We are on day three of the DNC. Minnesota Governor Tim wallas Well headline tonight's convention. He is expected to officially accept the vice presidential nomination. Joining us now from Chicago. Is I think is fair to say a good friend of his Tom Bilsek. Tom is speaking to Bloomberg open interest into personal capacity as the former governor of Iowa rather than his current role as Secretary of Agriculture. But I want to ask you first and foremost, mister Secretary,
about these labor numbers. We got a drop in job creation of eight hundred and eighteen thousand in the year through March, and I wonder what would happen if we got even a lower job number coming forward. We hear the Republicans talk about a cut in immigration. They're also talking about more spending, lower taxes, and increased tariffs. Isn't that all inflationary?
Well, certainly, when you shrink the supply of anything, it obviously has an impact on the price or the value of that thing, whether it's labor or whether it's goods and services. So I would anticipate and expect that folks would end up paying more for whatever it is the supply being shrunk. So if it's a labor supply, if
it's goods, you're going to see higher prices. I think it's been suggested that the tariffs that President Trump form of President Trump is suggesting would increase the cost to the average American family of about thirty eight hundred dollars a year. So that's an indication of the impact and significance of some of the policies are being discussed in this presidential election.
Well, they also want to I mean, if you saw the Republican National Convention, everybody holding up these signs mass deportations they want to get rid of. I think Trump has said fifteen million people from this country who may not have papers right, they may be illegal immigrants, but a lot of them are working in jobs. And what happens to the labor force if you take that many people out of the picture.
Well, I think a better idea would have been for President Trump to lift his advice and command to the Republican Senate and House not to pass the toughest immigration reform bill that had been proposed, that was prepared for passage based on a bipartisan vote. That was the solution, that was the opportunity for us to solve this problem, and it's unfortunate that politics interfered and that President Trump believed it was more important to help his campaign than
the country. So I think that's where you start. You don't start with mass deportations. You start with fixing the system, and you fix the system based on what I think was a very solid plan that was negotiating good faith between Republicans and Democrats.
Let's keep talking politics, and let's talk specifically about the election, and of course the DNC and Kamala Harris picking Tim Walls, of course the governor of Minnesota as her running mate. Do you think that that will be enough to make states such as Iowa actually competitive for Democrats? And if so, I mean, what will it actually take.
Well, I would say that Governor Walls is someone that you could put into any room in any community in any part of the country. He would be able to relate to the people in that room, which means that he can be a very powerful spokesperson for rural America, for the small towns and rural places in the country that oftentimes don't get the level of attention that they deserve. He understands that. I think that's why he's been successful. He won a very conservative district in Congress in the
state of Minnesota. He obviously was elected and re elected governor, so he knows how to basically convey messages and policies in a way that people understand and appreciate and respect. I think he's going to have an impact and effect on the opportunity to attract Democratic votes in rural communities, in small towns across the number of key states, obviously Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania,
the key states in this race Arizona, Nevada. This is a guy who can talk, who can talk a rule, and I think that really matters. And I think it's a reflection of the decision and the difference in decision making between Vice President Harris's choice and President Trump's choice. Obviously, Senator Advance can speak to a specific, very well defined constituency, doesn't have as much of the broad appeal in my view as Governor Walls.
Tom. I'm curious about your view here on Iowa. It has been a battleground, it has been leaning red, and at the end of the day, is Iowa gone for the Democrats? What would it take for the Democrats the Harris Wolls tickets to win it back.
Well, I was the first Democratic governor elected in thirty years in Iowa in nineteen ninety eight, so we've been down this path before and what it takes is winning. And I think Iowa actually in this cycle has a tremendous opportunity. There are a number of congressional districts that are very competitive in Iowa this year, and I think it's reflected in the amount of resource and investment that the House of Representatives on both the Republican and Democratic
side are putting into Iowa and into Iowa candidates. So I think success this year, and I think the Harris Walls team basically has given us a jol of energy and enthusiasm that's going to allow us, I think, to deliver the vote for these congressional candidates. With a couple of wins, then the whole dynamic changes, and then of course we've got a key governor's race coming up in a couple of years. So I think the table set and I think these congressional races are critically important.
I think we saw farmers that income fall some of the twenty twenty five percent last year. Obviously, crop prices have been a real problem. Don't farmers need to make more money? Is there a way that the Harris Walls ticket can help that happen?
Well, I got to be careful about this because I can't because of the Hatch Act, I can't really talk about what I'm doing, or what we're doing, or what could be done in the Department of Agriculture. Let me just simply say this, the three years of the first three years of the Biden Heris administration twenty one, twenty two, and twenty three cumulatively best farm income in the last fifty years, and arguably ever. In fact, twenty twenty two
is a record year. And the reality is it's similar to Aaron Judge if he hit sixty two homers one year and his forty homers the next year, is he had a bad year? Not really, He's had a pretty good year. He just had a record year of the
year before. And I think the key here is for us to continue to look for ways in which we can generate, whether it's farming or whether it's any business for that matter, additional revenue streams, diversifying and diversification of revenue streams so that you're not overly dependent on one
aspect of your business to be able to prosper. And I think there are opportunities that have been created by the American Rescue Plan, the Infrastructure Law, and the Inflation Reduction Act investments by the way, which will carry on for years to come, to be able to help build out opportunity both in agriculture and in other industries that impact rural folks in particular.
Well, when it comes to these rural districts and rural voters in particular, how important do you think that boosting farmers' incomes will be? Whether or not, of course it has to do with the current administration's policies. Voters tend to look at how they're feeling right now under the current administration and that informs their next vote. So do you see boosting farmers' incomes as key to maybe putting some of these rural districts back in play for the Democratic partner party?
Well, you know, the old saying is if farmers do well, the entire community does well. And I would say that's very very true in many, many rural areas across the country. So obviously it is important. But what we're I think the important goal here is to make sure that the rural economy is robust enough that it has a substantial
number of new opportunities. The administration, this administration, the Biden Harris administration, has invested a great deal in clean energy, just to give you an example, and the clean economy. This opens up a whole new set of opportunities in rural places that can impact and affect farm income, but
also can help create jobs, manufacturing jobs, processing jobs. The whole idea of creating more competition and more opportunity within agriculture and other industries critically important because it creates new opportunities. It creates new construction jobs, it creates new jobs in those manufacturing and processing facilities, all of which relate to a more vibrant rural economy, which obviously impacts and affects people's attitudes and sentiments. So people are beginning to see
infrastructure being improved. You know, President Trump talked a lot about infrastructure when he was president. He never got it done. The Biden Harris administration is getting it done. And we're going to continue to see roads and bridges and rail systems and ports and a lock and dam systems, all of which impact it affected a positive way business opportunity in rural communities.
Well, we have to leave it there, but we really appreciate you taking time out this morning to speak with us. That, of course, is US Agriculture Secretary and former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack.