Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont Talks Tariffs, Government Policy

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Many talk few have to act in one of them.

As the Governor of Connecticut and Medlamont joins us right now in our studios this morning.

You're wounded.

For those of you on radio, He's got the sling going in that you're on a trade mission to India. How is President Trump helping Connecticut with your trade relations with India?

India was nervous as heck about President Trump. That said, we went to Eastern India, which is by far the most innovative and entrepreneurial part. We did a trade mission there, met with a forty or fifty companies, some of which you're thinking about getting a foothold in the United States. I had to spell Connecticut forum, but now they know, well, you have.

To spell Connecticut for me as well. Governor Laman Bloomenthal as well.

On this yesterday. You take electricity from Canada. If doug Ford of Ontario or Quebec Hydro, if they pull the plug, what's it mean for Bridgeport.

We have some very high electric prices throughout New England, including Connecticut, and we bring down a lot of hydro from Canada. So you put ten percent on there that would add about seventy five million. You put twenty percent on there, that'd be one hundred and fifty million additional fees paid for by our rate payers.

Not a great idea, So, Governor, as you've probably seen here in the financial markets, which Tom and I and deal with every day, a lot of uncertainty in the marketplace as it relates to economic policy of this new administration. We're seeing that in lower stock prices and weaker dollar. How did you see it from Connecticut? How did you and your constituency look at this current environment.

I come out of the business world. The business world hates uncertainty. If you know, when I took over Connecticut, we were going from boom to bust a bust and raising taxes. And we've had six straight balanced budgets trying to give people a certainty or unemployment rate is way down and job growth is up. But it's just the opposite in Washington, DC right now all that uncertainty starting with tariffs, are looking at deficits, a lot of businesses that I think I'm going to hold off right now

So in Connecticut, what are the chief issues that you guys are dealing with from an economic perspective these days.

Look, we're going to we're looking at our seventh and eighth balanced budget. Unless they cut medicaid by a billion dollars, you cut medicaid by a billion dollars, our budget has turned upside down. And that's true of forty nine other states.

What are you hearing from the federal government about some of those big ticket items.

I don't think they know right now. I was down there. I met with folks, the secretaries that just come into office. They're coming up and they're modeling. But everything runs through the White House.

For those of you across the nation in your commute today, a Democrat, the governor of Connecticut is with us, Ned lamont Is. He goes through the tiptoes through all this different policy changes we're seeing. I'm going to cut to the chase. You got to vote of confidence from the people. You get forty nine percent of the vote and one in twenty eighteen, I'm going to call it barely.

You improved dramatically.

In twenty twenty two with fifty seven percent of the vote. What do you say, really, the polarity of the nation on right and left. But what do you say to the Democratic Party is they addressed from a left liberal point the reality of a centrist Lamont and others as well.

A centrist Lamont probably is going to disagree with the Trump administration on a majority of things. But start with areas where we can find some agreement, where we can work together. For me, that starts with energy. The high price of electricity. You know, the possibility that we could bring in natural gas or expand nuclear in our region would be transformative. A place where I've been meeting with the Secretary is down to Washington. Something we can get done together.

Well, let me let me you know, we're at a piece of chalk on our hand at Harvard years ago, Nev Lamont. Did the Republicans win the election, Tod Trump win or did the Democrats lose the election because they were too far left?

I think Trump won. He won because it was a change election. I look around the world, nobody wanted more of the same, and I think a little bit Kamala got stuck with the Biden legacy, couldn't differentiate herself from there. And believe me, Donald Trump represented change.

When you think about the Democratic Party today, a lot of folks are saying, where's the leadership? Because it seems like President Trump and his administration taking all the oxygen out of the room. Where is the democratic response, Where's the democratic policy? Where's the democratic leadership?

Who do you think is the leader? Does a democratic party have a leader these days? Well, when we're not in power, you tend to have a lot of different leaders. I'd start with the governors. The governors are not making everything a battle about Donald Trump. But when it comes

Congestion pricing. We've got a congestion pricing corresponding right here is trying.

To get me in trouble.

Yes, New Jersey has a particular view of congestion pricing against it. How does the folks in Connecticut.

I just think you have to pay your bills, and New York City's got to pay their bills. You've got a pretty anniquated subway system. Does anybody have a better idea of how to pay for things? It's so easy to say no, and right now there are a lot of people say no. So I'm a little sympathetic that Kat the ohlklown.

You represent an advantaged America with the heritage of JP Morgan and all that you've.

Done in your life.

How does America find the center again? We are whatever anybody's politics on this show, we can all admit it's a fractured America.

How do we find the center?

Back to your family and he's key four years ago and others, how do we get back to the center?

Governor Lamont, I.

Think we found in Connecticut Republicans and Democrats find places we can agree. Let's say we did the biggest tax cut ever last year, but it was middle class people and beyond it was not for rich people. That was an area where Republicans and Democrats could get together a five hundred million dollars tax cut. What we're doing in terms of making sure that we educate people for the jobs that are out there right now, there's a disconnect.

Foreign policy, it's another area that is front and center for better or worse for the United States, both in the Middle East and in the Ukraine. Just start with Ukraine. There seems to be I guess, a willingness to find some solution over there, and that's question how you get there? And President Trump has a certain focus here. How would you approach what's happening in Ukraine trying to find some type of piece there.

Not the way Donald Trump is doing it. Look, he wrote the Art of the Deal. You go in, you negotiate from a position to strength. Instead, Pete Hesa just pulled the rug out from under Zelenski put in place a whole list of concessions, a sense that we're not going to be there to back them. I think that's a terrible way to do it. And our allies around the world are watching how we treat Ukrain. I heard that when I was in India as well. I'm glad

Well, I look, Governor Laban at Connecticut, and I think there's so many stereotypes out there, and folks, you can come up with your own stereotype. It probably starts with a Hinkley picnic voter at Graham Banks. Yeah, but the reality is Connecticut's got an incredible polarity, including sixteen seventeen percent foreign born migrants. You know, whatever those numbers are. The last time we talked, you said you're managing it. It's not the crisis of New York State and what

Connecticut is a diverse state. We represent the diversity of the United States of America. When I go to India, I have to say, Look, the stereotype of Connecticut is a bunch of Fairfield County guys in these boats you're talking about. Is not the reality. Our biggest percentage of international students are Indian born students, and that we welcome that. I think that's a great strength for our state, and I think it is a great strength for our country, and I think we're getting away from that.

You come from business, you have a business background. President Trump today is addressing the business roundtable. What do you think the message should be from Trump to the business leaders and from the business leaders to President Trump.

I think from the business leaders to President Trump, you're seeing the incredible anxiety and uncertainty reflected in a collapse stock market and a rising unemployment rates. Look, I agree with you in terms of wanting to do big things, but you don't have to do them overnight with a chainsaw. Give us a direction of where you want to go, and we can invest accordingly. I hope the President listens to that.

I'm fascinated with a Supreme Court decision the other day with Amy Cony Barritt going over.

There seems to be a primal.

Scream of the judiciary solving legislative problems. You're part of that as an executive in Connecticut, but also almost like a legislature to Washington.

Is a.

Governor is a legislature just giving up the ghost in Washington? I mean, does Congress even part of the debate anymore?

I'm sort of glad to see the judiciary standing up to some of the intrusions from the Trump administration. You know that said they haven't passed a darn thing down in Congress. In the life too.

Exactly, that's.

Maybe the judiciary is stepping in there. But I think the judiciary right now is the guardrails protecting our democracy.

One of the great themes here and it's the theme of your life, is we've expanded our federal mandate away from states like a Connecticut. I mean, there's a swing back here where we've said enough on a titlements.

When you see.

The policy from your advisors, we're going to pull back from agriculture, We're going to pull back from Congress. We're going to pull back FAA and all the rest of the DOSE stuff and all the rest. It's a primal scream of a smaller Washington.

Is that feasible right now?

It's popular because it sounds like Dose is getting rid of a bunch of bureaucrats or you know, just leaning on their shovels. But every day in our state level, you're seeing how it's hitting people, starting with healthcare. I think that pushback is going to get louder and louder, and den Lebama.

With US the governor of Connecticut. We continue our conversation. We welcome all of you. Governor Lamon's people came in, they said, Tom, please do data checks here. We understand the market's blown up. Futures up twenty five now negative three. Again, the VIS comes out over twenty eight. That's a key statistic, twenty eight point zero five on the VIS yields we're lower, they're now higher. There's some real correlated churn to the tape right now. Oil sixty six eighty seven a barrel.

Governor, you and the state of Connecticut, as you mentioned, have been able to balance your budget. We're coming up to some budget discussions then in Washington, DC. What is your advice to folks in Congress about these upcoming negotiations and trying to balance the budget and trying to push that part of the policy through.

Governors are so frustrated with Washington. We all have to balance our budget down in Washington, and it's an afterthoughtstand that deficits are not politically that charged an issue, But you got to do the right thing. You don't have to solve it overnight, but you've got to directionally start showing that you're getting your budget under control. I don't see that happening in Washington.

Are you surprised there's not more political pressure to do that? Because I think the message I've taken is that unless people force Washington to do that, either to lower expenses, raise revenue, whatever they have to do. Unless there's political pressure, there's no really no incentive to do anything.

Look here at Bloomberg, we care about that deeply. We know if you don't have an honestly balanced budget, a bad things happen in the future. I've paid down our debt by over ten billion dollars. People don't care that much. You know, they have real needs every day. How can you not taken care of that?

So how do you think about that? I mean, is this the How do you think if you were to balance the US budget? Where would you go expenses, revenue both? How would you think about it?

Don't I think I'd have the biggest tax cut in history for the wealthiest folks. I think that sends the wrong signal. It takes us in the wrong direction. I think I would be going after efficiency, not the way Doze is doing, but in a serious way. And you can't disregard entitlements.

I got two questions left. They're both really really important.

One with immense respect to your family, the heritage of the Lamont family.

On all of Wall Street. Is this a new gilded age?

Have we skewed things so far over to billionaire mania that we're really reliving? I mean, Trump has this fixation over McKinley and tariffs. Are we reliving McKinley as a society.

I think we are a little bit. I think inflating the money supply and all the deficits have made the rich a lot richer, probably the richest they've been since nineteen twenty nine.

I got one final question. It's credit.

Paul emails in and says it's just simple. Finally Big East basketball is back. I mean, I'm looking at Yukon Saint John's.

This could be a bit that is going to.

Be a great Big East game. You got Yukon is playing better and better than men when the women are top flight.

Women are top flight, but in men's basketball, Yukon's won four in a row.

Are they saving it for Saint John's here?

Hey, look we're two time national champions. Yeah, we know what we're doing.

Okay, John Tucker, would you like to do this? His own congestions you to know this is more important. Do you know why they call it a nutmeg state?

No, it's based on a scam they used to the Yankee peddlers used to sell fake nutmeg to unsuspecting travelers in Connecticut. That right, I rephrase that a little bit. We're a great trading state. We take advantage of our advantages.

Final question, I noticed, finally, after finally, after four hundred years, we get new Amtrak trains. Everybody blames Connecticut for the worst wires.

We fixed it. You know, forget about the tunnels. We fixed it in New York to Washington.

Give us an update on your unspeakable relationship with Amtrak to give us better, cheaper train service.

I will tell you we're gonna be able to speed up a track dramatically over the next five years. We got significant resources from the Biden administration. We are a choke point. We got a lot of little towns, a lot of stops along the way, a lot of twist and turns around. Missus o'gillicutti's home. We're going to speed that up.

Is the President going to cut your submarine effort?

I don't think so. It's the strategic piece of our triad. They're still undecipherable, folks.

For those that don't know it.

You take the train up and you're there and there's like a submarine over in a window. Explain to people what's going on. It's your submarine base in Connecticut. It's top top, top secret. They don't even know if they leave or go because they leave underwater. But explain the commitment of Connecticut to our United States Navy.

Yeah, electric boat part of General Dynamics, makes most of our submarines here and down in Virginia. It's the last piece of our triad that is still undetectable. So it's really important in terms of our strategic deterrence. If you think the Soviets are coming in from the North Sea, you know they're going to come right by New England. It's very important what we got there in the Groton, New London areas.

Governor, thank you for joining Bloomberg today, Grant, I appreciate it I'm still a mount of the state of Connecticut.