to some extent the degree to which she was emoting during this speech last night. And Maura, I would love to get your reaction. This is Senator Katie Britt, the youngest ever Republican woman elected to that body. She's just forty two years old. She's pretty popular, serves on McConnell's leadership team. Did the rising star rise to the occasion?
No? And I'm disappointed because I had high hopes for her. And again, you know, I think that she just wasn't authentically herself. It was very theatrical and overly emotive, to the point where it's not actually helpful to not take away from the stories. Unfortunately, because what she was talking about is a real issue.
And I don't think that.
President Biden hit on this at all, really enough last night in his speech, not taking responsibility and giving us forward action about what's going to happen at the border. I think he really missed the mark there, and she could have capitalized on that in a more impactful way had she not been so I mean, really just a little bit all over the place, going from smiling, too sad, too angry. I mean, she really went through it in
a matter of ten seconds at a time. So it was hard to not it was hard to takeet seriously. And that's disappointing considering the fact that we have really, really great concerns about the crisis of the border and families are struggling to understand how something that happened, you know, to Larkin Riley is not you know, being addressed right this second.
You know, I'll tell you you think back, Jeanie went, when was the last successful response to a state of the Union, either party?
You've got to go back in time. I was racking my brain.
Everyone's showing images of Marco Rubio at the water bottle and Bobby Jindall and the foyer of the mansion. Maybe it was Governor Bob McDonald of Virginia. And of course he ran into some problems in his career after that, but he followed Barack Obama with pretty strong optics.
What looked like him speaking to the gen Assembly.
Maybe that was the I'll have to think more about it, but I need your take on this, Genie. She's sitting in the kitchen. This is clearly something that was scripted way in advance. She rehearsed it a lot of times. Did it worked for anyone?
You know, I think it possibly could have worked for the base of the Republican Party. And you know, that is the challenge here, is that so many of us looked at that speech and putting aside the content of what she said, which I obviously had problems with, the way in which she presented seemed just not in keeping with who she is and who she has become politically, which is a young, vibrant, respected, smart woman who became
the youngest senator in you know, the country. You know, she has really made a mark, and you didn't see that last night as they placed her in a kitchen the night before International Women's Day and had her, you know, some people described as you know, looking like a forlorn housewife, going between laughing and weeping very very quickly, and it just wasn't authentic to who she is. And to your point, Joe, it's been a really really difficult speech for people to give.
I agree with you, Bob McDonald, probably the most effective. When this started in the sixties, it was, you know, people just speaking in the opposition, you know, sort of like boring old senators and members speaking out. And then in the you know, eighties, nineties, they tried to make it a little more dramatic. It is not working. They must go back to boring because they have lost their way on this speech and it is really the death knell and in many cases for young promising public officials.
And that is frustrating to so many of us who want to see these people succeed.
Maura, we have less than a minute left. But to Jeanie's point about the idea of her being in a kitchen, and I understand the point she's making on the housewife thing, but it also was her literally sitting at a kitchen talking about kitchen table issues.
Right.
She was talking about the price of groceries, about immigration, which we know our top is top of mind for voters. This is the playbook that Republicans will be using as they are competing on the ballot in the lead up to November.
Right, it did look like she was say at the kitchen table. It looked like she was placed in the kitchen, so I don't think that her team did a really good job of that aspect. They could have made that a little more clear, maybe had her background be like the living room or something, and to show that she was actually at a home in a kitchen table. You know,
they could have done it differently. But yes, it does optically not make me, as a Republican woman, pretty happy to see that, because I do think that it sends the wrong message and for somebody like Katie Britt, who could be a rising star in the Republican Party, last night was just not good for her or her future quite frankly, all.
Right, Mara Gillespie and Jeanie shanzay No, thank you both so much for joining us our political panel on this day after the State of the Union and International Women's Day. We appreciate it.
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